Pellegrini takes charge of Hebei
Print Edition
FORMER Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has joined Chinese Super League newcomer Hebei China Fortune, replacing Li Tie. The club made the announcement through its official Weibo account at the weekend.
“Welcome Pellegrini”, the club — based in the northeastern port town of Qinhuangdao — posted on Weibo, together with a picture of the Chilean.
“We reached an agreement after friendly talks with Li Tie, who will no longer be the club’s head coach,” said the statement. Li was appointed last August when Hebei was still in the lower-tier League One, and led the team’s promotion to the CSL, its first season in the top flight.
“At the beginning of this season, Hebei performed well under Li’s guidance. However, Li criticized a China national team official during a press conference after a 15th-round CSL match, which had a big impact. After that, the team hit a winless streak. With injuries adding to the woes, Hebei has dropped position in the standings,” the statement added.
Hebei lies fifth in the 16-team CSL on 35 points — 15 points off leader and defending champion Guangzhou Evergrande. The team boasts star players like former national caption Du Wei, Ivory Coast striker Gervinho, formerly of Arsenal, and ex-Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Ezequiel Lavezzi of Argentina.
Li, a former China international, criticized national team official Guo Bingyan for “not respecting local coaches” during a post-match press conference on July 3 after a 0-2 home loss to Shanghai SIPG.
As per a pre-arranged schedule, four of Hebei’s national players were to fly to Yunnan Province on July 4 for Team China training, and return on July 7. Since Hebei had a CSL match on July 10, Li called Guo and asked him to put the four players on an earlier return flight on July 7, instead of the 7:45pm flight, which would have meant that the players would reach home no earlier than 4am the next day.
Li said Guo rudely turned down the request, saying: “Li Tie, you are a Chinese coach, therefore I will not waste too much time talking to you.” Li also questioned the national selection process. The matter ended after Hebei officials accompanied Li to Beijing and apologized to Guo.
Hebei harbors big ambitions since real estate developer China Fortune Land Development took over early last year.
Pellegrini, 62, has a rich coaching experience, having managed teams, including Villarreal, Real Madrid and Malaga in Spain. He joined City in 2013 and won the Premier League and League Cup titles in his debut season. He left City in June at the end of his contract with Pep Guardiola taking over.
Pellegrini joins other well-known managers in China, including Brazilian Luiz Felipe Scolari at Evergrande, Swede Sven-Goran Eriksson at SIPG and Germany’s Felix Magath at Shandong Luneng.
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