Renowned master coach Paul Lissek will take up a role either as a consultant or chief coach with Korea later this month.
Lissek when contacted in his hometown in Limburg, Germany, confirmed with this blog that he will be going to Korea on January 13 after a brief stopover in Kuala Lumpur.
"It will present a new challenge to me and I have always admired Korean hockey. This is a good opportunity for me and I am happy to be heading to Korea," said Lissek.
"Very few people in Malaysia believe in me as a qualified and good coach.
"Australia sent to me big compliments through Ric Charlesworth regarding my work last three years.
"Germany let me know through Markus Weise (Head-Coach), that they regret my decision, for not being able to be their consultant from now on."
Lissek was first associated with Malaysian Hockey in 1995 when he used to come and conduct coaching clinics both for coaches and players under an NSC initiative.
While Malaysia were keen to get his services as a coach, Lissek instead recommended his understudy Volker Knapp who did well to lead Malaysia to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and two years later made it even better by qualifying for the 1998 World Cup in Utrecht after a hiatus of 16 years.
Lissek took over the reins of the national team, albeit on a temporary basis as he was in Malaysia preparing the national team for the Commonwealth Games in 1998 where Malaysia won a historic silver.
It was not until February 2001 that Lissek arrived to take a full time job and held the position until the 2004 Asia Cup after which he was dumped by the then MHF.
He then went on to sign as a consultant with Australia from 2010 until the 2012 London Olympics after which he made a brief appearance with the German Juniors at the Sultan Johor Cup where the Germans emerged champions.
Though several efforts were made to retain Lissek in Malaysia, especially by NSC Director General Dato Seri Zolkples Embong, it was all in vain as factions with MHC were throwing a spanner in the works.
Lissek was the one who came up and prepared the plan to form the 2017 Project Squad, involved in selecting and training the players over brief periods in the last two years.
It will be a Lissek led Korean team that will play in the forthcoming Azlan Shah Cup next March but while they may not be able to prove themselves, it is the Asia Cup in August where Lissek could use his inside knowledge to derail our hopes of a World Cup appearance, our last on merit being 1998, an effort by another German.
