The fact that Chinese football legend Fan Zhiyi coached the Liaoning Iron Man of the Chinese League sparked heated discussions among the media and fans for a while. Liaoning Iron Man officially issued an announcement to hire Fan Zhiyi as the head of the coaching staff and technical director, Sun Wei as the first executive coach, and Li Yingfa and Li Shubin, the meritorious coaches of the old Liao Football Team, also joined Liaoning Iron Man as a consultant. However, Fan Zhiyi responded quickly, saying that he only held a vacant position in the club.
In the fifth round of the Chinese League, Liaoning Ironman ushered in his home debut in the new season, and defeated Suzhou Dongwu 2-0 to get the first victory of the new season. At that time, Song Kai, chairman of the Football Association, and Fan Zhiyi appeared on the rostrum to watch the game, and after the game, some media people revealed that the Liaoning Iron Man coaching staff was going to change, and Fan Zhiyi was going to go out to coach the team. Although Liaoning Iron Man officially announced that his position is the head of the coaching staff + technical director, Fan Zhiyi's name is enough to cheer up the fans.
However, Fan Zhiyi quickly issued a statement in response, Fan Zhiyi first thanked the fans for their attention and love, and then Fan Zhiyi said the key words: "I am just out of personal love and feelings for football, and I participate in this incident with the attitude of helping the team build a coaching team, and I do not hold any actual position in the team!"
In fact, Fan Zhiyi's meaning has been expressed very clearly, that is, he is only a nominal position in Liaoning Iron Man, he does not directly participate in the command of the team's games, and he has no intention of serving as the head coach at all, and the reason why he is out of the mountain is his love and feelings for football.
It is worth mentioning that the position of technical director is responsible for the team's recruitment and gatekeeping. But Fan Zhiyi's statement, he may not be responsible for checking and bringing in reinforcements, but most likely to make suggestions. As Fan Zhiyi said, his attitude is to help the team build a coaching team.
Fan Zhiyi's sentence "do not hold any actual position" can be described as leaky. After all, Fan Zhiyi currently does not have a coaching certificate and cannot coach the game on the spot. And after witnessing the ups and downs of Chinese football in the past 20 years, Fan Zhiyi's sharp edges and corners have been smoothed out by the years. Fan Zhiyi, who is now over half a hundred years old, has calmed down a lot, and many things have been seen.
Moreover, Fan Zhiyi has been filming the variety show Wuha recently, which has brought a lot of happiness to the national audience. In 2024, there will be international competitions such as the European Cup and the Olympic Games, and Fan Zhiyi may also be a guest commentator. But during this time, the Chinese League was also going on at the same time, and it was definitely unrealistic to expect Fan Zhiyi to stop all the projects and specifically generate electricity for love. In short, Fan Zhiyi is willing to reach out to help at this juncture, which is worthy of affirmation, and he also hopes that the Liaoning Iron Man who shouted the slogan of Chong Chao will live up to the expectations of fans.