China women’s team hire ex-assistant to Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou as manager ahead of 2026 Asian Cup and 2027 World Cup
- Ante Milicic worked with Postecoglou during stint as Australia men’s manager
- He replaces Shui Qingxia, who left after China’s failure to qualify for the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris
China have charged Ante Milicic with turning around the fortunes of their women’s national team, naming the 50-year-old Australian as successor to Shui Qingxia over the weekend.
Milicic takes over a squad that slumped out of last year’s Women’s World Cup in the group stage with one win and two losses, and missed out on qualification for the Paris Olympics.
Shui was sacked because of the failure to qualify for the Olympics last November, less than two years after she had led the Steel Roses to a ninth Women’s Asian Cup title.
“In order to prepare for the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup and 2027 Fifa Women’s World Cup, the CFA decided, following the assessment of experts, to hire Ante Milicic as the new head coach of China’s women’s national team,” the Chinese Football Association said in a statement.
Previously head coach of the Matildas and most recently in charge of men’s A-League club Macarthur, Milicic also worked as an assistant to Ange Postecoglou when the now Tottenham Hotspur manager was coach of the Australian men’s national team.
He left Macarthur in 2022 when he spoke openly about the pressures of top-level management.
