Former Guangzhou Evergrande head coach Fabio Cannavaro is close to being named as the new manager of China League One club Tianjin Quanjian, recent reports said.
The 42-year-old former Italy international, who also played as center back for top-notch clubs Napoli, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, and Juventus during his illustrious 18-year senior career, is set to replace "under-fire Brazilian Vanderlei Luxemburgo", according to Xinhuanet.
Luxemburgo, who holds the record of five Brazilian Serie A titles and considered as one of the longest tenured football managers in the world as he had been doing it since 1983, was hired by Tianjin Quanjian in September of last year as the team aims to dominate the country's second division domestic competitions and get promoted to the Chinese Super League next season.
However, after 12 rounds of competitions, Quanjian had settled to the eighth spot of the 16-team Chinese Jia League table as the team could only manage four wins in their last 12 matches, something that is not enough for Tianjin's senior team officials.
The report also mentioned that the club will decide whether they will keep Luxemburgo or not later this week and that local media speculated Cannavaro will take over as chief bench tactician in Tianjin afterward.
The 5-foot-10 Naples, Italy native was one of the most-recognized footballers during his time as he received the Ballon d'Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year awards in 2006 when he led the Italian national team to the World Cup that year, as per World Soccer Talk.
He had his coaching debut with UAE club Al-Ahli Dubai FC, also his former club as a player, as an assistant during the 2013-2014 season. He helped Knights head coach Cosmin Olăroiu capture the UAE Pro League and UAE League Cup titles during his short stint with the squad.
In the summer of 2014, Cannavaro was rumored to be joining another one of his former clubs, Real Madrid, also as an assistant coach to then Los Blancos manager Carlo Ancelotti, but the spot was eventually given to Fernando Hierro.
He then accepted Guangzhou Evergrande's offer to be its chief bench tactician in November of 2014, taking over from his former Italy coach Marcelo Lippi. He managed to lead the Southern China Tigers to the 2014 CSL crown, but he was replaced by World Cup-winning manager Luiz Felipe Scolari in June of the next year before having the opportunity to win back-to-back China top flight titles.