Fabio Capello, the ex-England and Russia coach, signs with Jiangsu Suning on a 18-month contract worth a yearly salary of 10-million euros, the Chinese Super League (CSL) club announced on Sunday.
“Jiangsu Suning club has officially signs with Fabio Capello today. Capello will manage the club on all matches as the head coach from now on,” announced Jiangsu on Sunday.
“It’s a consideration on the strategic progress of the club in linking up with Capello, who will bring advanced ideas and methods on club management, coaches training and youth team training program along with steering Jiangsu to built-in agenda,” added the club.
Capello brings some familiar faces with him as part of the staff, namely Gianluca Zambrotta and ex-Milan caretaker manager Cristian Brocchi.
The former Real Madrid, AC Milan, Roma and Juventus boss visited the training ground of Jiangsu Suning on Sunday morning and inspected the team’s training.
Capello is the third reputable Italian coaching in China following suit of Marcello Lippi and Fabio Cannavaro.
Lippi is already the coach of China national team after successfully steering CSL club Guangzhou Evergrande to three successive domestic league champions and Asian champions once in three years.
Cannavarro is on the bench of Tianjin Quanjian, which had been promoted to the top flight this season, and guides the club to the current sixth place with 19 points, 12 adrift of league pace-setters Guangzhou Evergrande.
Jiangsu were on the lookout for a new boss after South Korea’s Choi Yong-Soo resigned from CSL last week.
The Italian boasts a stunning CV of Serie A, La Liga and Champions League success, although the 70-year-old had been out the dug-out since leaving his position in charge of Russia two years ago.
ALSO READ: Chinese Super League Witnesses A Surge In Coaching Staff Resignations
Jiangsu are currently struggling near the bottom of the CSL and were eliminated by Shanghai SIPG in the first knockout stage of the AFC Champions League.
Jiangsu only ranked 15th in the CSL table after 12 rounds, second from the bottom and struggling to break away from the relegation zone.
Under Choi’s guidance, Jiangsu finished in the second place thrice in 2016 CSL, CFA Cup and 2017 CFA Super Cup.
Nearly half way into the season, four CSL clubs have their head coaches changed since May, including Tianjin Teda’s Jaime Pacheco, Changchun Yatai’s Lee Jang-Soo, Guizhou Hengfeng Zhicheng’s Li Bin and Jiangsu’s Choi.
CSL has been among world leading soccer league in drawing top coaches with Felipe Scolari in Guangzhou Evergrande, Manuel Luis Pellegrini in Hebei China Fortune, Felix Magath in Shandong Luneng and Villas-Boas in Shanghai SIPG.