Shanghai Shenhua say they plan to name a new head coach, just weeks after the big-spending Chinese soccer club appointed mercurial French striker Nicolas Anelka as player-coach.
There was no immediate comment from Shenhua about British reports that Anelka’s former teammate Didier Drogba, fresh from his Champion’s League triumph with Chelsea, is set to join them.
Former Argentina manager Sergio Daniel Batista has been tipped for the coach’s job and Shenhua’s star player Anelka is said to be threatening to quit the club in response, according to reports.
“The club has actively sought a head coach candidate, and is looking for him to take up the post and assume command soon,” the Chinese club said in a statement posted on its microblog late on Monday.
The coming of a new head coach has sparked a public outburst by the striker, who told local media that he was considering leaving.
Anelka is serving dual roles for Shenhua, although the club also named former Democratic Republic of the Congo national manager Jean-Florent Ikwange Ibenge as acting head coach after sacking Frenchman Jean Tigana last month.
The Shenhua statement added the club “hopes he [Anelka] will help the new coaching group to quickly become acquainted with the state of the team without delay.”
The Shanghai Daily said Shenhua were close to signing Batista, who led Argentina to the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Speaking in an interview with the Xinmin Evening News published on Monday, Anelka criticized a lack of support from the club and said he would find it difficult to accept someone taking over his coaching duties.
“If there is still no one to support me and [they] continue to play little tricks behind my back ... then I will quickly decide whether or not to retire,” he said, in comments published by the newspaper in Chinese.
Anelka, the most high-profile foreign player to sign for a Chinese team, joined Shenhua in January on a two-year contract for a reported salary of 234,000 euros (US$307,000) a week.
Shenhua could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Drogba has been widely rumored to be quitting Chelsea for Shenhua to join Anelka, his former teammate at the London club.
Drogba has told his Chelsea colleagues that he is leaving the new Champions League winners, France Football said on Monday, despite his key role in Saturday’s triumph over Bayern Munich.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
RSS