The Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) league announced they signed manager Kyung-moon Kim to a three-year contract worth 2 billion won (US$1.4 million). Kim, who led Korea to an historic Olympic gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Games, will replace Won-ho Choi, who resigned amid the team's struggles. The Eagles have a 24-32 record with one draw and are eighth in the 10-team league, trailing the first-place Kia Tigers by 10.5 games.
A catcher in his playing days, Kim, born in 1958, attended Korea University in Seoul. The OB Bears (later Doosan Bears) signed him in 1982, giving him the starting catcher's job. He appeared in 700 KBO games over 10 seasons, establishing himself as one of the best KBO defensive catchers of all time.
After his retirement, Kim moved to Atlanta (United States) to learn coaching under famed Braves of Major League Baseball (MLB) manager Bobby Cox.
He returned to Korea as a coach for the Samsung Lions (1994-1996) and Doosan Bears (1998-2003). In 2004, he became the Bears' manager.
He became the National Team manager after leading the Bears to three postseason appearances in four years and lead Korea to the 2008 Beijing Olympics gold medal.
Kim managed the Bears through the 2011 season, then moved to the NC Dinos. He took the Dinos to the postseason four times, then stepped down after finishing last in 2018.
He accepted to return to the National Team manager job in 2019. "I'll do my best to bring back the thrill and excitement from 11 years ago," Kim said during the presentation. "I didn't want to run away from this challenge."
Kim led Korea to the WBSC Premier12 final and to the Tokyo 2020 bronze-medal game.
