Chinese football club Hebei China Fortune has brought in Premier League experience for their campaign in the form of new coach Manuel Pellegrini.
Hebei China Fortune announced former Manchester City manager Pellegrini's entry into the club via a statement posted on its website. The club also said that it has already talked with former coach Li Tio and informed him of the decision, The Daily Mail reported.
Hebei said that it hopes the 62-year old Pellegrini, who steered City win the Premier League in 2014 and a semi-finals appearance in the Champions League in 2015, to get the team back on track in the Chinese Super League (CSL). The team's roster currently includes Chinese football star Du Wei, Ivory Coast striker Gervinho, and Argentinian Ezequiel Lavezzi.
Pellegrini follows former Brazilian team manager Luis Felipe Scolari and Sven-Goran Erikson as the latest high-profile managers to move to the CSL. Scolari currently heads Guangzhou Evergrande while Erikson handles Shanghai SPG.
The Chilean has earlier agreed to extend his contract with Manchester City to 2017. However, he announced in February that he will be leaving the team despite still having 12 months in the contract. Hew was replaced in the position by Pep Guardiola in June.
Li, a former player for the Chinese men's football team and the Premier League team Everton, was brought in as Hebei's new manager in August. He was instrumental in bringing the team up from the lowe3r division League One to their first season in the CSL.
However, controversy hounded Li after he criticized Chinese national team official Guo Bingyan for "not respecting" local coaches like him. Li has earlier requested Guo to send four of the team's players who were in training with the national team to Yunan early for the former's CSL match on July 10, but the request was not fulfilled, leading Li to publicly call out Guo, China Sports News reported.
The team also went through a long losing streak, which resulted in them falling to fifth place out of 16 teams in the CSL, with just 35 points. A string of player injuries has further put the team in a tight position.