Ivankovic, who celebrated his 70th birthday on February 28, unexpectedly received a special "congratulatory gift" - becoming the new head coach of the Chinese men's football team. However, for the CFA, since the moment of signing Ivan, a seemingly doomed to failure of the "gamble" has quietly unfolded.
Is Chen Xuyuan's choice a wise one to take over in a hurry?
Ivan's resume is clearly more impressive compared to that of his predecessor, Jankovic. The latter coached the U21 National Youth, Red Star Belgrade and Standard Liege in Serbia. Since stepping into Chinese soccer in 2018, he has served as the head coach of the U19 Yellow Team, the U20 National Youth Team, and the U23 Asian Games Team.
Although Yankovic after the dismissal of the short period of coaching, the national football selection team in the 2022 East Asian Cup achieved a record of 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss, ranked third, but the Football Association was originally interested in hiring a more famous foreign coach, and Paulo Bento, Queiroz, Ola Royo and so on have been in contact with the people, but were all rejected.
Finally, in February 2023, Chen Xuyuan chose Yang Kovic. On the one hand, the FA had a limited budget and Yang Kovic's salary requirements were not high; on the other hand, he was familiar with the Hangzhou Asian Games and the national soccer team competing for international player resources. Coupled with the well-known reason that there are many inconveniences in hiring coaches from abroad, Yang Kovic became the choice of the FA with no choice but to take up the post in a hurry.
However, Jankovic's friendly matches against Malaysia, Syria and Uzbekistan during his tenure at the national soccer team have exposed the inadequacy of his coaching ability. After the opening of the country, the Football Association should have considered replacing the coach, but no one made a decision due to the need to pay liquidated damages for dismissal in the middle of the game and the investigation of Chen Xuyuan. Song Kai took office in October, with only one month left before the 36-team tournament against Thailand, it was too late to change the coach.
And so, from the 36 to the Asian Cup, the national soccer team's campaign has dragged on and on. So far, we all know something about Jankovic's ability. Before the Asian Cup, the Football Association should have been ready to let him go, but set the goal of reaching the quarter-finals! Obviously, this is an understanding of the national soccer team, Jankovic and the opponents.
As a result, the national football team won 0 and scored 0 goals in the group stage and went out directly, creating the worst result in the team's history. At this point, the FA hastily remembered to replace the coach without having to pay liquidated damages. However, the national football team was again challenged in the 36-team tournament in March, and there was a Chinese New Year holiday in between, leaving them little time, so another hasty choice was born.
Sungai took over and Ivan took over again.
Is 70-year-old Ivankovic fit for the job of national soccer manager? He has the advantage of knowing Asian soccer, having led Oman to remarkable progress. His abilities are clearly superior to Jankovic's.
However, Ivan has been away from Shandong Taishan for more than a decade and does not know much about Chinese soccer. From leaving the Chinese Super League to coaching Oman, he has twice been fired after five coaching stints, and has not distinguished himself in terms of technical and tactical construction and field command.
First of all, Ivan is older, out of touch with the world soccer trend, difficult to bring qualitative changes to the national football team, difficult to lead the team to maintain competitiveness for a long time, destined to be another temporary choice.
In fact, we can see from the contract that the FA is worried that Ivan will be the next Jankovic. Despite the fact that the two sides signed a three-year contract, there is a clause to step down if they don't make it out of the 36-team tournament. This is undoubtedly a short-sighted move: if the FA has really investigated well, trust him fully and understand that four games will not be enough for him to build a new national football team; if you haven't investigated well and don't trust him, don't invite Ivan.
The harsh reality is that even if the World Cup expands Asia's 8.5 slots, it will be difficult to get a World Cup ticket even if the national soccer team makes it to the top 18. The FIFA ranking of 13th in Asia is a reflection of strength. Therefore, it is only a matter of time before Ivankovic is dropped and the FA will have to get busy finding a new coach for the national soccer team.
Mistake after mistake, what is the problem with the FA?
In fact, the FA clearly has better options, especially in the Chinese Super League. For example, Zhejiang's Qiaodi and Chengdu Rongcheng's Xu Zhengyuan. In particular, Qiaodi, Zhejiang's head coach, comes from Barcelona's La Masia youth training. He led Barcelona U19 to win the youth championship, adhering to the tactical philosophy of pass-and-control soccer and emphasizing the development of young players. He is a head coach in line with modern soccer trends, highly acclaimed in the circle, and perfect for leading the lowly national football team from scratch.
If the FA has been interested for a long time, you don't have to wait until the start of the new season to dig in the corners. You could have talked about it after last season or even had him lead the team in the Asian Cup. It can't be worse than Jankovic with 0 wins and 0 goals, can it?
If the Football Association just want to achieve results in a short period of time, then Shandong Taishan's Cui Kangxi is undoubtedly the most ideal candidate, his coaching ability is definitely among the top three Asian coaches. Of course, whether Shandong Taishan is willing to release, Cui Kangxi is willing to lead the national soccer team, is another matter.
In fact, the FA has been going through a cycle of "changing coaches - trusting at first - poor performance due to poor international player ability - high-level intervention - increasingly poor performance by outsiders in charge of insiders - coaches losing control of players not contributing to the work - changing coaches again". This cycle can not even be solved by Lippi, and Ivan can not be solved.
Now there is a heavenly opportunity. The FA should have used this anti-corruption storm, leadership change, and the Asian Cup as an opportunity to appoint coaches such as Jordy and Xu Zhengyuan and give them enough time and trust to start from scratch. Unfortunately, I missed this opportunity and wasted my time.
At the end of the day, losing the Asian Cup wasn't bad enough, ah, the Football Association, even with a change in leadership, still does not realize where the core of the problem is.
