Marcello Lippi has agreed to become the manager of the Chinese national football team.
The veteran Italian coach has come out of retirement to coach the national team of the county of over 1.3 billion people. China are ranked 84th in the world and are bottom of Group A in the Asian section of World Cup qualification, with just one point from four games.
The 68-year-old, who coached his native Italy to World Cup glory in 2006, replaces Gao Hongbo, who resigned earlier this month following China’s 1-0 loss to war-thorn Syria.
Lippi’s last spell in management was with Chinese club side Guangzhou Evergrande before retiring in 2014. The Italian has also coached Juventus, Inter Milan and Napoli, as well as two spells as Azzurri manager.
It’s easy to see why Lippi was coaxed out of retirement.
According to the Bangkok Post, Lippi will be paid €4.5m a year to be coach of the Chinese team, as well as a salary from Evergrande’s football academy worth €15.5m to the Italian “and his team”.
Lippi is understood to be charged with helping change football structures within the country. With a population of 1.3 billion, you’d imagine there’s 11 decent players in there somewhere, and Lippi will be paid an awful lot to identify them.
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