“The start of a coaching career in China can be resonant” – Kommersant FM

Leonid Slutsky became the head coach of the Shanghai Shenhua club. The Russian coach has not worked in professional football since November 2022, after he was fired from his post as head coach of Rubin Kazan. This year, the RFU suspended Slutsky for a year for insulting a journalist. What awaits the scandalous mentor in China? Kommersant FM sports commentator Vladimir Osipov looked into it.

Recently, Leonid Slutsky has been more of a successful blogger, host of a famous show on the RuNet, than a coach. Many were already quick to put an end to him and did not believe that the mentor could lead any serious club. But the proposal from the Chinese partners changed the situation, at least informationally. All the media are talking about the Russian as the head coach of the Shanghai Shenhua club.

Moreover, if he shows a decent result, China could become a new place of work for many mentors from the Russian Federation, believes football manager Yuri Belous, who discovered Slutsky for football, making him the head coach of the Moscow club in 2005:

“This is a very good story. We must wish Leonid Viktorovich good luck, because if his work is positive, I think the Chinese will continue to turn to Russian coaches with great pleasure in the future.

We have enough young guys. They won’t be taken to Europe, but China is just right, especially since it is a friendly country for us.”

But the level of football in China, to put it mildly, is not very high. For example, the value of the players in Leonid Slutsky’s new club, according to the popular portal Transfermarkt, is €10 million. This is €1 million less than that of the poorest RPL club, Fakel Voronezh. At the same time, Shanghai Shenhua is not at all the middle peasant of Chinese football: fifth place last season and victory in the national cup speak volumes.

True, the PRC is not ready to pay some crazy money by football standards to athletes and coaches in the PRC. But Slutsky will most likely receive a salary that is confident even for RPL coaches, agent Dmitry Selyuk, who worked with the Chinese championship, is sure: “Maybe somewhere around half a million or a million or even a little more. I think in this case the mentor is not interested in the amount of the contract. Slutsky wants to return to football.”

But money is money, but what about the excessive emotionality of Leonid Slutsky? This is not an idle question. He himself said more than once that he could not cope with it. And how Chinese football players will understand the speeches of the new coach in the locker room, especially if he is upset, is unclear. For example, one of Slutsky’s not-so-tough matches, which Yuri Zhirkov once posted online while still a player, is impressive.

So far, all of Slutsky’s attempts to make a career abroad have failed. Things didn’t work out for Leonid Viktorovich either with the English Hull City or the Dutch Vitesse. Maybe the Chinese attempt will be more successful.

At least, already in the first month of 2024, the mentor can again get into the top news, and not only in Russia. The fact is that Shanghai Shenhua can play a friendly match with the Al-Nasr club from Saudi Arabia, where Cristiano Ronaldo plays. So the beginning of Slutsky’s career in China could be resonant.

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