The Chinese Super League in the era of gold-dollar soccer has attracted many big foreigners and world-class coaches, and former Dalian Spain coach Rafael Benitez is one of them.
Rafa Benitez, 63, made his name at La Liga powerhouse Valencia, where he replaced Cooper as the new coach of the Batmen in 2001 at the age of 41. In his first season at Valencia, Benitez led the team to defeats against Real Madrid and Barcelona and won the La Liga title again.
Three years later, Rafa Benitez landed in the Premier League as manager of Reds Liverpool. During his five years in charge of Liverpool, the tactician guided the team to win the Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FA Cup, but never the Premier League title. In the latter stages of his Liverpool tenure, Benitez began to decline as he missed out on the Champions League and he was sacked by the club in the summer of 2010.
Since then, Benitez has coached many other European giants such as Inter Milan, Chelsea, Napoli and Real Madrid, but he never reached the heights at Liverpool. After stepping down from Real Madrid, Benitez lost his aura of being a famous European coach and he had to join Newcastle, the last team in the Premier League at the time.
In 2019, after my contract with Newcastle expired, I accepted an offer from Wanda Group to land in the Chinese Super League, joining FC Dalian (now renamed Dalian Ren), which caused a big stir in the domestic soccer scene at the time.
However, after joining Dalian, Rafa Benitez was unable to lead the team back to its former glory. In one and a half seasons of leading the team, he only led Dalian people to play six rounds of league games, and then the team's results can never be linked to Benitez's title of "world famous coach".
At the end of the 2020 season, Rafa Benitez announced his resignation and his coaching team all left China soon after, leaving the club in a mess. Since then, Spanish coach Jose, who was personally recommended by Benitez, has brought Dalian to the Chinese First Division. Because of Chongqing's exit, they were lucky to return to the Chinese Super League as a replacement.
After leaving Dalian, Benitez was unable to find a job for a long time. In desperation, he replaced Carlo Ancelotti, who moved to Real Madrid, as manager of Premier League underdogs Everton in the summer of 2021.
But after half a season in charge of Everton, Rafa Benitez was once again sacked by the club for his poor performances. Since then, he has been idle at home and hasn't found a new job for over a year.
In a recent interview with the English sports media, Rafa Benitez said that he had recently received a number of offers from overseas clubs, including one from the Chinese Super League.
Looking at the current situation of the Chinese Super League clubs, Shanghai Seaport is the only one who needs to hire a coach and afford a world-class coach like Rafa Benitez. Seaport has been looking for a new coach for the team after firing coach Leko midway through last season, and Benitez's reputation is more in line with what the Seaport club is looking for.
However, after the fall of former Football Association president Chen Xuyuan, the situation of the Harbor team has become more delicate. It's hard to say whether the new season will be able to invest as much money in recruiting big name foreign coaches as before. But even if he does manage to invite Rafa Benitez, judging from Benitez's past coaching experience, he won't be able to lead the team to the Chinese Super League championship
