It's no longer news that the Chinese men's soccer team is about to change its coach. Due to the poor performance in the Asian Cup, Serbian coach Jankovic will be forced to hand over the coach, becoming the new victim of the Chinese men's soccer team "coach graveyard".
After the news of Jankovic's sacking, who will replace him in coaching the Chinese team has become a topic of concern for many fans. Many fans had previously recommended for local coach Gao Hongbo to come back and take over the Chinese team for the third time. This is because under his command, the Chinese men's soccer team broke the fear of South Korea, beat the world champion France, and created a series of achievements unmatched by other coaches.
But for the local coach, the Chinese Football Association executives seem to distrust, especially after the scandal of Li Tie's initiative to bribe and succeed in being elected as the national soccer coach came to light, no soccer association leader dares to appoint a local coach, after all, no one knows that there will be a black-box operation behind the scenes when the next domestic coach comes to power, so the best thing to do at the moment is to continue to hire a foreign coach to coach the national soccer team. However, the choice of coach this time is not a blind choice, because in a month or so, the World Cup qualifying round of 36 will begin, so the new national soccer coach must be familiar with Asian soccer, preferably familiar with Chinese soccer, so that he can integrate into the team more quickly.
According to Beijing Youth Daily reporter Sean, the FA initially identified several candidates, including South Korean coach Choi Kang-hee, Omani coach Ivankovic, who just stepped down, Zhejiang coach Jordy, Portuguese coach Queiroz, and world champion coach Scolari, who had led Guangzhou Evergrande to the AFC Champions League title!
The most surprising thing in this list is undoubtedly Brazilian coach Scolari. In fact, Scolari was recommended to take over the Chinese men's soccer team back in 2019 after Lippi resigned from the national soccer team for the second time. However, after careful consideration, the senior management of the soccer association still did not hire Scolari and chose local coach Li Tie to take over Lippi. We all know the subsequent story, Li Tie was sacked for the last 12 games and then investigated for serious disciplinary and legal matters, the national soccer team changed coaches this time and it turned into a complete farce!
Now that China's men's soccer team has changed its manager once again, the top management of the Football Association (F.A.C.) has recalled an old acquaintance of Chinese soccer. However, Scolari is still under contract and his contract with Atletico Mineiro of the Barclays Premier League will expire at the end of this year. In addition, Scolari's annual salary will far exceed Jankovic's €1.2 million. According to previous reports in the Brazilian media, when he coached Guangzhou Evergrande, he earned an annual salary of about 5 million euros after tax, equivalent to about 38.87 million euros. It remains to be seen whether the FA can afford it.
I wonder if the slumping Chinese men's soccer team can return to the World Cup under a new coach?
