It has been officially announced by the Chinese Football Association (CFA) that World Cup-winning coach Marcello Lippi has signed a deal with the CFA to become the coach to the Chinese national team. His contract will run to January 2019. The CFA will hold an official press conference on 28th October to announce Lippi’s appointment. 

Lippi now becomes the most high-profile coach to take charge of the Chinese national football team. The man himself posted a tweet last night saying: “I’m proud to announce that I‘ll coach the Chinese football team and this will be my new challenge.”

According to reports, the annual salary for Lippi and his coaching team will be as high as €20 million. The offer made to the Italian includes income from Guangzhou Evergrande's football academy which will pay "Lippi and his team" 15.5 million euros annually to act as official "advisors" to the establishment for more than 2 years. The remaining € 4.5 million will be provided by the CFA.

The CFA announced the appointment following the resignation of Gao Hongbo. Gao’s departure was seen as inevitable after the Chinese team fell to a shock 2-0 defeat in Uzbekistan on 11th October. 

The appointment of Lippi is strongly linked to the recommendation from Xu Jiayin, the boss of Guangzhou Evergrande. According to sources, not only the CFA, but the highest levels of government were involved in inviting Lippi to coach the national side, a move that had "a direct bearing on his decision".

Proofread by Sean O Diobhilin