Hiddink turns 80, celebrates with Park Ji-sung and Kim Min-ji

Guus Hiddink, the former coach who led South Korea's national football team to a semifinal run at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, marked his 80th birthday with former footballer Park Ji-sung and his wife Kim Min-ji.

Kim Min-ji, a former television announcer and Park's wife, shared a commemorative photo of the three together on her Instagram account Wednesday.

Kim also posted a message reflecting on the 2002 World Cup. "'What were you doing during the 2002 World Cup?' If you're Korean, you know that's a magic sentence — no matter where or how you met someone, it can keep a conversation going for a full hour," she wrote. "If someone brings up the 2002 World Cup at a gathering of Koreans, even the quietest person in the room can't help but jump in and share their own story, no matter how out of nowhere it comes up."

"Even though everyone tells a different story, they all end up nodding along with the same smile on their faces," she added. "That's right. We were all out of our minds."

She went on to say that Hiddink had given an entire nation an experience of unity unlike anything before or since. "For giving so many people a special experience and sense of togetherness that had never existed before and may never come again — I'd wager he ranks among the top figures in Korean hearts, right up there with the most beloved of all time," she wrote. "Happy 80th birthday, Coach Hiddink. Stay healthy."

Hiddink, born in 1946, turns 80 this year.

Hiddink was known to have shown a particular fondness for Park during the 2002 World Cup.