Former Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has joined Chinese Super League new comer Hebei China Fortune as the new coach, replacing former local manager Li Tie, the club announced through its official Weibo account this morning.
"We reached an agreement after friendly talks with Li Tie, who will no longer be the club's head coach," said the statement. Li became Hebei's manager last August when it was still in League One, the lower division, and helped the team to advance to their inaugural CSL season.
"At the beginning of this season, Hebei performed well under the coaching of Li. However, Li criticized China's national team official in a press conference after the 15th round CSL match, which caused a big impact. After that, Hebei encountered a win-less streak. With injuries adding to the woes, the team has dropped position in the standing," said the statement.
Hebei is currently placing fifth in the 16-team CSL on 35 points -- 15 points off leader Guangzhou Evergrande. The team owns star players like former national caption Du Wei and Ivory Coast striker Gervinho.
Li, a former national player, criticized national team official Guo Bingyan for "not respecting local coaches" during a CSL post-match press conference on July 3 after a 0-2 home loss to Shanghai SIPG.
It had been scheduled that four of Hebei's national players flew to Yunnan Province on July 4 for national team training, and be back on July 7. Since Hebei has a CSL match scheduled on July 10, Li called Guo and asked him to put the four players on an earlier return flight on July 7 instead of a 7:45pm flight, as the late flight would make the players reach home no earlier than 4am the next day.
Hebei has been holding big ambition after real estate developer China Fortune Land Development took the club over early last year. 62-year-old Pellegrini has a rich coaching experience, having managed teams including Villarreal, Real Madrid, Molaga. He was appointed manager of Manchester City in 2013 and won the Premier League and League Cup titles in his debut season. He left City in June following expiry of contract with Pep Guardiola taking over the position.
