KUALA LUMPUR: As the Asian Cup kicks off on Friday in Doha, Qatar, Timesport takes a look at the eight "star coaches" among the 24 teams, armed with World Cup experience.
The eight are Australia's Graham Arnold, Bahrain's Juan Antonio Pizzi, Japan's Hajime Moriyasu, South Korea's Jurgen Klinsmann, Oman's Branko Ivankovic, Syria's Hector Cuper, the United Arab Emirates' Paulo Bento and Vietnam's Philippe Troussier.
Of the eight, Arnold and Moriyasu are the only coaches still with the teams that they brought to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The duo also tie for the longest duration — having been with their respective squads since 2018.
German Klinsmann and Portugese Bento are the only ones to have appeared at the World Cup multiple times. Klinsmann coached Germany in 2006, and the United States in 2014 and 2018. Bento coached Portugal in 2014 and South Korea in 2022.
Here are other interesting numbers.
* 50 — At 50, Iraq's Jesus Casas Garcia is the youngest coach at the Asian Cup. The Spanird joined Iraq last year and helped them win the Arabian Gulf Cup for the first time since 1988. Garcia "beat" Kyrgystan's Stefan Tarkovic for the title by eight months and five days.
* 69 — At 69 years old, Oman's coach, Branko Ivankovic, is the oldest coach at the Asian Cup.
The Croatian boasts an impressive resume, having helped Croatia to third place at the 1998 World Cup as assistant manager. He led Iran to third place in the 2004 Asian Cup and also helped them to qualify for the 2006 World Cup. He joined Oman in 2020.
* 27 — At 27 days, Montenegrin Miodrag Radulovic is the "newest coach" at the Asian Cup. Radulovic, 56, was named Lebanon head coach on Dec 11, 2023. This is his second stint with the Cedars, having coached Lebanon at the 2019 Asian Cup.
* 17 — Moriyasu, 55, will coach Japan, the highest-ranked team in the Asian Cup. His Samurai Blue are ranked world No. 17.
Timesport also ranked the coaches with the highest winning rate at the Asian Cup as of Jan 6. The rankings, which are based on all their international matches, were classified into two categories — coaches with more than 10 matches and those with fewer.
Topping the list at No. 1 is Iran's Amir Ghalenoei, who has been with Team Melli since March 2023, with a 73.08 per cent success rate from 26 games.
Coming in second is Malaysia's Kim Pan Gon at 70.37 per cent from 27 matches. The South Korean, who signed in January, 2022, led Harimau Malaya to qualify, on merit, for their first ever Asian Cup in 43 years.
Wrapping up the top five are Casas (69.23% from 13 games), Moriyasu (68.49% from 73 matches) and Uzbekistan's Srecko Katanec (62.96% from 27 games).