China women's national football team appoints new head coach

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Jia Xiuquan has been named as the new head coach of China women's national football team, replacing Icelander Sigurdur Ragnar Eyjolfsson, according to the Chinese Football Association (CFA) announcement on Wednesday.

Screenshot from Twitter

This is the second time that the women's team has changed their head coach in the past six months. French coach Bruno Bini was replaced by Eyjolfsson last November.

The new coach will have two matches against the United States next month. Jia will also start preparing for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

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As former China men's under-19 football team head coach, Jia Xiuquan is one of most traveled Chinese football coaches and has spent most of his career focusing on men's football.

As the "Coach of the Year" in the Chinese Super League in 2015 and 2016, he had trained China's U20/U23 men's national teams and clubs like Shanghai Shenhua and Henan Jianye in the Chinese Super League before.

In the announcement, the CFA spoke highly of 44-year-old Sigurdur Eyjolfsson's work, who as the fourth foreign coach in China's women's soccer history helped the team qualify for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.

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Nicknamed as "Steel Roses," the Chinese women's national soccer team is loved by millions of fans in China since the iconic 1999 World Cup final match, where China lost to the US by a single penalty kick, but their strength, endurance, and undying determination have moved the whole nation.

(With inputs from Xinhua)