According to a number of media sources, recently, when former national football coach Lippi spoke at a university in Rome, he reviewed the situation that he led the Italian team to win the 2006 World Cup and talked about the situation of coaching in China. Lippi said that the reason why he chose to coach in China was for money, because Evergrande's high salary attracted him.
Lippi
Lippi revealed that Evergrande offered an annual salary of 10 million euros at that time, and the first to find the Dutchman Hiddink. Because Hiddink became the manager of the Russian Premier League upstart Anzhi in February 2012, Lippi contacted Evergrande after communicating with Hiddink and asked them to come to Milan to talk to me (laughs). Soon, the two sides talked about the matter, and Lippi replaced South Korean Lee Jang-so as Evergrande manager in May of that year.
Lippi admits: During my time coaching in Italy, I never put money first. I've won everything I can win [in coaching grades]. But economically, I didn't get what I deserved. Based on such factors, when Evergrande's invitation was placed in front of me, I gladly accepted it.
Lippi
Born in 1948, Marcello Lippi was not very famous as an athlete, and his real fame came after he transferred to the coaching position. In 1994, Lippi became the head coach of Juventus, and in the next five years, Lippi helped Juventus win three Serie A titles and one UEFA Champions League. In June 2004, Lippi became head coach of the Italian national team. In June 2006, Lippi's Italian national team won the 2006 Fifa World Cup in Germany.
After Lippi became the head coach of Evergrande in 2012, he led the team to the top in the AFC Champions League in 2013. In 2014, Lippi chose to abdicate after achieving a three-consecutive championship in charge of the Chinese Super League at Guangzhou Evergrande, and handed over the coaching whip to his proud disciple Cannavaro. Since then, Lippi has twice served as the manager of the Chinese men's football team, but in the end he left the post. During the coaching period of Evergrande, Evergrande's Zheng Zhi, Zhang Linpeng, Huang Bowen, Zeng Cheng, etc. were the absolute main players of the national team.
Lippi took Evergrande to the top of the AFC Champions League
From a common sense point of view, a big-name coach like Lippi will not choose to coach in China, after all, the level of Chinese football is much worse than that of Europe and Italy. But in the face of huge salaries, Lippi, the World Cup champion coach, was also attracted. Today, the accomplished Lippi is 74 years old and is living in his old age, and the generous remuneration of coaching in China is enough for him to enjoy retirement.