This November, the Chinese men's soccer team will begin its journey to the world qualifiers. This year's head coach, Jankovic, is a much lesser known figure than the previous tournament's national team, which was in the era of gold-dollar soccer, and compared to Lippi at the time. However, it is likely that there will be a "next Lippi" in Asia, as Saudi Arabia, who led the gold-dollar soccer trend, is expected to make a breakthrough like China, which has hired another famous coach from Italy, Roberto Mancini, to guide the team.
Early on, Saudi Arabia introduced many European stars, such as Crow, and many famous players, such as the president of UEFA, thought that Saudi Arabia was copying the Chinese Super League's golden dollar soccer of the year. But Saudi Arabia denied it and said that the Saudi national team was at least better than the Chinese national team and at least beat Argentina led by Lionel Messi in the World Cup! Now, as soon as the voices dropped, Saudi Arabia made a very similar move to China at the national team level!
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the Saudi Football Association has overpaid to tap Italian national team coach Roberto Mancini, 58, who led Italy to a Euro win in 2021, and suddenly and strangely chose to leave this month, when it turned out that everything was about him taking over the Saudi national team, which offered him a contract of between 25 and 30 million euros a year, which is the equivalent of at least $200 million, according to the newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport!
Faced with such temptation, the Italian coach, who has won numerous honors in European soccer, did not hesitate to accept the influence of the Saudi Football Association for the Asian Cup title and World Cup qualification. It is also reminiscent of Lippi. At the time, the Chinese men's soccer team invited Lippi, the decorated Italian and World Cup-winning coach. Their goal was also to influence the World Cup, when they were in the midst of the Chinese Super League's golden dollar soccer period!
There is no doubt that all aspects of the Saudi team will see the shadow of Chinese soccer if Mancini joins the team. With Mancini's official announcement expected in the coming days, will he succeed in leading the Saudi team to the next level? What will be the final outcome of the Saudi league and national team's gold dollar soccer program? Will it repeat the failure of Chinese soccer back then? I'm afraid only time will tell!
