▲ Big Arth cozies up to Guus Hiddink, former manager of the South Korean football team. Photo courtesy Big Arth

Monday, Oct. 14, bore a striking resemblance to the other 10,350 odd days I’ve been alive in that I didn’t interview Guus Hiddink. I had been keen to add to the plethora of managerial interviews I’d already conducted: A 3-minute chat with Joe Kinnear before Wimbledon vs. Ipswich in August 1994 and an actual interview with Jeju United’s Park Kyung Hoon last year, if you’re asking. Sadly, however, fates conspired against me and I merely saw Guus from afar for a total of four minutes.

Hiddink was in Jeju to open the “Hiddink Dream Field Futsal Stadium” at Jeju National University. The Guus Hiddink Foundation was established in 2003, a year after he guided the national team to their best ever finish, fourth place, at the 2002 World Cup. The foundation aims to set up a “Dream Field” in each of the 11 provinces that hosted World Cup matches specifically for visually impaired players.

I’d known that Hiddink (who donates his appearance fees from such events to the charity) was coming to Jeju for a couple of weeks and was keen to pick the brains of the two-time World Cup semi-finalist. However, due to a mix-up with times and dates I arrived at the Q&A for the last question - could have been the first for all I know - which Hiddink didn’t really answer.

A Korean student asked him who he thought was the best young Korean player and Hiddink proceeded to give an overview of how the current Korean team is doing. He praised current coach Hong Myung-Bo - Hiddink’s captain during the 2002 campaign - for playing a “highly technical game” and said that it was a positive thing to play “strong” teams such as Brazil to prepare for the World Cup, as he had done during his tenure. He then posed for photos with two dignitaries and was promptly whisked away in a black BMW.

My mate Big Arth (a.k.a Arthur) had more luck “Hiddink hunting” than I did on Monday, actually meeting the great man as he ate lunch at Papa John’s, the sponsors of the event. According to Big Arth, Hiddink was eating pizza (scoop!) and drinking coffee; whilst he was eating Arthur asked for a photo and shook the hand that guided South Korea to its greatest footballing moment.

As I was on the bus home reflecting on my 3-hour long whiskey-fueled discussion of deep-lying false sevens and inverted Christmas trees with one of the most successful managers of the last quarter century feeling sorry for myself and wishing I’d had pizza for lunch, I wondered if it wasn’t perhaps better this way. Meeting your heroes is often said to be an underwhelming experience and besides, writing a story mired in self-pity seems fitting on the week that Morrisey’s autobiography came out.