By David Anderson, PA Sport, Daegu

By rights it should have been Turkey's moment. They had just crowned the most remarkable tournament in their history by claiming third place at the World Cup.

But amid the celebrations in the Daegu World Cup stadium, it was a Dutchman who was centre stage.

After 18 incredible months, during which time he transformed South Korean football, Guus Hiddink was saying goodbye.

His players expressed their gratitude by tossing him several times in the air and then he bowed to the crowd in a final gesture of thanks and farewell.

The amazing rollercoaster ride is over for Korea and Hiddink will soon leave to take up one of the various coaching posts he has been offered, including one from his old club PSV Eindhoven.

But while Europe beckons for Hiddink, he claims in his heart he will always be in Korea.

In just a few short months Hiddink and the Korean people have developed a bond which will endure long after this World Cup has been forgotten.

"Speaking from my heart, I'll never leave this country for good," he said.

"Korea has stolen my heart in a very short time. Korea is in my heart and I'll never leave Korea in that sense.

"Of course, I'll leave Korea but I always will come back in whatever circumstances or function it might be because in this country, I experienced something completely new and I will never forget that.

"I would like to thank the Korean people: they're number one in the world in terms of support."

Some of the Korean players could well be following Hiddink west and it is likely that the country's European contingent of Ahn Jung-hwan and Seol Ki-hyeon is about to increase.

Hiddink would welcome such a migration, but warned the players to think carefully about their first-team prospects because Ahn and Seol have spent much of their time at Perugia and Anderlecht respectively on the bench.

"If they want to go to Europe, I would advise them to go," he said.

"But they shouldn't go to pick up the easy money, but look carefully at which is the best club and which is the best country for the development of the Korean players.

"That's very important because we have seen the example of players in the national team who say three months ago were not playing at a high level with their clubs."

Several Turks could be on the move too and Hasan Sas, Mansiz Ilhan and goalkeeper Recber Rustu will probably feature on the summer shopping lists of Europe's leading sides.

Ilhan was the star of Turkey's third-place win to add to his growing reputation.

The Besiktas striker dispossessed Korean captain Hong Myung-bo to set up Hakan Sukur to score the fastest goal in the history of the World Cup Finals after just 10.8 seconds before he netted Turkey's other two goals in the 12th and 32nd minutes.

Korea had levelled when Lee Eul-yong curled home his first goal for his country from a delightful free-kick on nine minutes.

The home side tried valiantly in the second half to claw their way back into the game, but Turkey limited them to a stoppage-time strike from Song Chong-gug.

Turkey coach Senol Gunes was proud of his players and their fantastic achievement and he said: "They will only understand when they get back to Turkey how huge a job they've done in this World Cup.

"Here they only see the hotels, the training fields and the stadiums. When they get back they are going to see their homes again and they will be telling their children of these memories for years to come."

The Koreans will be doing the same and while Hiddink will soon be gone, he will never be forgotten.