'World Cup dreams' – Marcello Lippi back as China's head coach

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Italian coach Marcello Lippi has been reappointed as head coach of Chinese national football team on Friday, spearheading China's attempts to achieve their World Cup dreams.

"The association has carefully made this decision based on comprehensive research. Since Lippi coached the national team, they have shown a positive and tenacious fighting spirit. We believe that in the days to come, under the leadership of Lippi and his coaching team, the Chinese national team will make a full impact on their World Cup dreams," announced the Chinese Football Association (CFA).

The World Cup-winning coach came back to Guangzhou last month and was ready to sign a new contract with the aim of leading the Chinese national team to qualify for Qatar 2022 World Cup.

Lippi's first spell with Chinese national team started in November 2016 while he failed to take China to Russia 2018. The former Guangzhou Evergrande manager, who once led the Chinese Super League (CSL) side to three-time champion, ended the link with the national team in January following his side's 3-0 defeat to Iran in the Asian Cup quarterfinals.

Since then, the CFA announced that the 45-year-old Guangzhou Evergrande manager Fabio Cannavaro to coach the national team on March. However, the team suffered two home defeats in China Cup, which led to constant criticism. Cannavaro quits the job at the end of April, which opens Lippi's return to China.

Lippi will organize training and lead the team to participate in competitions starting from June. The 71-year-old's first match in charge of the national side will be on June 7th, when the hosts play the Philippines in friendly. Tajikistan will also be included in China's warm-up tour four days later in Guangzhou.

Lippi still has four months to build up the squad as China will start the 2022 World Cup qualifier in September.