Ante Milicic appointed manager of Chinese women's football team

Ante Milicic of Australia has been named manager of the Chinese women's national football team, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) announced on Saturday.

The CFA decided not to extend the contract of manager Shui Qingxia after China failed to qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games last November. As a result, the team will not participate in any major international tournament in the following two years. Wang Jun, the manager of the Chinese under-20 women's national team, had temporarily filled the vacancy for a few months.

The CFA launched a recruitment campaign for the position in March, receiving over 40 applications before narrowing down to three finalists.

Milicic outperformed his compatriot Alen Stajcic and Nils Nielsen of Denmark in the final round. Stajcic is the incumbent manager of Perth Glory in the A-League Men of Australia and New Zealand. Nielson is the women's director of football of Manchester City.

Both Stajcic and Milicic managed the Australian women's national team. Stajcic led the team to win two Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's Asian Cup titles in 2014 and 2018. Australia also made the quarterfinals at both the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2015 and the Summer Olympic Games in 2016. In 2021, he helped the Philippines to qualify for the Women's World Cup for the first time in history.

Milicic took over Australia from Stajcic in 2019 and led the team to the Round of 16 in the World Cup that year. They qualified for the Olympic Games in 2021 as well. He also assisted Ange Postecoglou and Bert van Marwijk in the Australian men's national team in two editions of the World Cup in 2014 and 2018.

Invited by Football Australia, China will play two friendlies with Australia in Adelaide and Sydney on May 31 and June 3. These will be Milicic's first two games as the Chinese national team's manager.