National football coach Jankovic has returned to his hometown for vacation, and the Football Association does not need to compensate for firing him!
On the evening of January 23, with the goal of Syrian player Khribin, the national football team, which is looking forward to the 0-0 match between the Syrian team and the Indian team, was officially announced from the Asian Cup.
On the night of the exit, the national football players chose to leave the "sad place" of Doha - in the early morning of January 24, Beijing time, the national football coach Jankovic and two assistants flew directly back to Serbia for vacation, while the national football players returned to Beijing and returned to their respective clubs for winter training after disbanding on the spot.
According to the "Sports Weekly", after leading the team to create the worst record in the history of the National Football Asian Cup, Jankovic was also pushed to the forefront. Although he himself intends to continue to coach the national football team, the Chinese Football Association may not give the coach another chance, and may soon resume the selection of coaches.
After the exit, the national football players returned home, and Jankovic went back to his hometown for vacation
During the match between the Syrian team and the Indian team, when it was learned that the national football team had been eliminated, Jankovic convened all the players of the national football team for a summary meeting. This half-hour meeting may be Jankovic's last meeting in the national football team.
The outside world itself has many doubts about Jankovic's ability, this time he led the team to the Asian Cup, 2 draws and 1 loss failed to qualify for the group, and Jankovic also became the fourth coach who failed to lead the national football team to qualify from the group stage of the Asian Cup after Su Yongshun, Zhu Guanghu and Camacho. Moreover, the national football team also set a "shameful" record of 0 goals in the Asian Cup finals this time.
In the post-match press conference of the 1-0 defeat to Qatar, Jankovic confronted the question of dismissal. "There are two kinds of football coaches, those who have already left the class and those who are waiting to be released," he said. "It's clear that Jankovic is mentally prepared for his future.
Although he personally hopes to stay in the team and continue to coach, according to the "Sports Weekly", the contract signed by the Chinese Football Association and Jankovic has corresponding performance requirements at each stage, and once it is not completed, the Chinese Football Association has the right to terminate the contract at any time and does not need to pay compensation to Jankovic. In this Asian Cup, the Chinese Football Association demanded in the contract with Jankovic that "it must qualify from the group and make every effort to enter the quarterfinals".
Obviously, Jankovic has not even completed the minimum bottom-line task, and the Chinese Football Association can naturally start the termination process.
"Sports Weekly" said that Song Kai, the new chairman of the Chinese Football Association, who watched the Asian Cup on the spot, will arrive in Beijing this afternoon, and it is very likely that the relevant procedures will be launched to conduct internal research on whether to change the coach, and there will be a clear statement soon.
And Jankovic and his assistants don't know what the next situation will be. In an interview with the front-line Chinese media at Doha Airport, the assistant coach of the national football team, Perovich, said that he did not know the next work plan, and everything still had to wait for the negotiations between Jankovic and the Chinese Football Association.
Jankovic said goodbye to the international players before the national football team left
Why did you choose Jankovic in the first place? Cheap, PPT does a good job
Since Jankovic became the coach of the national football team, he has been accompanied by controversy and doubts.
In terms of resume, before coaching the national football team, Jankovic only led the Serbian U21 national team, and during his tenure at the club, he only had the experience of coaching clubs such as Red Star Belgrade and Standard Liege.
He has no experience in coaching the senior national team, nor has he coached in the first-tier clubs of the five major leagues, and he has no experience in coaching in Asia. Among the previous foreign coaches of the national football team, Jankovic's qualifications can be regarded as one of the worst, and it is no wonder that after the official announcement of his appointment, the media and fans questioned it.
Some people believe that the reason why the Chinese Football Association chose Jankovic is because he has served as the head coach of all levels of China's national brand since 2018 and has a certain understanding of Chinese football.
But more people believe that Jankovic is "cheap". When he coached the echelons of China's national brands at all levels, his annual salary was hundreds of thousands of dollars, and his annual salary should not exceed $1 million after becoming the coach of the national football team, which is a "cost-effective" coach. Moreover, Jankovic, a coach who is not a big name, is also easy for the Chinese Football Association to control, so that there will be no "major accidents" such as Lippi's "willful" resignation at the press conference and Li Tie's unbridled mouth at the press conference, which will make the Football Association fall into a passive situation.
Football commentator Dong Lu once revealed in a live broadcast that Jankovic did the most serious PPT when selecting the coach of the Football Association's leadership team, and talked a lot about his football philosophy. In terms of preparation and eloquence, he did outperform several homegrown coaches who were running at the same time and finally came out on top.
And Jankovic's eloquence has been seen by many media reporters. In September last year, the national football team was forced to draw by the Malaysian team and lost to the Syrian team in the warm-up match in Chengdu, and the post-match press conference of the two games was attended by Red Star News reporters. At that time, Jankovic faced the doubts of the media and talked a lot, but there was basically no valuable content, and the reporters present were in a fog and did not know what to say. At that time, a senior reporter from the national football team said: "The coach's level is not very good, but he is very good at mentality!"
On September 12, 2023, Chengdu, Sichuan, 2023 football friendly match, China men's football team 0-1 Syria, the picture shows Jankovic speaking to the players According to Visual China
If Jankovic does get out of class, who will be in charge?
After taking charge of the national football team, Jankovic led the team to play 15 games, with a record of only 4 wins, 4 draws and 7 losses, winning the warm-up matches against Myanmar, Palestine, Vietnam and Thailand 2-1 in the world preliminaries. Jankovic averaged just 1.09 points per game in 15 games, which clearly fell short of the qualifying criteria. In particular, the warm-up match drew with Malaysia, lost to Hong Kong, China, and was forced to draw by Tajikistan and Lebanon in the Asian Cup, all of which refreshed the lower limit of the national football team.
There are also voices from the outside world that the poor performance of coaching the national football team is not the responsibility of Jankovic alone. After all, during his coaching period, Chinese football was in an "anti-corruption" environment, and the middle and high-level personnel involved in the Chinese Football Association were already able to form a complete starting lineup, and a lot of work was carried out with problems.
Moreover, at the post-match press conference of the 0-0 draw with Lebanon in the Asian Cup, Jankovic's interpreter actually chose to "abandon the translation" because Jankovic spoke for three or four minutes in one breath. The translator said on the spot: "This paragraph is too long, so I skipped it, and I think everyone can understand it." This had to make Jankovic apologize: "I caused trouble for the translator, my fault!" Some fans believe that with the working attitude of the translator, it is difficult to say whether there has been a "cutting corners" selective translation during the coach's training and tactical arrangement, which has adversely affected the team's game.
The poor record in this Asian Cup, and some media and fans believe that Jankovic practiced too hard, resulting in the team looking tired and unable to perform at its best during the official game.
When Jankovic led the Asian Games team to winter training before, some players reported that he practiced seven days a week, from Monday to Saturday two times a day, and only Sunday could rest for an afternoon after training in the morning. At that time, a player from the Asian Games team said. Before the Asian Cup, Jankovic led the team to continue to train at high intensity in the United Arab Emirates, and only gave the players a holiday before going to Doha, which caused many players aged 30+ to be a little unbearable. Not only did they lose to Oman and Hong Kong, China in the warm-up matches in the United Arab Emirates, but it was also difficult to maintain a good physical condition in the Asian Cup.
Jankovic led the national football team to the "worst record" in the Asian Cup, according to Visual China
Regardless of whether Jankovic himself feels "wronged" or not, it is an indisputable fact that he has the worst record in history in this Asian Cup. The Chinese Football Association led the team to Doha to watch the Asian Cup by the new chairman Song Kai this time, which I believe also made his face gloomy, and it is not surprising that Jankovic became a "man behind the pot". But now the question is, if Jankovic is out of class, who will be suitable to coach the national football team?
"Sports Weekly" believes that due to objective factors, it is now difficult for the Chinese Football Association to choose a local coach to coach the national football team. Considering that there is a task of the World Preliminary Tournament in March, the new coach is likely to be a foreign coach who is familiar with the Chinese Super League, and put forward Cui Kangxi of Shandong Taishan, Qiao Di of the Zhejiang team, and Xu Zhengyuan of Chengdu Rongcheng who can "convince the public".
Pei Li, a reporter for the national football team of Sohu Sports, also broke the news that the top management of the Chinese Football Association has basically decided to change the coach as soon as possible, and Jodi and Xu Zhengyuan may become the most popular candidates. However, the foreign coaches of the above Chinese Super League clubs are leading their respective teams to prepare for the new season of the Chinese Super League, and their clubs may not be willing to release them, which will affect the overall plan for the new season.
Some media have called for the Chinese Football Association to hire Jose Mourinho, who has just left Rome, to coach the national football team, but this is obviously unrealistic. It is difficult for the Chinese Football Association to meet Mourinho's requirements in terms of annual salary, not to mention, as some fans said: "Don't go to trouble Mourinho!"
Red Star News reporter Jiang Shan
Edited by Cheng Li