China head coach Aleksandar Jankovic will be in no hurry to rejuvenate his squad in the build-up to the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 finals next January as he looks to lead the country back to the upper reaches of the Asian game.
The Chinese have been drawn to face hosts Qatar as well as Tajikistan and Lebanon in Group A at the finals with several players who represented the country at the last AFC Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates in 2019 still integral to the national team squad.
But while key players such as goalkeeper Yan Junling, defender Zhang Linpeng, captain Wu Xi and striker Wu Lei are now reaching the veteran stage of their careers, Jankovic is convinced his squad retains the ability to compete with the continent’s best.
“When we talk about the team, this has nothing to do with age,” he says. “The players are motivated, they’re hard working and they’re really honoured to represent China at the AFC Asian Cup. It is a big honour.
“On the other hand, we have a new wave of players. We have the under-23 team that I have been coaching for four-and-a-half years. I know them very well, we have been building up a team that will attack the Asian Games in Hangzhou in China in September with the highest targets and requirements.”
“We are all behind these teams, we support them and, once this competition is finished in October, if these young players perform well that could be a ticket to the national team for them also. All the tickets for the national team are on the pitch, they just have to collect them.
“When we talk about a highly competitive team playing a high intensity football to match up with the other Asian teams, I don’t think about the age. I think about the capacity and the profile of the players and their mentality.”
The 51-year-old Serb was appointed head coach on a full-time basis in February and brings a wealth of experience and knowledge about Chinese football into the role. Jankovic started working at age group level in the country in 2018 and has served as the under 23 team coach since 2021 having previously worked with many of those players at under 19 and under 20 level. He took on the senior role in an interim capacity last year when he led a youthful selection to the Finals of the EAFF E-1 Championship in Japan, where his side finished third behind Japan and Korea Republic, before taking on the role on a full-time basis.
In March he led the team into a pair of friendly matches against New Zealand, drawing 0-0 in the first game in Auckland before losing 2-1 three days later in Wellington, and he believes the Chinese can build on what he saw as encouraging performances.
“We are trying to build the team to match up to the intensity of other Asian teams, that’s why we wanted to play strong, high intensity games away against New Zealand,” he said.
“For me it was very important, there was a lot of useful feedback in these two games. Firstly we played high intensity games against a physically strong team, secondly we played away and thirdly we played two high intensity games in three days and that was a big challenge for us. I got a lot of useful information.”
The games against New Zealand marked the re-emergence of China from a difficult period caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, but Jankovic is confident the sport in the country is on the path to recovery ahead of further friendly matches against Myanmar and Palestine in June.
“Of course we’ve had a lot of problems and difficulties during the last three years but the two games we played against New Zealand showed a lot of good things for me and of course some things that have to be corrected,” he said. “That’s our target and our job and that’s why we’re trying to play another two games in June, to make the step forward from the previous experiences in New Zealand.
“If you ask me to talk about the previous period of three years, I’ll say we just have to adapt, to find a solution because talking about a problem without focusing on the solution is just crying and you never solve one problem with crying. We are focused on the future.”