Rafa Benítez knows what people will say and he can understand it. At the age of 59, one of the most garlanded managers of his generation has left for the Far East, signing a two-and-a-half year contract with Dalian Yifang of the Chinese Super League. His annual salary is an estimated £12 million, an astonishing figure. Has he only gone for the money? “I cannot deny it is a big financial offer,” the Spaniard admits.
The riches are extraordinary, but there is a bit more to Benítez’s departure than simple, hard cash. During his three years at Newcastle United, when he led the club back into the Premier League and then kept them there twice, he dismissed the notion of moving to China, speaking of his desire to stay close to his family on Merseyside, to compete in the Champions League again. Nothing has changed, aside from his circumstances.
Benítez has won just about everything — La Liga and the Uefa Cup at Valencia, the FA Cup and Champions League with Liverpool, the Italian Super Cup and the Fifa Club World Cup at Inter Milan, the Europa League at Chelsea and the Italian Cup and Super Cup at Napoli — but he has not been pursued by the top clubs this summer. And waiting for sacking season is only likely to bring options in the bottom half of the Premier League.
“It was three years ago I said no, but you have to think about you and your staff and the opportunities,” Benítez says, talking exclusively to The Times. “After Newcastle, it makes no sense to be fighting again at the bottom of the table. I don’t think you can find a team in the the bottom ten bigger than Newcastle in terms of potential and structure and everything. Why do I have to wait for that when I have a chance to build something?
“You have to consider the situation. It’s not about saying ‘I’ll stay in England and wait and dream about the right club at the right time’. I’m just really pleased and really excited that someone was really keen to get me, to give me the opportunity to develop a project and at the same time, with a really good economic proposal. You want to do something, build something, leave something behind. At the same time, you cannot be lying; it’s good money.”
After the slow erosion of trust at Newcastle, Dalian have chased Benítez. They have made him feel wanted. After 15 games played, they are tenth in the Super League, but they have big plans. They are backed by Wang Jianlin, the fourth richest man in China, who is worth £17.2 billion, according to Forbes. Jianlin’s Wanda Group is a multinational conglomerate, which sold a 17 per cent stake in Atletico Madrid last year.
Dalian are in the process of building a 22 hectare training ground and academy, at a cost of $290 million (about £230 million), with 23 pitches, six of them floodlit, two with undersoil heating, two indoors and with a 5,000-seater stand, servicing its first, reserve, youth and women’s teams. There will be accommodation on-site, areas for teaching and rehabilitation, with conference facilities. It is due to open in December. Does that sound ambitious enough?
“The group is one of the biggest companies in the world,” Benítez says. “The project is about developing the whole football club, to organise it from the academy at the bottom to the very top.
“And then to be sure that we have a methodology, an idea about football and then especially to develop the local players because Dalian is a place where they’re really proud about their history as a football club. They want to use the resources they have to guarantee that the club will be stronger and stronger, using local players as much as they can but also competing in the international market.
“I said no in the past, but we don’t have many good options around and this is an opportunity. It’s with people who really, really want you and with someone who really wants to build something. And at the same time, it’s an exciting experience of another culture, another country where everything is different. It’s another challenge: can we adapt, what we can learn from them? And can I leave a legacy?”
Benítez wants and needs to work; it is how he is wired. “I’ve had the experience of staying at home, waiting,” he says. “It’s so frustrating for you to see teams struggling and think ‘I could do this, I could do that’ when you are at home. No chance. I want to make sure that I have a job and perform at the level that I can perform, anywhere.
“I like to train, to coach. I did the same with my daughter’s team at her school. I can’t just be sitting and waiting. My wife would just tell me to go away, anyway. It’s better if I get a job and if it’s a good job with a good project and good money then I’m happy with that.”
In any case, Manuel Pellegrini, who moved from Manchester City to Hebei China Fortune and then back to West Ham United, is proof there can be life after the Chinese Super League. “My ambition hasn’t changed,” Benítez says. “I want to compete. I want to win. In this case, I have to adapt, but I had to adapt at Newcastle, too. The challenge is not just the first team, but organising everything at the club in terms of football. If you’re successful, everyone can be pleased with that.”
Mikel Antía, Paco de Miguel and Antonio Gomez, Benítez’s coaching team at Newcastle, have gone with him (they are joined by Darko Matic, the former Croatian player). For them, it will be a life-changing move, in every respect. “I have to think about my people, my staff, as well as my own future,” he says. There will be countless games of Mus, the Spanish card game they all play together, and the western movies which Benítez loves to watch during his (rare) downtime.
Benítez has done his homework. “Dalian have Marek Hamsik who was my player at Napoli,” he says. “Yannick Carrasco is a Belgian international and they have Emmanuel Boateng who was at Levante. We are looking at their players and I have watched some of their games.” The club also have a 40-year-old right back, but difference is part of the appeal and the challenge. Away games will mean flights and some will entail a few days of acclimatisation.
He would not have predicted this a couple of years ago, but football is like that and what does ambition mean, anyway? What were Newcastle’s ambitions under Mike Ashley? China is a long way from home, but Dalian play at a 61,000-capacity stadium and Carrasco is estimated to have cost them £26.5 million. Benítez is itching to get on with it. “Am I capable of managing, of using my experience to help them build something?” he says. “That’s what I will try to do.”
