1BSPORTS 1B Sports June 11th According to Xiao Zan, a reporter from Beijing Youth Sports, it is not ruled out that Ivan continues to lead the team to participate in the East Asian Cup. In accordance with the signing practices with national coaching teams at all levels in recent years, the Chinese Football Association signed a long contract of about three years with Ivankovic’s team.
On the evening of June 10, the Chinese national football team scored a penalty with Wang Yudong’s “buzzer-beating” penalty at Chongqing, defeating Bahrain 1-0, thus ending the 2026 World Cup qualifiers with a victory. Due to the failure to lead the team to the next World Cup qualifiers, head coach Ivankovic’s stay and leave issue is particularly eye-catching. According to a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily, after the end of this game, the Chinese Football Association has not yet communicated with Ivan’s coaching team about related matters. Ivan plans to return to Croatia for vacation this weekend.
In fact, judging from the statements at the press conference after the China-Brazil and Brazil, Ivankovic has begun to prepare for the East Asian Cup leadership. Since it is less than a month since the start of the East Asian Cup on July 7, the hasty change of coaches may have an adverse impact on the transformation of the national football team, so it is not ruled out that Ivan will continue to lead the team to compete in the East Asian Cup. As for whether to change coaches in the end, the Chinese Football Association and relevant parties still need to make careful decisions.
Including the battle between China and Pakistan, the national football team participated in a total of 14 games after Ivankovic took over, with a record of 4 wins, 2 draws and 8 losses. Under his rule, the national football team has gradually completed the blood renewal of players. A group of young players represented by Xie Wenneng, Jiang Shenglong, Wang Yudong, Liu Chengyu and Hu Hetao have entered the forefront of the national football team and even entered the team’s main lineup. They will undoubtedly take on the heavy responsibility of as the backbone of the team’s efforts to attack various future competitions for the team.
After the last round of away match against Indonesia, 18-year-old Wang Yudong still shone brightly in the home game against Bahrain, and withstood the huge pressure at the last moment of the game and scored the winning penalty. His rapid growth is due to his experience in the U17 Asian Cup, U20 Asian Cup and the Chinese Super League in the past two years, and also to the keen eyes and strong promotion of head coaches at all levels, including Ivankovic. From this perspective, Ivan’s coaching in the national football team is not useless.
Beijing Youth reporter learned that In accordance with the custom of signing contracts with national coaching teams at all levels in recent years, the Chinese Football Association has signed a long contract of about three years with Ivankovic’s team (until the end of the 2027 Asian Cup). The contract sets relatively specific task goals for the leadership of the Ivan team in each stage of the competition. If the team leads the team from the top 36 to the top 18, the two sides should automatically continue the next stage (top 18) cooperation according to the contract. The Chinese team failed to win the top 4 in the group of the top 18 matches, which means that the Ivan team failed to achieve the goals of this stage, so the Chinese Football Association has the right to terminate its cooperation with the Ivan team. Of course, from another perspective, the Chinese Football Association also has the right to continue the execution of the contract.