Pan Gon aims to bring Malaysia to the World Cup finals

Pan Gon, who made his 'debut' in Kelana Jaya today, is looking to lay a strong foundation and help the national team reach the World Cup finals someday.

Without specifying a definite timeline, the South Korean said he believed he could take Malaysia into the world's biggest football tournament as Asia could be given up to nine slots in the future.

"We (including managerial team) will build a strong foundation first, and move forward by focusing on bigger picture, which is to get into the World Cup finals.

"In future World Cups, Asia could have nine slots to get into the finals stage, so I think I'll try to prepare for that," he said in his first press conference since being appointed last month.

As the World Cup finals would be his long-term target, Pan Gon said he would also try to keep the fans happy by getting good results for the national team.

Realising the squad's ability to make a huge impact in the future, Pan Gon said the players currently lacked confidence on the pitch.

"They (players) need to believe they are good enough, that they can reach beyond the South East Asia level...I will help them to gain full confidence and make the team really strong as one and united," he said.

Asked about what attracted him to helm the national squad, the former Hong Kong head coach described the new project as 'exciting' as Malaysia had great potential to go far.

"I can say that there is huge room for improvement and I can see a lot of potential if we can fix several things to make Malaysia go to the next level," said the former South Korea Football Association national team director.

Pan Gon also admitted that being the new Harimau Malaya boss was the biggest challenge in his managerial career yet, as he knew that the Malaysian fans would surely have high hopes on him to return the national team to its glory days.

The event also saw the introduction of his coaching line-up, namely assistant coach Pau Marti Vicente, goalkeeping coach Cho Jun Ho, fitness trainer Dr Gokhan Kandemir and analyst Lim Jaehun.

Pan Gon was appointed to replace Tan Cheng Hoe, who resigned last month after taking full responsibility for Malaysia's poor performance at the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Cup in Singapore last December.