BEIJING: Croatian Branko Ivankovic has been appointed head coach of the Chinese men’s national football team, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) announced on Saturday (Feb 24).
The 69-year-old Ivankovic had been coach of Oman’s national team since 2020.
He replaces Serbian Aleksandar Jankovic, who was tapped to lead the Chinese squad in February last year but had a disappointing run at the Asian Cup.
China was eliminated after two draws and a defeat by eventual champions Qatar, who retained their crown earlier this month.
“Due to the Chinese team’s failure to enter the knockout stage in Asian Cup, the contract between CFA (Chinese Football Association) and Jankovic terminated automatically,” the organisation said in a statement.
“The CFA is thankful for the hard work of coach Jankovic and his coaching team, and wish them all the best.”
Ivankovic was appointed “after the assessment of experts” and has previous experience in the country, winning the Chinese Super League title in 2010 during an 18-month spell with Shandong Luneng.
He also coached Iran at the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany and has won league titles in his native Croatia as well as in Iran with Persepolis.
He took Oman to the third round of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup but left his role in the Gulf state after also exiting the Asian Cup in the group phase in January.
Ivankovic will lead the team into back-to-back World Cup qualifiers with Singapore on Mar 21 and 26.
The Chinese government has great ambitions for the national team, but it currently languishes in 88th place in football governing body FIFA’s rankings – the same position it occupied a decade ago.
China have only qualified for the World Cup once, making their debut appearance at the finals in 2002.
They are currently third in Group C of the second round of Asia’s preliminaries for the 2026 finals after two matches, trailing leaders South Korea by three points.
Ivankovic’s appointment comes at a troubled time for Chinese football.
In a documentary aired on state broadcaster CCTV in January, former national men’s football coach Li Tie admitted fixing matches for lower-tier clubs as he worked his way to the upper echelons of the sport.
And Chen Xuyuan, a former CFA head, pleaded guilty to taking millions in bribes in a corruption trial last month.
The football prosecutions are part of a major anti-corruption drive initiated a decade ago by President Xi Jinping.
