On January 26, Beijing time, the Oman Football Association officially announced that the 69-year-old head coach of the Oman men's football team, Ivankovic, officially stepped down, and he also became the first coach to be fired in this Asian Cup.
In this Asian Cup, the Oman team is in the same group as Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Kyrgyzstan in Group F. In the end, Oman lost 1-2 to Saudi Arabia, drew 0-0 with Thailand and drew 1-1 with Kyrgyzstan. After the group stage, 2 draws, 1 loss, 2 points, ranked 3rd in the group, and Oman, which has the same record as the Chinese men's football team and is hard to find, also became the third place in the 6 groups with the national football team, and the two teams that were finally eliminated. After the Asian Cup was eliminated, the Oman Football Association directly terminated the contract with coach Ivankovic.
The 69-year-old Croatian coach Ivankovic has served as an assistant coach of Blazekovic in the Croatian national team, and he has coached Hannover 96, the Iranian national team, Dinamo Zagreb, Shandong Taishan, and Persepolis.
In 2010, Ivankovic led the Taishan team to win the championship with an excellent record of 18 wins, 9 draws and 3 losses, accumulating 63 points (13 points ahead of the runner-up Tianjin TEDA team), and set a record for the most wins, most goals, most goal difference and unbeaten home games that season. At the end of the season, Ivankovic was awarded the "Coach of the Year in the Chinese Super League". Unfortunately, in May 2011, Ivankovic chose to resign as coach of Taishan voluntarily due to health reasons.
It is worth noting that Ivankovic is also currently a potential new coach of the Chinese men's national football team. Like the Oman team, after the Asian Cup, the current coach of the Chinese men's football team, Jankovic, is likely not to remain in office, and Ivankovic, who is familiar with Chinese football and has succeeded in Taishan, is indeed a good choice.