Leonid Slutsky can train again! He has been without this job for more than a year, but he is not bored at all. And now there is information that the specialist will lead the Chinese club.
How Slutsky dumped Rubin:
“It’s a matter of honor for me.” Slutsky left Rubin under strange circumstances
Who else will go with a coach to the Asian league?
According to journalist Ivan Karpov, the Russian coach has signed a contract with Shanghai Shenhua. Oleg Yarovinsky and Vasily Berezutsky will go with him to the Chinese Championship. The first worked with Slutsky at CSKA, Hull City, Vitesse and Rubin, the second at Vitesse. After that, Vasily was part of Viktor Goncharenko’s coaching staff at CSKA and Krasnodar, and then assisted his brother Alexei at CSKA.
Karpov says Slutsky and the company will fly to Shanghai before the end of December and sign a contract. The Chinese Championship is currently out of season. The tournament ended in November this year and the new draw will begin in the spring of 2024. Thus, if a Russian coach arrives in Asia, he will be fully prepared for the season.
What did Slutsky do in the last year?
Leonid left Rubin at the end of 2022. He worked in Kazan for three years. Under his leadership, the team was relegated from the RPL. Despite this, the coach remained at the club. “For me this is a matter of honor,” said Slutsky and continued coaching Rubin in the First League. It is true that it only lasted half a season. At the same time, the specialist left Kazan when the team was in fifth position and only four points behind the leader.
Leonid Slutsky in Rubin
Photo: Alexander Safonov, “Championship”
From that moment on, the coach became a true YouTube star. He created the spectacle of him on the platform together with Lokomotiv striker Artem Dzyuba. The project received mixed reviews, including due to the abundance of profanity. Slutsky also leads the “Comment.Trainer” project. There he communicates not only with football specialists, but also with other heroes from the world of sports.
Leonid recorded an interview with Valery Karpin, Oleg Romantsev, Yuri Semin, Vladimir Fedotov and Igor Osinkin. In addition, he spoke with CSKA hockey coach Sergei Fedorov, as well as star specialists from the world of figure skating: Tatyana Tarasova and Eteri Tutberidze.
Slutsky also went to the market, where he chose clothes for himself. He did it in the company of Dzyuba and Bogdan Lisevsky (leader of the “Buns” project. – “Championship” note). In the end, they decided on a youthful look and then burned the coach’s old stuff. In general, Slutsky was active to the maximum, despite the fact that he was not in great demand as a coach.
How Slutsky and Dzyuba chose clothes on the market:
Dziuba and Slutsky are destroying YouTube again. Now they went to the clothing market!
Shanghai missed the top 3 of the Chinese championship, but took the cup
Shanghai Shenhua took only fifth place in the Chinese Championship at the end of last season. At the same time, in the second round the team came second, but then performed slightly worse than its competitors. As a result, Shanghai was only three points out of the top 3. Still, it is still better than a year ago. Then the club only took eighth place in the table. By the way, the Chinese championship starts in spring and ends at the end of the year (November).
On the other hand, Shanghai won the Cup of China. In the final, which was played on November 25, they defeated Shandong Taishan (1-0), which included Marouane Fellaini (no longer his usual voluminous hair). Thus, Shanghai won the Cup of China for the sixth time in history.
“Shanghai Shenhua” – winner of the China Cup
Photo: CFIDC/VCG via Getty Images
The club won the Chinese Championship three times (1961, 1962, 1995). There was another championship title, which was won in 2003. But later “Shanghai” was deprived of the final victory: the club was convicted of organizing match-fixing. In addition, one of the directors paid bribes to the head of the judicial committee. As a result, the Club was stripped of its title, fined $160,000 and deducted six points in the new draw. It is curious that the sentence was not imposed until 2013.
The best player in the African Cup and legend of Chinese football plays for Shanghai
Shenhua’s most expensive footballers walk around with foreign passports. Striker Cephas Malele (transfer value: €1.5 million) scored 11 goals in the Super League last season and added four assists. This is the team’s best result both in goals and in the goal+pass system. At the same time, the Swiss and Angolan passport holder also received six yellow cards. Malele’s career includes clubs in the Italian lower divisions. In addition, he participated in the championships of Portugal, Romania and Saudi Arabia. Overall, I compiled a larger list at 29 years old.
Cephas Malele is Shanghai Shenhua’s top scorer in the 2023 season
Photo: CFIDC/VCG via Getty Images
Striker Christian Bassogog (28 years old) also costs 1.5 million euros (data – Transfermarkt). This African has been playing in the Chinese championship since 2017. He first played for Henan and in 2021 he moved to Shanghai. However, his current contract expires on December 31, 2023. The big question is whether he will remain at the club. In 2017, Bassogog became the winner of the African Cup with the Cameroon national team and the best footballer of the tournament. Four years later he won a bronze medal.
Of the Chinese players (the vast majority of them on the team), winger Yu Hanchao, 36, stands out. Last season, the veteran scored six goals in the championship (the second best on the team) and three in the China Cup. He also has a rich collection of trophies. The man won five national championships, two cups and once the Asian Champions League with Guangzhou in 2015.
Yu Hanchao is a legendary footballer not only from Shanghai, but from all of Chinese football.
Photo: CFIDC/VCG via Getty Images
And “Shanghai Shenhua” was trained by Valery Nepomniachtchi! The Soviet and Russian specialist worked at the club in the mid-2000s: in 2004-2005. The coach spent 401 days at the club.
Valery Nepomnyashchiy
former Shanghai Shenhua coach
Shanghai Shenhua is for me one of the exemplary clubs in China. The infrastructure there was top-notch, but the team had growing pains, so they established friendly ties with Chelsea. But this cooperation did not work and only one player was brought to Rangers from Scotland. The level is probably higher today than before the Beijing Olympics. In general, this is very interesting, Slutsky will have to get used to a lot of things, not everything will be clear right away.”
Nepomniachtchi already gave Slutsky some advice:
Nepomniachtchi: Shanghai Shenhua is an exemplary club and Slutsky will have to get used to many things
THE NAIS IS OFFICIAL EDITOR ON NAIS NEWS