Manuel Pellegrini has been named the new head coach of Chinese Super League (CSL) side Hebei China Fortune, taking over from ex-Everton midfielder Li Tie, the club announced on Saturday.
Pellegrini, who won the Premier League title in 2014 with Manchester City before being replaced by Pep Guardiola at the end of last season, will take charge of a squad that features Ezequiel Lavezzi, Gael Kakuta and Gervinho, and until recently, was challenging for a place in the top three in the league.
Hebei, however, have been in the middle of a slump since Li, who joined the club a year ago after previously working as an assistant to Marcello Lippi at Guangzhou Evergrande, publicly criticised national team officials in July, sparking a major controversy.
Pellegrini's first game in charge will be against defending champions and Chinese Super League leaders Guangzhou Evergrande on Sept. 10. He will be seeking to arrest a slide in form that has seen Hebei lose seven of their last 10 games in all competitions.
That slump led to Hebei dropping 15 points behind the leaders and out of contention for the league title. They are currently in fifth place, with just seven games remaining in the season and are five points behind third-placed Shanghai Shenhua, who occupy the last of the qualifying places for next season's AFC Champions League.
62-year-old Pellegrini, who was Real Madrid boss in the 2009-10 season, has won national leagues in four different countries, including his native Chile. But he has never previously coached in Asia, although he did take Manchester City on a preseason tour of the Asia-Pacific region last year.