Many successful players have been in Chinese Super League history, but what about the people who coached them from the sidelines?
Managers can often be overlooked or even the key factor for a team’s success, and there have been multiple that have tasted victory when the final whistle of the season came.
But which managers have had the most success in the Chinese Super League era? A weighted scoring system was used to determine this list. Ten points for a league title, eight points for continental success, five points for each Chinese FA Cup victory and two points for winning the Super Cup.
Here are the most successful managers in the Chinese Super League era, which began in 2004.
T-6. Lee Jang-soo, Vítor Pereira, Fabio Cannavaro, Pedro Morilla
First up on this list are four managers who have tasted success beyond winning a single league title. Many managers have had that accolade, including the highly rated Gao Hongbo with Changchun Yatai in 2007, but this is not enough to land a spot on this list.
In fact, these four managers claimed a league title with their respective clubs and were also successful in winning the CFA Super Cup.
Lee Jang-soo could arguably be much higher on this list, having claimed two Chinese FA Cups in his career, but these came in the pre-Super League era and are thus not counted.
However, the Korean has had a number of spells managing clubs in China and even helped begin what would ultimately become the Guangzhou Evergrande Dynasty. After winning the 2010 China League One title, Lee helped the team win the 2011 Chinese Super League and then claimed the 2012 Super Cup.
Despite a strong start to the season, guiding the team into the knockout stages of the AFC Champions League, Lee was let go in favour of a big-name replacement who will appear later on this list.
Vítor Pereira, meanwhile, has been in the headlines recently after being appointed manager of English club Wolverhampton Wanderers. His stint in China came across the 2018, 2019 and 2020 seasons, all spent with Shanghai Port (SIPG at the time).
His first season in charge saw SIPG end Guangzhou Evergrande’s dominant run of league successes, with the red side of Shanghai claiming the 2018 Chinese Super League title.
They followed this up with the 2019 CFA Super Cup and was even approached for the Everton job at the end of that season. He remained in Shanghai, however, and left the club after three years at the helm.
Pedro Morilla had a similar tenure with Wuhan Three Towns as Lee Jang-soo did with Guangzhou Evergrande, winning the China League One title in 2021 and following that up with the Chinese Super League in 2022 and the CFA Super Cup in 2023.
His tenure ended poorly, with just three wins through the opening 12 matches of the 2023 season, and the club’s financial struggles took hold shortly after – the club now struggling to survive after a big-spending debut season in the top tier.
Fabio Cannavaro won the league and Super Cup, but he did so in reverse order to the others on this list. Cannavaro helped Guangzhou Evergrande win the 2018 CFA Super Cup, with a dominant 4-1 win over Shanghai Shenhua.
He then guided the team to yet another league title in 2019, reclaiming top spot after the club lost out in 2018.
T-5. Vladimir Petrović, Kevin Muscat
Next on this list are two managers who have all tasted league success, but also have a Chinese FA Cup title to their names.
Vladimir Petrović had a very successful year-and-a-half spell at Dalian Shide in the mid-2000s, helping to guide the dongbei side to their last-ever league title. He did the double in 2005, also lifting the Chinese FA Cup, and in his follow-up season, the club finished as runners-up in the cup.
Unfortunately, that would be the last time that Dalian Shide would be truly competitive and seven years later it would merge with Dalian A’erbin and cease to exist anymore.
Kevin Muscat is the most recent addition to this list, as he claimed a league and cup double in his very first season in China – claiming both pieces of domestic silverware in the 2024 season with Shanghai Port.
Port ran a close title fight with city rivals Shanghai Shenhua, pipping them right at the end of the year, before putting in a dominant performance against Shandong Taishan in the cup final to round out a perfect year for the Australian manager.
Muscat has a chance to jump up this list if he can have more success with Port in 2025.
4. Hao Wei
After many years holding various roles in Chinese football, across both the men’s and women’s game, Hao Wei took charge at Shandong Taishan in 2020 and had a very successful three-year spell in Jinan.
In his debut campaign, Shandong finished fifth in the league but secured the Chinese FA Cup, defeating league champions Jiangsu Suning in what would be the club’s last match before being dissolved in early 2021.
Shandong then did the league and cup double in 2021 and put in another stronger season in 2022 – finishing second in the league and claiming a third consecutive cup, all under the guidance of Hao Wei.
It was Shandong’s strongest period of success since the 2000s, with the team performing better under third place on this list.
3. Ljubiša Tumbaković
Ljubiša Tumbaković oversaw a period of true success for Shandong Taishan between 2004 and 2009, with the club finishing in the top three for five consecutive years and finishing fourth in his final year before departing.
Shandong saw cup success come in the first year of the Chinese Super League era, 2004, with the club also finishing second in the league and even winning the now-defunct Chinese League Cup.
Third place and runners-up in the cup followed in 2005, before a league and cup double came in 2006.
2007 saw the club effectively in a four-horse race for the title before it came down to Beijing Guoan and Changchun Yatai towards the end – the latter claiming their one-and-only league title that year. The club finished runners-up in the 2007 A3 Champions Cup.
2008 saw silverware return to Jinan, however, as Tumbaković guided his side to another league title. 2009 was less successful, seeing Shandong drop to fourth in the league, with the Serbian leaving after the season ended.
2. Marcello Lippi
Second on this list is a man synonymous with the big-spending era of the league, Marcello Lippi. The legendary Italian manager replaced Lee Jang-soo to guide Guangzhou Evergrande into an era of dominance that may not be seen again for many years to come.
During his time with the southern Chinese club, Lippi oversaw years of sustained success, including three consecutive league titles in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
His first season, in 2012, saw him claim all three domestic titles, giving the club a domestic treble of the league, CFA Cup and CFA Super Cup, with 2013 seeing his side claim both the league and its first-ever AFC Champions League – an achievement that saw him named Manager of the Year in China.
Guangzhou also finished as runners-up in the Cup and Super Cup in 2013 and were also Super Cup runners-up in 2014.
Lippi left the club at the end of 2014, handing the reins over to Cannavaro for his first stint before he was replaced by yet another big-name manager who would even go on to have slightly more success than him.
1. Luiz Felipe Scolari
The most successful manager in the Chinese Super League season is Luiz Felipe Scolari, who claimed a lot of silverware during his tenure as manager with Guangzhou Evergrande between 2015 and 2017.
He matched Lippi’s success in all competitions, with three league titles, a Chinese FA Cup and an AFC Champions League, but actually claimed two Super Cups – seeing him edge out the Italian for top spot on this list.
He also matched Lippi’s success in the Club World Cup, guiding Guangzhou to fourth in the competition.
While the club had some success after his departure, with Cannavaro’s return, it was the beginning of the end of their dominant era and the club now plays in the second tier of Chinese football after suffering relegation in the 2022 season.
Scolari temporarily retired in 2022, but returned to coaching with Atlético Mineiro in 2023 – leaving earlier in 2024, and he is currently without a club at the age of 76.