BEIJING (Reuters) - China are in contract negotiations with Arie Haan in a bid to make the former Dutch international midfielder the next coach of their national team, according to state media.
'Not until the contract is successfully signed can we say Haan is the head coach,' Zhu Heyuan, director of the management office of
the Chinese Football Association, was quoted as saying in the Beijing Morning Post on Tuesday.
Bora Milutinovic stepped down as coach after China made their first appearance in the finals of a World Cup earlier this year. The
team failed to win a point or score a goal at the tournament in South Korea and Japan.
Haan's salary demands of around £400,000 per year were the most modest among the five candidates for the job, including Netherlands assistant coach Willem van Hanagem and former Japan coach Phillippe Troussier, the paper said.
While soccer officials had qualms over 54-year-old Haan's lack of international coaching experience, they were impressed by his ideas on cultivating young talent, the paper added.
Haan, who played for the Netherlands in the finals of the 1974 and 1978 World Cups, was appointed coach of African champions Al Ahlihas in June.
He has also coached at Austria Vienna, Feyenoord and Greek team PAOK Salonika, while in Germany he was coach at first division
clubs VfB Stuttgart and FC Nuremberg.
Haan left his job as sports director of regional club Stuttgarter Kickers last month.
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