You better be Fab

Cannavaro named China head coach for China Cup

HONG KONG: World Cup winner Fabio Cannavaro (pic) has been named head coach of the China national team for next week’s China Cup tournament, the country’s football association announced.

The Italian, who is currently the coach of Chinese Super League (CSL) side Guangzhou Evergrande, will take charge of the squad for the four-nation competition, which kicks off on March 21 with China facing Thailand in the semi-finals.

Uruguay and Uzbekistan are also participating in the event, which will be held in Nanning, with the final to be played on March 25.

Cannavaro will be advised by Marcello Lippi, who stood down from the head coach’s role following China’s exit from January’s Asian Cup at the quarter-final stage.

The Chinese Football Association did not say whether Cannavaro’s appointment was permanent or only for the duration of the China Cup.

A 23-man squad have been selected for the tournament but striker Wu Lei, who finished last season as the top scorer in the CSL before joining Espanyol in late January, has been left out.

Meanwhile, China has formally submitted a bid to host the 2023 Asian Cup, state media said, another sign of the country’s determination to eventually stage a football World Cup.

China has hosted the Asian Cup once before, in 2004, but its latest attempt is significant because of President Xi Jinping’s stated desire for the country to hold a World Cup.

The World Cup tournaments for 2030 or 2034 have regularly been mooted as the most likely that China will go for.

Staging the 2023 Asian Cup would help prepare China for a World Cup, but it faces stiff competition from South Korea.

Having the Asian Cup again on Chinese soil will “promote the popularisation and development of football” in the country, Xinhua news agency said.

China reached the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup in the UAE at the start of this year, before going down 3-0 to Iran.—