Overseasidol.com — Despite a last-minute victory by China’s national football team over Bahrain in their final match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers, backlash against head coach Branko Ivanković erupted online, most notably from Chinese actor Pan Yueming.
He called out the coach for “pretending not to understand and refusing to resign.”
The match, held on June 10 in Chongqing, ended with a 1-0 win for China, thanks to a penalty scored by Wang Yudong during stoppage time.
Although the team secured a win, their overall performance throughout the qualifiers was underwhelming.
In the post-match press conference, Ivanković was repeatedly asked about his coaching future but evaded every question.
Instead of offering clarity, the coach emphasized the team’s upcoming participation in the East Asian Cup this July, noting the value of friendly matches to train young players.
Any further attempts by the media to ask about his contract status were quickly interrupted by the moderator.
This avoidance only fueled public frustration. On June 11, Pan Yueming vented on Weibo.
“A coach who pretends not to know and refuses to quit, do you really expect him to save Chinese football?,” he said.
This isn’t the first time the actor has voiced his discontent.
On March 25, before China’s match against Australia, he posted: “Can we just win once…?,”.
The following day, he harshly criticized the team, accusing them of “living off the Chinese people’s football dreams” and losing 6 out of 8 matches.
