On August 23, the Chinese men’s national football team, led by Ivanković, will reconvene in Dalian to prepare for the upcoming World Cup Qualifiers’ Round of 18 in September. According to the Eastern Sports Daily, adjustments have been made to the coaching and staff team for this national team, including the addition of new English translator, Chen Hao, forming a trio of translators.
Compared to the final four matches of the Round of 36, the player roster for the national team’s Round of 18 has not changed significantly, with only the addition of two newcomers, Wang Haijian and Wei Zhen, to the squad. Additionally, former local assistant coach, Zhao Jiayi, recently announced his appointment as the head coach of Qingdao West Coast and has now left the national team’s coaching staff.
In terms of the staff team composition, the national team has added English translator Chen Hao, bringing the total number of translators to three. These include the Croatian translator for head coach Ivan, the English translator for naturalized player Jiang Guangtai, and the Portuguese translator for Fernandinho.
In this setup, every statement made by Ivanković will first be translated from Croatian to Chinese, then from Chinese to English and Portuguese. Each word spoken by Ivan must go through three language conversions, which is a unique characteristic of this national team.