Chinese Super League champions Guangzhou Evergrande have appointed former Real Madrid and Juventus defender Fabio Cannavaro as their new coach.

Cannavaro replaces Luis Felipe Scolari, who on Sunday announced his decision to retire from football management and take over as Guangzhou technical director.

Evergrande's official Twitter page posted photos Wednesday of Cannavaro arriving at the airport and at an official press conference alongside Lippi, with the tweet "welcome to Guangzhou, Fabio Cannavaro." It also posted "Fabio Canavaro has officially joined as coach," in Chinese.

"Its great to be back in China, back with the club that got my managerial career started, its time to repay the boards trust in me and deliver titles..... Asia, we're coming for you"

Cannavaro, who captained Italy to the 2006 World Cup title while playing under Lippi as coach, spent last season as an assistant coach at United Arab Emirates club Al Ahli.

This will be Cannavaro's second spell in charge of the Chinese giants

Scolari,who had led Guanzhou to last season's title had declared hes simply felt home sick and had to go back to Brazil.

Chinese side Guangzhou Evergrande have signed Colombian striker Jackson Martinez from Atletico Madrid for a reported fee of £31m.
The 29-year-old has signed a four-year contract at the club to become the latest high-profile player to move to the Chinese Super League during the current transfer window.

The striker was previously one of Europe's most coveted forwards but scored just three goals in 22 appearances for Atletico following his £24.8m move from Porto last summer.

Martinez will join up with his new teammates, including former Tottenham midfielder Paulinho, during their pre season camp in Japan, and is set to be unveiled by Cannavaro in the morning .

Martinez said: "I do not want to miss the opportunity to] thank my teammates, the coaching staff and the people working at the club for the trust they had in me and the effort they made so I could come here.
"It has been an honour for me to be a part of this club, but I think the time has come to start another stage in my career.

"We have talked a lot in the last days and we have agreed that this is the best for all of us."

An Atletico club statement added: "We wish the best of luck to Jackson Martínez in this new stage of his sporting career."

Our pre season began with two matches at home against Salzburg and CSKA Moscow, Jackson Martinez scored early on against the Austrian champions to get us off to the perfect start, but we never managed to get in the game against CSKA with Ahmed Musa hitting a 37 minute hattrick which quickly put an end to any hope of a result, Zheng Zhi did manage to get a consolation goal late on to give the home fans something to cheer

we then set off to Japan for a 4 game tour and what a disaster is turned out to be, one draw and three losses was all we could muster against the local teams from Japan.

our preseason program finished with a home game against current South Korean champions Jeonbuk Motors which we evenually lost 3-1, but in fairness it was a changed lineup because the Asian Champions League was only 4 days away

We begin the defence of our title against Shenxin who are currently the bookies favourite to finish rock bottom of the league, 3 points here does look a near formality but we must take control early.

Hangzhou are then welcomed to the Tianhe stadium, again this should be a win but Hangzhou are known to be a thorn for some of the bigger sides in China, we wrap up March with two games in 5 days against Henan and Liaoning respectively, Paolo Henrique of the latter will need to be watched as he definitely has the ability to cause problems from midfield.

Guangzhou Evergrande have completed the signing of China's number one goalkeeper Wang Dalei from Shandong Luneng for a fee believed to be at the $12m mark, the transfer will go through on the 22nd of June when the Chineses transfer window re-opens

Despite being only seventeen years old, Wang Dalei started his football career with Shanghai United, making his debut on 11 March 2006 in a 1-1 draw against Inter Xian which made him the youngest professional goalkeeper in Chinese football history. He quickly made an impact within the team by establishing himself as their first-choice goalkeeper.
This saw Serie A side Internazionale interested within him and invited him to train with them during the summer break. Wang returned to Shanghai where he continued to be the club's starting goalkeeper, making 22 appearances in his debut season at the end of the 2006 season and winning the Chinese Football Association Young Player of the Year award.

Premier League side Manchester City decided to give him a trial along with several other Shanghai players. While nothing came out of the trial, Wang's form significantly improved after a disappointing 2007 season and he established himself as the starting goalkeeper the following season where he saw the club narrowly miss out on the league title.During the league break, Wang would once again have another trial, this time with Eredivisie side PSV Eindhoven but it didnt go to plan and he ended back at Shanghai up until 2013

After a stellar 2013 season, Wang transferred to fellow Chinese Super League side Shandong Luneng on 1 January 2014. He won the 2014 Chinese FA Cup with Shandong and was awarded with the Chinese Football Association Goalkeeper of The Year award in November 2014.

Wang Dalei did speak to the media about his impending transfer and what he has planned for the future" As soon as i heard about the interest from Guangzhou it was a no brainer, Fabio is a very bright up and coming manager who is tactically very good, and also said he sees the younger players here as the stars of the future at the club, which of course has given me alot more confidence.
I cannot wait to join up with my new teammates in June and hopefully help them on their way to domestic and continental success

The defence of our title began in convincing fashion with a 3-0 win against Shenxin, who are arguably the worst team in the Super League, goals to Jiaqi, Martinez and Zheng Long rounded off this great display of attacking football
Hangzhou was next, this would be our first game at home of the season, Zheng Long added to his tally of goals from matchday 1, this time bagging a brace against hapless Hangzhou, Wang Shanyuan had a debut to remember as he scored only two minutes after coming on as a substitute

The long trip to Henan only 3 days later followed, there was nothing to choose between the two sides at the break, but the second half we flexed our muscles and really started to attack, Gao Lin got the first with a bullet header after a sublime cross from Rong Hao, Goulart wrapped up proceedings 8 minutes later with a smart finish into the bottom right corner

March was wrapped up with another win which made it 4 from 4, this time against big spending Liaoning, Gao Ln opened the scoring in the first 30 seconds to give us a dream start, Kim Yoo then made it 2-0 to when he lashed at a shot from Martinez, which clipped his shin and went past his own goalkeeper.

After a flawless opening month to the season we sit atop the Chinese Super League on 12 points, Shandong and Jiangsu sit second & third respectively on points after both claimed 3 wins from their opening 4 games..

Liaoning have had a disastrous start to the season and currently sit bottom of the league with 0 points, Shenxin sit just above them on 2 points after 2 draws and 2 losses

Matchday 1 of the Champions League took us to Gosford to face Central Coast, we were heavy favourites going into this clash and rightly dominated the match claiming 77% ball possession and 27 shots, but we did only come away with the 1-0 win thanks to a great piece of work from Zheng Long as he rounded Liam Reddy to silence to home faithful
We then began our home double header against Osaka, this was a very tight affair with defences being well on top, Rong Hao gave us the lead as halftime loomed, and thats how it finished, another 1-0 win

Jeonbuk Motors of South Korea were next and this was truly clash of the Asian giants. Gao Lin did get us off to a good start, with yet another header from yet another Rong Hao delivery. Jeonbuk did pile the pressure on in the second half but could not get the goal they so desperately wanted in order to top the group.

So after 3 games it looks exactly how everyone thought it would look, Guangzhou & Jeonbuk fighting for the top of the group while Central Coast and Osaka have been thoroughly outplayed and languish with only the solitary point

Aprll kicked off with an away match against Changchun who up until now had been performing well above expectations. Jackson Martinez have us an early lead with a good header from inside the box, he would go onto double the lead just after the hour mark, then with time running out Gao Lin made it 3-1, Changchun would get a late goal but it was little too late

Chongqing were the visitors for our next match, Jackson Martinez gave us the lead on 3 minutes after some great build up play with Zheng Long, Gao Lin then double the advantage two minutes later only for Chongqing to get a goal virtually straight off the kickoff, Martinez would then score another two before halftime to register his first hattrick for the club , Rene Junior round off the scoring in the 51st minute and thats how it stayed for a very comfortable win

We then travelled to Shandong for our first big test of the season, and it was a test we failed. Gao Lin gave us the lead just after the hour mark, but Shandong would pull off a great comeback with two goals in the last 7 minutes, both from the head of Aloisio. this would give us our first loss of the season. How would we react in the next match?

A trip to Shanghai East Asia to end the month of Asia in a clash of the giants. we couldn't have gotten off to a better start with Jackson Martinez opening the scoring after just 47 seconds, despite being under constant pressure from the home side we managed to stand firm and hit them on the break, Rene Junior and Wang Rui would finish them off in the last 17 minutes with two very incisive breakways..



After 8 games of the season gone we still atop the Super League, 3 points of our main threats for the title Shandong Luneng who managed 3 wins and a loss aswell this month. Chongqing prop up the table right now with only 5 points after only securing the one draw all month, it may be early days but its not looking good for the tiny club.

Central Coast Mariners were the visitors for Matchday 4 of the Champions League and the minnows from Australia needed all 3 points to have any chance of qualification, but no one in their right mind would have backed against Guangzhou. We were unlucky not to be 4 up at halftime after registering 17 shots in the first 45 minutes, but we only managed the two, Martinez and Goulart with the goals. The second half was no different with us firing another 2 shots at goal, but we couldnt extend on our lead. Qualification for the next round was confirmed after the win here, while CCM bowed out
We traveled to Osaka for Matchday 4 knowing we were already through, while Osaka had already been eliminated, this really was a dull match and it ended goalless



With only Matchday 6 remaining there is all to play for between Guangzhou and Jeonbuk in a winner takes top spot match, us of course only needing the draw, first place will be essential if we wanna steer clear of Al Hilal and Al Ahli in the next round. Central Coast and Osaka are gone without putting up and kind of resistance