El Salvador coaches Chongqing Tongliang Dragons and will have more say in the recruitment

Reporter Lu Mi reports On the evening of the 26th, Chongqing Tonglianglong of the Chinese League officially announced that El Salvador will be the head coach of the first team, and the 45-year-old El Salvador has led the Guangzhou team to the third place in the Chinese League in the 2024 season. In the new season's Tonglianglong recruitment work, the club will give El Salvador more say and will respect his wishes and personnel recommendations more.

As one of the most concerned Chinese League A teams during the winter break, Tonglianglong has had great "changes" in the past period, including changes in shareholding structure and change of coaching team, and it is progressing smoothly.

The team's preparations for the new season have been postponed from December 3 to December 15 due to internal changes. On the 15th, when the team assembled, El Salvador showed up to lead the team and began to participate in the recruitment. On December 19, industrial and commercial information showed that the shareholding structure and main positions of Tongliang Dragon Club had changed; On the 26th, the club officially announced the appointment of El Salvador, which means that Tonglianglong has entered a new era.

The 45-year-old has been in charge of Guangzhou this season and has built Guangzhou into a competitive and dynamic team under very difficult circumstances, finishing third in the standings.

When learning that El Salvador might leave the Guangzhou team, the management of the Guangzhou club and the fans expressed deep reluctance.

For El Salvador's style and philosophy, Tonglianglong's management appreciated it, and contacted him early, and El Salvador was also moved by Tonglianglong's sincerity. This time in Chongqing, El Salvador brought four assistant coaches, namely Sergio Pou, Daniel Carmona, Manuel Bocardo and Chinese coach Niu Zhenning.

At the same time as the official announcement of the appointment of the new coaching staff, the original coaching staff members of the first team, Yu Yuanwei, Zhang Hao, Shen Tianfeng, Wang Kai, Robert, and Huang Weixin, all expired their contracts and will not be renewed. Wu Qing, who served as the head of the coaching staff late last season, will continue to work as a team leader and assistant coach in the new season.

El Salvador has officially led the team on the 15th, and has had more in-depth communication with the club's management on the idea of building the team and the personnel structure. In terms of foreign aid, among the original personnel, Vučić's contract expired, and given last season's mediocre performance, he will not stay in the team in the new season; As for Tabek and Andre, considering many aspects, there is a high probability that they will not stay in the team, but the two still have contracts with the club, which need to be decided after the transfer window opens.

In terms of domestic players, El Salvador led the Guangzhou team to compete in the Chinese League for a season and a half, and Tonglianglong has a deep impression of Tonglianglong's players, plus he has led the team to the first stage of training, so he has a list of who will go and who will stay in the original lineup.

In the 2024 season, Tonglianglong, as a promoted horse in the Central League, was positioned at the beginning of the season to fight for eight on the basis of relegation, so the technical and tactical style was more defensive, and the reinforcements were also carefully calculated. In the future, one of the important goals of the club is to bring Chongqing football back to the top league stage, that is, to surpass. Therefore, El Salvador's advocacy of offensive football will become the main style of the Tongliang Dragons next season. In this case, El Salvador will have more demands on new signings.

As we all know, the Guangzhou team in the 2024 season mainly relies on young players to play the world, while Tonglianglong is "old with new", and in the future, it will develop in the direction of youth. According to this newspaper, Tonglianglong will soon end the first phase of training, regroup after New Year's Day, and the team will go to Haikou to start the second phase of winter training. When the transfer window opens, the contract renewal and signings will be further advanced.

With the official announcement of the coaching staff, a series of questions about the future of the club that Chongqing fans are concerned about will also be answered one by one.

Since half a year ago, the new investor has had long-term contact with the Tongliang District Government on the equity of the club. In order to make the club more solid on the road of professionalism and marketization, the two sides entered the change procedure at the end of the year. It can be seen from the industrial and commercial information that after the audit on December 19, the chairman and general manager have been changed, and the new owner will participate in the operation of the club in the form of "capital increase and share expansion".

However, in the 2025 season, the club will not change its name, and will continue to participate in the Chinese League under the name of "Chongqing Tongliang Dragon Football Club", and the home stadium of the first team will be changed from the original Tongliang Stadium to the form of Longxing Professional Football Stadium and Tongliang Dragon Stadium, with 15 home stadiums throughout the year, and no less than half of them will be held in Tongliang.

For Tonglianglong, the 2025 season will enter a new era, in the tide of China's professional clubs seeking government funding for share reform, they bucked the trend, this is an attempt to transition from government-led operation to private enterprise-based operation, on equity matters, there is still one last step.