Half of the Chinese Super League teams have changed coaches! The most expensive Cui Kangxi team is 4 million US dollars, and there are only 3 local coaches left
On the afternoon of January 7, Henan Football Club announced that the 49-year-old South Korean coach Nam Ki-il replaced Sarko as the new coach of the club's first team. So far, 8 Chinese Super League clubs, that is, half of them have completed the change of coaches, and the new coaches of these 8 clubs are all foreign coaches. With global football activity returning to normal last year, the Chinese Super League is gradually recovering. In the face of a huge existential crisis and competitive pressure, the vast majority of Chinese Super League clubs are looking for changes to improve their situation. The reasons for their change of leadership are different, but there are only two types of purposes - either to "live" or to "live" better.
The new coach of the Henan team, Nan Jiyi
Compared with past few seasons, the 2024 season of the Chinese Super League has come earlier and more rapidly. It is worth noting that the new coaches selected by the 8 clubs are all foreign coaches, and for such a change, a senior football agent analyzed that the Chinese Super League returned to normal last season after three special and difficult seasons from 2020 to 2022. After the introduction of foreign players in the league returned to normal, the introduction of foreign coaches has also been revitalized. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand the five coaches of Mantong Zhiyun, who was promoted last season, in one year, and it may not be difficult to understand the move of the two Shanghai clubs of Haigang and Shenhua to change coaches after winning the championship.
I have to say that after the "ebb and flow" of the Chinese Super League, it will be difficult for international coaches like Lippi, Scolari, Benitez, and Pellegrini to reappear in Chinese professional football in the short term. In other words, with the departure of big-name foreign aid from the Chinese Super League in recent years, the "rank" of foreign coaches in the league has also decreased a lot. However, in the case of the overall low level of foreign aid in the Chinese Super League, the fierce competition among the league's various groups has not been discounted. This can be seen from last season's league title and relegation rivalry to the final stages of the league.
Wuhan Three Towns new coach Rodriguez
In this case, if you want to change the coach, especially the club that changes the foreign coach, you have to consider the cost performance. According to an agent who did not want to be named, among the current Chinese Super League clubs, the most valuable person is likely to be Cui Kangxi, the coach of Shandong Taishan team, whose coaching team has an annual salary of about 4 million US dollars. Behind him are the coaches of the two Shanghai teams of Haigang and Shenhua, Muscat and Slutsky, whose coaching staff package salaries range from $2 million to $3 million. As for the salary standards of foreign coaches of other clubs in the Chinese Super League, it will be much lower. Some of them have an annual salary of around $1 million, while others have an annual salary of only 200,000 to 300,000 euros. Relatively speaking, clubs that are in the first group of league competition all year round will choose relatively well-known and high-priced foreign coaches. The middle and lower reaches of clubs tend to pursue affordable prices in the selection of foreign coaches, which is one of the reasons why "old people" such as Yasen can return to the coaching stage of the Chinese Super League.
It should be noted that regardless of the choice of high-priced or low-cost foreign coaches, clubs are extremely cautious in signing contracts. For example, the contract of Slutsky's coaching team is quite flexible, and the specific terms are strictly linked to the performance indicators of the team. As for the small and medium-sized clubs that hire foreign coaches, the price generated by the cooperation is relatively low, so even if the coach is changed in the future, the economic risk is relatively low.
Harbour's new coach Muscat
The change of coach of the Chinese Super League club pursues cost performance, which is also reflected in the choice of the target direction of the new coach. For example, as many as six of the eight new Chinese Super League coaches have coached South Korea's K-League and Japan's J-League clubs. Compared with unfamiliar foreign coaches who don't know the roots, foreign coaches with coaching experience in Japanese and Korean clubs are more familiar with Asian football, so it is easier to get started in the coaching position of the Chinese Super League. Take Harbour new coach Muscat as an example, the Australian coach has just led Japan's J-League giants Yokohama Mariners through to the knockout stages of this season's AFC Champions League before taking over the team. Rodriguez, who succeeded Japanese coach Tsutomu Takahata as the new coach of Three Towns, also led Japan's Urawa Red Diamonds to the 2022 AFC Champions League final. Before Nan Jiyi took over the Henan team, he led three different K2 League teams to be promoted to the K1 League.
After Nan Jiyi coached the Henan team, only three of the 16 teams in the Chinese Super League are led by local coaches, they are Cangzhou Lions coach Zhao Junzhe, Changchun Yatai coach Chen Yang and Tianjin Jinmen Tigers coach Yu Genwei. They were able to stay in large part because of the satisfaction of investors with their team last season.
Shenhua's new coach Slutsky
Judging from the access to the domestic league in the new season, although it is a high probability event for the 16 Chinese Super League clubs to collectively pass the access gate, how to survive stably in the future is still a problem to be solved for the vast majority of clubs. Local coaches who are familiar with the sophistication of domestic football are more likely to act as the "backstabbers" of the club's unsatisfactory record. Compared with foreign coaches, the loss or difficulty of the club to fire local coaches is much smaller. Of course, the local coach is often the "firefighter" and transitional coach invited by Xi after some clubs fired foreign coaches.
Starting this season, the Chinese Super League will implement the new rule of "reporting 5 on 5" for foreign players to play. The new rules are beneficial for the relevant teams of the Chinese Super League to cope with the competition of the AFC Champions League (elite), but for the vast majority of small and medium-sized clubs that are not financially well-off, they may add a financial burden. In addition, some clubs are undergoing shareholding changes during the transition between the old and new seasons. Therefore, each family chooses to change the coach, probably also for the sake of "change".
Judging from the actual situation in previous years, in a long season, a considerable number of teams will not remain the same. What is certain is that the 2024 Chinese Super League change of coach drama is not over to be continued.
Text/Beiqing Sports Xiao Yun