January 7, Beijing Youth Sports today focus on the Chinese Super League team coach selection dynamics. It is reported that Henan has formally hired South Korean coach Nam Ki Yee to take charge of the coaching whip, and at the beginning of the new year there have been eight Chinese Super League teams to replace the coach, and all of them are expatriates. At present, only three of the 16 clubs in the Chinese Super League are led by local coaches.
Media commented that after the "rebirth" of the last season, the Chinese Super League is gradually restoring the original face of professional soccer. Against the backdrop of tough survival challenges and fierce competition, most Chinese Super League clubs have had to seek change in order to improve the status quo. Although the reasons for the change of management are different, but the goal is extremely consistent - either to achieve "healthy survival", or the pursuit of "higher quality" survival.
It is noteworthy that eight companies have already completed their coaching changes, even though the dust has yet to settle on the results of the clubs' access, and the coaches they have selected are invariably expatriates. In this regard, a senior soccer agent said that after three exceptionally difficult seasons from 2020 to 2022, the Chinese Super League returned to the right track last season. The introduction of foreign aid into the local league has returned to normal, and the introduction of foreign coaches has also become active again. Although international coaches such as Lippi and Scolari are unlikely to return to Chinese professional soccer in a short period of time as the "golden dollar tide recedes", the position of foreign coaches is still not to be underestimated and the competition is fierce.
It was revealed that Choi Kang-hee is the highest paid coach among the Chinese Super League teams, with an annual salary of up to $4 million, followed by Hong Kong coach Muscat and Shenhua coach Slutsky, with annual salaries ranging between $2 million and $3 million. Other club coaches are paid between $1 million and $3 million a year. No matter how high or low the price is, clubs are extremely cautious when signing coaches. In addition, the pursuit of cost-effective coaching is also reflected in the selection of target candidates. For example, six of the eight new coaches mentioned above have experience coaching in the J-League and K-League and are more familiar with Asian soccer, making them easier to integrate.
Currently, only three of the 16 teams in the Chinese Super League are coached by local coaches. They are Zhao Junzhe of Cangzhou Lions, Chen Yang of Changchun Yatai and Yu Genwei of Tianjin Jinmen Tigers. They have been able to stay in their positions thanks in large part to the satisfactory results achieved by their teams last season, but may also face the risk of being "scapegoated" in the event of poor results. At the same time, local coaches are often assigned the role of "fire-fighting" or "transition" coaches.
Looking back at previous years, most teams have seen a change in coaching positions over the course of a season. the drama of the 2024 Super League coaching change has yet to come to an end.
