A few days ago, professional newspapers such as "Football" and "Sports Weekly" have published articles saying that the Chinese Football Association will shake hands with Petkovic, a player who has led the Swiss national team for seven years and led the team to the semifinals of the European Cup. However, Petkovic was still Algeria's head coach at the time, with reports suggesting that Petkovic could make a final decision within the week.
It was recently reported that the Algerian Football Association offered Petkovic a salary of €120,000 a month. Petkovic will sign a two-year contract with the Algerian Football Federation and hopes to lead the team to the semi-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations in 2025 and the 2026 World Cup.
Ivankovic (Visual China).
Petkovic's departure also marks one less candidate for the Chinese Football Association's new coach for the national team. If that's the case, then the Chinese Football Association will take a fresh look at Ivankovic because his contract with Oman has ended. It is reported that Ivankovic is now in China and will travel to the Chinese Football Association for final talks with the club.
Under the leadership of Petkovic, Ivankovic and Queiroz are both regarded as the most suitable head coaches, and they will become the head coaches of Chinese football clubs. Ivankovic has coached Iran, Shandong Luneng, Oman, and Queiroz have also coached Iran and Qatar, so he is no stranger to Asian football.
Interestingly, the Algerian Football Federation has considered two possibilities after "cutting off" Petkovic, one is Queiroz and the other is Ivankovic, Queiroz is highly ranked, but he has already rejected the invitation of the Algerian Football Association. Ivankovic is the last of more than 20 candidates from the Algerian Football Association. Ivankovic said in an interview in early February that he would become a free agent after his contract with Oman ends on February 1, admitting that several Asian clubs are interested in him and that his next goal is to coach the national team.
Ivankovic's achievements in Oman are evident as he led Oman, who were once second- and third-tier teams in Asia, to the round of 12 in Qatar and to a win over Japan. Ivankovic also led Oman to a warm-up win over China ahead of this year's Asian Cup. However, Oman were not so lucky in the group stage of the Asian Cup, losing to Saudi Arabia in stoppage time and then being held to a draw by Thailand and Kyrgyzstan, which is why the Oman Football Association did not renew Ivankovic's contract.
Ivankovic once led Shandong Luneng to win the Chinese Super League championship and helped Oman make great progress, all of which made him the new coach hoped by the Chinese Football Association, he needs to "be familiar with Asian football" and "understand Chinese football", and Ivankovic's annual salary has also reached 1.5 million euros, which is why the Chinese Football Association wants Ivankovic to become the head coach of the national team. However, the newspaper "Football" pointed out that the Chinese Football Association had previously preferred to bring in some excellent coaches from Europe to give their teams more advanced tactics and styles, so they preferred Petkovic. Now that Petkovic has been "cut off" by the Algerian Football Association, it is logical that the Chinese Football Association will shift the target to Ivankovic.
With the World Qualifiers on March 21 and March 26 facing Singapore respectively, they are now less than a month away, and the pressure on them is even greater as the new coach has to call in his squad early to start training. Therefore, the Chinese Football Association has not announced the news of the new coach for a long time, which has also been doubted and blamed by some fans. There are reports that the new coach of the Chinese Super Cup may be announced before or after the 25th of this month, and now it seems that the new coach has arrived in China for final negotiations, otherwise, it will be difficult to carry out the two rounds of matches in March.