The Chinese Football Federation announced on Monday that Dutch football coach Guus Hiddink will lead the Chinese youth (under 21) team, which hopes to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The 71-year-old G. Hiddink has led the Netherlands and South Korea teams to the World Cup semi-finals in 1998 and 2002, respectively. He has coached Madrid's "Real" and London's "Chelsea" clubs, as well as the national teams of Russia, Turkey, and Australia.
These new responsibilities come at a time when more and more money is being allocated to football players and coaches in China. The country's men's national team is coached by Italian Marcello Lippi, while the Dutch coach has been invited to work with the younger team.
China's national team has never qualified for the Olympics through sports – the only time they played was in 2008 as the tournament host in Beijing.
Recently, the media had linked G. Hiddink to potential coaching positions for the Colombian or Dutch national teams, but he chose China.
"Much work awaits," said the Dutch coach. "To be honest, there were only four or five Chinese football players that I thought, 'Yes, they can be useful.' The others are not advanced physically, tactically, or technically."
lrytas.lt
