“Maybe you are right,” Hiddink responded. “Or maybe these players can adapt quicker than you think.” A couple of months, and a few unpalatable defeats, later, it was clear to see Hiddink’s Koreans coming through the transition. His way of playing — fast, direct and with speed on the wings — took a country that had not previously achieved a single victory in five World Cups right to the very brink of the final.

It helped, of course, that the 2002 World Cup was played on South Korean and Japanese soil, and the Koreans played solely in front of hugely optimistic, passionate supporters. But what helped more was that the Koreans believed in what they were doing and how they were playing.

When Hiddink moved on, he took several of the Koreans with him. One of those players, Park Ji-sung, developed under Hiddink at his next assignment, PSV Eindhoven, into such a competitor that Manchester United bought him.

And with United, Park has become more than just a winger. He has pace to burn, energy for two men, and courage to put his head in where the boots fly — as he did in scoring United’s winning goal against Liverpool on Sunday.

Speak to Park, and he tells you “Mr. Hiddink” made him believe. Ask Alex Ferguson, the manager of some of the world’s greatest performers, and he says Park’s intelligence and adaptability are among the most highly developed he has come across in 23 years at United.

All three — Hiddink, Ferguson and Park — swear by one thing: The game is for players, but the best players learn from managers or coaches.

If Ferguson’s handling of top quality players at Old Trafford has endured through a remarkable quarter-century, Hiddink’s way has been substantially nomadic. As a player, he moved eight times, not just within his native Netherlands but also with two spells at the Washington Diplomats and the San Jose Earthquakes in the 1970s.

Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters.

As a manager, a man passing on what he learned in the midfield playing area, he has rung up 13 changes of employment. He started at De Graafschap in 1982, he had short, sometimes tempestuous employments with Fenerbache in Turkey, and with Valencia, Real Madrid and Real Betis in Spain.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story

He lives and breathes in a track suit, and has learned the wiles of operating as the butt between ambitious, often overambitious, boards of directors, and ambitious, sometimes overambitious, players.

There is a book to write about Hiddink’s personality, his instincts, his straight-from-the-shoulder way of conducting business. The man to tell it, if ever he stopped working his own path through soccer’s multinational corridors, would be Piet de Visser.

De Visser was the coach when Hiddink won his first trophy, as a player of De Graafschap 40 years ago. As Hiddink rose in management, so de Visser worked for him as a scout. His discoveries include two extraordinary Brazilians, the mercurial Romario and the phenomenal Ronaldo, whose gateway to European glory was through Eindhoven under Hiddink.

And, because de Visser had close links to Roman Abramovich, that paved the way for Hiddink to become Russia’s head coach from 2006 to 2010, and to double up last year as Chelsea’s coach when the club’s owner, Abramovich, sacked Luiz Felipe Scolari.

In Russia’s team, Hiddink could build around Andrei Arshavin, a world-class player now with Arsenal. At Chelsea, he could guide the fiery talent of Didier Drogba.

Russia’s form at Euro 2008 was the best it had shown since the breakup of the Soviet Union, but when it failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup, Hiddink’s departure became inevitable.

His contract there ends in June. There are clubs in England that, seeing what Hiddink did in a few months at Chelsea last season, would offer him whatever it takes to go to them.

There are countries, too, at his door. Ivory Coast, the best of the African nations in terms of sheer talent, sacked Vahid Halilhodzic as coach, and with Drogba urging his country to sign up Hiddink, the appointment was prematurely announced.

Hiddink would have taken the challenge short term. However, Turkey’s soccer president, Mahmut Ozgener, moved swiftly to tempt Hiddink to restructure its national squad.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story

At 63, Hiddink moves back to a place that gave him too little time 20 years ago. He knows there are talents aplenty in Turkey’s youth, and determination from the top to put someone in charge to channel sometimes volatile talent into a cohesive unit: Hiddink, the man for all cultures.