JINAN, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Francisco Silveira Ramos, former technical director of Portuguese Football Federation, has been appointed as the seventh head coach of Shandong Luneng football school, the school announced on Thursday.
The Portuguese, an UEFA Pro Licence holder, has been in youth football coaching since 1985 before taking the posts as national technical director of Portuguese Football Federation from November 2012 to June 2016, and president of Football Coaches National Association from 2010.
"It is an honor to be working in Luneng football school. Football counts on team play. Our goal is to train talents to be the best players, so I hope we can listen to each other in future," said the 62-year-old.
Luneng football school, set up in 1999, is the youth academy of Chinese top-flight club Shandong Luneng. In the 2018 season of Chinese Super League, 14 out of 16 clubs have 46 players coming from Luneng football school. Luneng's first team has 19 homegrown players, 63 percent of all players.
Luneng football school sticks to hiring foreign coaches since 1999. There are altogether seven head coaches so far, with the first three from Serbia, one from Brazil and the rest from Portugal.
