Lang Ping takes 2m yuan job as China volleyball coach

Former volleyball star Jenny Lang Ping was appointed to coach the Chinese women's national team on Thursday.

The 53-year-old former head coach of both the Chinese and US national team emerged as the clear winner from a four-candidate shortlist that included former Chinese women's head coach Cai Bin, former New Zealand men's team coach Jiang Jie and German league coach Liu Changcheng.

The four candidates had made their presentations during a closed meeting held by the Chinese volleyball governing body 10 days ago.

No financial details were released at Thursday morning's press conference where all the four new head coaches - for the national men's and women's volleyball and beach volleyball teams - were presented to local media, but a source told Xinhua that Lang's annual salary is about 2 million yuan (about 324,000 US dollars).

Pan Zhichen, director of the Chinese volleyball administrative center, declined to confirm it but said Lang's salary lives up to her credit and fame.

"Lang's a highly-rated coach and she is very professional and much honored," said Pan. "What we've offered shows our respect."

Saying the 2-million-yuan salary was solid, Lang could be China's most paid national team coach alongside with Chinese short-track speed skating head coach Li Yan, who reportedly receives 2 million yuan paycheck.

However, the Evergrande women's volleyball club, which has a year left in their contract with Lang, pays her an annual salary of five million yuan.

Lang, a key member of China's most successful volleyball squad, guided China to the silver medal at the 1996 Olympic Games.

Expectations are high for Lang to pull the Chinese team out of doldrums.

After bagging the bronze medal in the 2008 Olympic Games, the Chinese team failed to reach the Olympic semifinals in 2012. Head coach Yu Juemin resigned right after the Olympics.

"Lang has been an icon and she's incredible both as a player and coach," said Pan. "But she's not a savior. She's not capable of single-handedly lifting the team from the bottom to the top."

"It will be a very tough job to turn a new chapter for the Chinese team in a short period of time. But I will make sure steady progress of the team," said Lang.

After she retired as a player in late 1980s, Lang moved to the United States, where she lived for 15 years but maintains her Chinese citizenship. She studied and worked as an assistant volleyball coach at the University of New Mexico.

She took charge of the Chinese side in 1995 and guided them to the silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and to the second place at the 1998 World Championships in Japan.

Lang resigned from the Chinese team in 1998 citing health reasons and then spent six years coaching in Italy.

She took the helm of the US women's coach in late 2004 and led them to silver in Beijing Olympics in 2008.

After she returned to China in 2009, Lang was invited to coach the Evergrande club and she is credited with molding an unknown team to a dominant force in the Chinese league.

In 2002, Lang became an inductee of the Volleyball Hall of Fame in Holyoke, Massachusetts.