It is official: Pablo Machín will be in charge of directing Qingdao Huanghai in his debut in the top category of Chinese soccer. Seven months after leaving Espanyol's bench, the Soria coach arrived at the Asian giant to fill a position that Juanma Lillo He was orphaned after leaving Manchester City to be Pep Guardiola's assistant. Machín, who headed to Seville, Girona and Numancia before landing at the parakeet club, will debut in foreign football with the assistant Jordi Warrior and the physical trainer Jordi Balcells, who join the Spanish colony that was already formed by Óscar Céspedes (assistant), Dani Acosta (physical trainer), Jordi Escura (physical therapist), Érica Hernández (physical therapist) and the Canarian central defender Yaki And in.
Machín will not be the first Spanish coach in the history of Qingdao Huanghai. In fact, four of the six technicians that the club has had since its foundation in 2013 are Spanish. The first was Jordi Vinyals, who arrived in China in December 2015 and was four years before his unfair dismissal in July 2019. Unjust because, when the board decided to find him a replacement, Qingdao Huanghai Second leader marched and it had two points of advantage with respect to the second place. Vinyals brushed the rise in 2016 -third- and 2018 -fourth-. His replacement was Juanma Lillo, who ended up consummating the team's promotion to the Chinese Super League for the first time in its history.
Oscar LawnsFor his part, he has been in charge of the team since Juanma Lillo's departure. The former footballer has served as an interim coach and may have to sit on the bench at Qingdao Huanghai next Saturday, as Pablo Machín must remain in quarantine for 15 days. The tigers will face José González's Wuhan Zall in what will be the first Spanish 'derby' of the season in China. Occasionally due to the coronavirus crisis, the Super League will be played in a different format than usual and both teams were placed in Group B, where there is also the Beijing Guoan by Jonathan Viera. In A, the Dalian Pro by Rafa Benítez will compete.