(Reuters) – 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, just under two years after she had led the Steel Roses to a ninth Women’s Asian Cup title.
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.
Milicic is the first foreign coach of China since Iceland’s Sigudour Eyjolfsson departed in 2018 and his main focus will be on preparing the squad for their Women’s Asian Cup title defence in Australia in 2026.
The Steel Roses reached the final of both the Women’s World Cup and Olympic tournament in their heyday in the 1990s but are currently 19th in the FIFA rankings.
China will help the Matildas prepare for their Olympic campaign with friendlies against the Australian women’s team in Adelaide later this month and Sydney in early June.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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