Former Lyon and Marseille manager Alain Perrin has been appointed new head coach of China's under performing national football team, the Chinese Football Association announced Wednesday. Former Italian and Guangzhou Evergrande coach Marcello Lippi was previously rumoured to be being considered for the role.
The CFA started looking for a new coach last June after firing Spanish coach Antonio Camacho following a humiliating 5-1 loss to Thailand. Camacho reportedly signed a deal for 49 million yuan ($8 million) a year in 2011, which made him one of the top 10 best-paid managers in the world. Other sources say he "only" made 23.5 million yuan ($3.84 million) a year.
The CFA did not release any details about Perrin’s contract, but according to Chinese media his annual salary will be less than 6 million yuan ($1 million).
Perrin managed the French League 1 clubs Olympique de Marseille from 2002 to 2004 and Olympique Lyonnais from 2007 to 2008. He began his Asian coaching career in 2010, heading three west Asian clubs and the Qatar Olympic squad until 2013.
Perrin will join the Chinese national team in Guangdong on Thursday and will fly with the team to Dubai in order to watch their decisive final preliminary match against Iraq for the 2015 Asia cup. The match will still be overseen by acting coach Fu Bo. An online poll on sina.com revealed that 77 percent of 2,523 respondents felt it was "improper" to announce Perrin's appointment before such a crucial match.
In contrast with growing success in many other sports, China’s national soccer team has been performing very poorly and is currently ranked 88th in the world by FIFA. This has become a reliable source of distress for the millions of Chinese football fans.
China has only qualified for the World Cup finals once in 2002, but the team was eliminated at the group stage without scoring a single goal. The CFA has attempted to raise more interest in the domestic soccer league by hiring David Beckham as its ambassador. Officials hope he can help repair the shattered image of the league, which has been plagues by match-fixing scandals.
Perrin’s will take control of the team as they prepare to compete in the 2015 Asian cup, to be held in Australia.
[Image via Wikipedia]
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