Busan IPark Kim returned to South Korea in 2004 and obtained the AFC Professional Football Coaching Diploma, Asia's highest-level coaching license. At that time, only five other South Koreans held the same qualification. In 2005, he became
Busan IPark's assistant coach under manager
Ian Porterfield. During four years at Busan, Kim helped his team as caretaker manager whenever they had urgent situations. He won Busan's first victory of the 2006 season in his second match as Busan's manager on 8 April 2006 after predecessor Porterfield failed to get a victory in 21 consecutive matches, and achieved four consecutive victories in that month. This sudden change was called the "Pan-gon's Magic" by Korean media. He returned as the assistant coach when
André Egli became a replacement for Porterfield in July. However, Egli abruptly announced his resignation while attending field training in the United States in June 2007, and Kim once again managed Busan as caretaker manager for the remainder of the season. Busan quickly recruited
Park Sung-hwa as their new manager in July, but Park left for the
South Korean Olympic team after just 17 days.
South China and Hong Kong Kim became the manager of
Hong Kong First Division League club
South China on 3 December 2008. Under Kim, South China won the
2009 Lunar New Year Cup after defeating
league all-star team and
Sparta Prague.
Gyeongnam FC On 26 November 2010, Kim was transferred position from manager to physical fitness consultant of South China, and he will return to South Korea later to serve as a tactical consultant for
K League side
Gyeongnam FC. Kim told the media that due to minor heart and liver problems, it is not suitable for him to be the manager of South China. It is convenient to stay in South Korea for medical treatment. Earlier, he was invited by Gyeongnam to be the manager, but Kim only agreed to serve as a tactical consultant, and his family would continue to stay in Hong Kong. However, due to the health of his wife living in Hong Kong, he returned to Hong Kong after one season.
Return to Hong Kong Kim suddenly appeared in Hong Kong on 5 October 2011, claiming to the media that his health has recovered and he has applied last week to the
Hong Kong Football Association (HKFA) to be the new
Hong Kong national team coach. He also confirmed that his contract with Gyeongnam FC still has one year to run, but he will be released if he is appointed by the HKFA. Kim was appointed as
National Academy coach by the HKFA on 22 December 2011. He was wholly responsible for the identification, development and coaching of all players aged 18 and below. He took up the position of acting manager of Hong Kong national football team in November 2012 following the resignation of former manager
Ernie Merrick. Afterwards, the HKFA confirmed Kim as the permanent manager of the Hong Kong national football team on 28 May 2013. He signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with the HKFA. According to Kim, most of the Hong Kongese players do not have an environment where they can comfortably focus on football, where most of the players are semi-professionals. Kim took this into consideration and used the short time as efficiently as possible. The focus was on physical strength and organization. Hong Kong players worked together through strengthening training for about two to three days a week. Kim led the Hong Kong under-23 team to the knockout stage of the
2014 Asian Games after earning 7 points in the group stage, but they were eliminated by eventual champions South Korea in the round of 16. In December 2015, HKFA announced that they will renew Kim's contract until June 2018. During the
2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Hong Kong's two 0–0 draws with China not only attracted new fans to support the Hong Kong team but also increased Kim's popularity. "Kim Out" slogans flooded social media as well, criticising Kim's conservative tactics and failure to play offensive football, making it difficult for Hong Kong to easily win. Hong Kong fans also criticised that after Kim took the office, the number of naturalised players in the team increased greatly, making it difficult for local youth to find opportunities to fight for places in the starting lineup. Some naturalised players of the team were fairly old, such as centre-back
Festus Baise from Nigeria and midfielder
Itaparica from Brazil, who were both well over 37 years old at the time. Kim replied to the fans regarding the influx of naturalised player on an interview in December 2019, saying "Hong Kong is an international city, everyone wants to be a Hong Konger and everyone wants to fight for the citizens of Hong Kong. Why aren't they [naturalised players] welcomed?". In December 2017, Kim resigned as Hong Kong coach to become technical director of the Korean Football Association.
Korea Football Association On 26 December 2017, Kim was appointed
Korea Football Association (KFA)'s vice president and head of the reinforcement committee. His long-term plan was to change the future of the nation's football like when he managed the Hong Kong national team. He put emphasis on sports science and made football science team in the KFA to approach to players' treatment, recovery and weight training scientifically. After setting as the direction "proactive football", he hired
Paulo Bento as national team manager and explained his hiring process to the media.
Malaysia On 21 January 2022, the
Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) named Kim the new national team coach. He resigned as technical director of the Korean Football Association and flew to Malaysia in mid-February that year with four staff: analysis and fitness officers, assistant coaches and technical trainers. Kim signed a two-year contract expiring in 2024 that would be extended if FAM was satisfied with the performance of the national squad. In June 2022 on the
third round of 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualification, Malaysia faced 3 matches which began with a 3–1 victory against
Turkmenistan in the first match, suffering a 1–2 loss to
Bahrain, before successfully ending their campaign by defeating
Bangladesh with 4–1. Thus, Malaysia finished second in Group E behind Bahrain and automatically qualified for the
2023 AFC Asian Cup on merit after 42 years. Before the opening of the
2022 AFF Championship, Kim selected 41 players for the preliminary squad for the competition, but
Tunku Ismail Idris, the crown prince of
Johor and the owner of Malaysian champions
Johor Darul Ta'zim, refused to release his key players. The competition was not an essential tournament approved by FIFA, and clubs were not required to send players. So Kim called up new players including naturalised Malaysians, His team advanced to the semifinals as group runner-up after winning three games in Group B, where it competed with
Vietnam,
Myanmar,
Singapore and
Laos. Malaysia advanced to the semifinals and won the first leg, 1–0, over the defending champion
Thailand, but fell in the second, 3–0. Heading to the last match against Kim native country,
South Korea, Malaysia shockingly held South Korea to a 3–3 draw, thus earning Malaysia's first point in the Asian Cup since 1980. In the
second round of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification, Malaysia led the group with 6 points after defeating
Kyrgyzstan and
Chinese Taipei. Heading into the match against
Oman in March, the Malaysian team remained optimistic in getting some positive results. However, Malaysia suffered 2–0 defeats, both away and at home. Malaysia then only managed to get 1 point against Kyrgyzstan and 3 points against Chinese Taipei, and eventually only finished in third place with 10 points, thus Kim was unable to lead Malaysia to the third round of the World Cup qualifiers. On 16 July 2024, Kim announced that he has resigned as Malaysia's national team head coach, citing personal commitments.
Ulsan HD On 28 July 2024, Kim signed with
K League 1 club
Ulsan HD, becoming a successor to
Hong Myung-bo, who was appointed the manager of the South Korea national team. On 1 November, he led Ulsan to its third K League 1 title in a row after overcoming doubts about taking on the position midway through the season. Kim's side defeated nearest challengers
Gangwon FC 2–1 that day to secure the club's league title. On the contrary, he lost six out of seven matches in the league stage of the
2024–25 AFC Champions League Elite, remaining a concern at the international level. The concern was realised at the
2025 FIFA Club World Cup, where he lost all three matches. He changed a back four with which Ulsan had been familiar to a back three to counterattack stronger teams at the Club World Cup, but the choice was followed by a failure as a result. Around the same time, he had three draws and four losses without a win in seven K League 1 matches, losing his competitiveness even in South Korea. On 2 August 2025, he left Ulsan after a 3–2 loss to
Suwon FC.
Selangor On 5 January 2026,
Malaysia Super League club
Selangor announced they had appointed Kim as new head coach and that he would begin his tenure at the club that day. ==Personal life==