Blanco Ivankovic has continued his relationship with Chinese football.
14 years ago, he signed with Shandong Taishan in the Chinese Super League and led the team to win the league championship. Now, the Croatian has taken over the national football team that has just lost the Asian Cup, and it is his task to lead the team to the top 18 of the Asian zone of the World Preliminary Championship.
The national football team did not score a goal and lost the Asian Cup.
An unexpected change of coach.
For the Chinese Football Association, the selection of the national football coach is actually unexpected.
Jankovic defeated Thailand 2-1 away in the first game of the World Preliminary Round of 36 in November last year, laying the foundation for advancing to the round of 18, and the crisis of confidence in the Serbs has basically been lifted, although his contract with the Football Association only ends in the Asian Cup, as long as he qualifies from the group stage, he can successfully activate the next stage of the contract (until the end of the round of 36 in June this year).
Judging from the performance of the two round of 36 matches against Thailand and South Korea, the outside world thought that the national football team was not a big problem in qualifying for the group stage of the Asian Cup, after all, Tajikistan and Lebanon were far lower than the national football team in terms of strength on paper and FIFA rankings. Therefore, unlike the round of 36 in November last year, the Football Association actually did not make a plan to change the coach before the Asian Cup.
But the accident happened precisely - the national football team's preparation for the entire Asian Cup was very inconsistent. First of all, in terms of personnel, there is news that Jankovic wants to use more young people, but the management wants to ensure the lower limit with mainly veterans.
However, the overload of games in the past year has overwhelmed the veterans, and on the whole, they are not in good shape when the fuel tank is bottoming out.
At the same time, on the issue of how to deal with Li Ke, Jankovic was too strong, although he took military discipline seriously, but it also brought some psychological pressure to the players.
More importantly, according to the surging news reporter, Jankovic arranged too much physical and physical training during the preparation period, and this excessive training caused the players to stiffen their bodies, which was very obvious in the first two games.
Jankovic and the national football team are over.
Options are limited
In the end, when the body was not in the best condition and the psychological burden was too heavy, the national football team created a series of historical embarrassments in the Asian Cup, which led to the Football Association having to temporarily start the process of changing the coach.
According to the practice of selecting coaches for national teams in various countries, it usually takes more than two months, but the situation left for the Chinese Football Association is tight and the task is heavy.
The Chinese Super League began on March 1, and the new coach needed to be in place anyway, leaving the Chinese Football Association with only about a month, which had to remove the Spring Festival holiday in the middle.
Therefore, the room left for the Chinese Football Association to choose is very limited.
At that time, the Chinese Football Association attacked from two ends, on the one hand, the target was a foreign coach who coached in the Chinese Super League and was familiar with the situation of Chinese football. Among them, Qiaodi, Xu Zhengyuan and Cui Kangxi surfaced.
But the first two have no coaching experience in the national brand, which is a very obvious flaw. And Cui Kangxi is about to take Taishan to play in the AFC Champions League, and his background is complicated, so the plan to select a coach within the Chinese Super League was finally rejected.
Former Iran coach Queiroz has been a candidate for national football coach.
Then look for it in Asia or elsewhere in Europe.
Petkovic, who led the Swiss national team to the semifinals of the 2021 European Championship, once surfaced, and some agents recommended it to the Chinese Football Association, but Petkovic still has some hesitation about whether to coach the national football team, and regards this as a bottom choice, and the first choice is a team like Algeria that has a better chance of reaching the 2026 World Cup.
Queiroz, who has coached Iran and Qatar, has also been recommended to the Chinese Football Association, but the Portuguese has high requirements for an annual salary, with some sources saying that he wants to receive at least $2.5 million an annual salary after tax, which is currently beyond the acceptable range of the Chinese Football Association, which has little money.
Of course, what is more critical is that whether it is waiting for Petkovic to make a decision or bargaining with Queiroz, the Chinese Football Association does not have much room for maneuver due to the tight schedule.
Ivankovic has coaching experience in the Chinese Super League.
Resume, personal wishes, and salary all meet the requirements
In this way, Ivankovic became the one who seemed more suitable in all respects.
In this Asian Cup, the Oman team suffered a draw from Kyrgyzstan in the third game of the group stage, and failed to qualify for the group stage, and the Oman Football Association announced that Ivankovic would leave after the game, and the Croatian became the first coach to leave the class in this Asian Cup.
After class, Ivankovic's agent team immediately revealed through the frontline interview with China** in the Asian Cup that Ivankovic himself is very willing to coach the Chinese team and is confident to lead the team to the World Cup, and the agent team also revealed that Ivankovic's asking price is $1.5 million.
Obviously, Ivankovic's team is very familiar with Chinese football, and this statement is simply the key to the Chinese Football Association's coach selection team.
First of all, he expressed a strong personal will, killing Petkovic and others in seconds, and at the same time, the annual salary asking price was basically the same as Jankovic, and he beat Queiroz.
Coupled with years of experience coaching in Chinese and Asian clubs and national teams, although there are some flaws such as his age (about to turn 70), Ivankovic is enough to become the most realistic target of the current Chinese Football Association.
*: The Paper).