Ante Milicic Leaves China Women’s Team Eight Months Before 2027 World Cup

China must find a new head coach eight months before the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil. Ante Milicic’s departure comes after he led the team, ranked 16th in the world, to qualification through the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup. The timing puts the Chinese Football Association in a familiar but awkward position: it has secured a place at the tournament, yet now has to hand responsibility for preparation to someone new. Qualification settles one major question. It doesn’t settle how the team will perform once it gets there.

The Chinese Football Association said the decision followed discussions with Milicic and took his family situation into account. Appointed in May 2024, he oversaw 21 international matches: 10 wins, four draws and seven losses. China scored 40 goals and conceded 32 during his tenure, according to the CFA. Those figures offer a compact account of results, but they don’t explain the quality of the opposition, the circumstances of individual matches or how the team developed tactically. A win-loss record can show the broad shape of a spell in charge; it can’t, by itself, tell the next coach where the team’s strengths and weaknesses lie.

Qualification followed by a fourth-place finish

China reached the Asian Cup semi-finals in Australia and secured its place at the World Cup there. More recently, the team finished fourth at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in Japan, losing 2-0 to North Korea in the semi-finals. The sequence captures both the achievement and the unfinished work: China qualified for the sport’s largest international tournament, then fell short of the final at a separate regional competition. Those results aren’t necessarily contradictory. Teams can reach a major goal while still facing clear tests in the matches that follow.

The Asian Cup qualification gives the successor a defined destination, but the preparation window is short enough to make the handover matter. A new coach will need to understand the existing squad, decide what should change and build a plan that players can absorb in time. That work usually involves more than choosing a formation. Coaches also set expectations for pressing, defending transitions, progressing the ball and responding when a match turns against them. Any change in those habits takes practice, and international teams have fewer opportunities to train together than club sides do.

That constraint makes continuity a practical question. A successor might retain parts of Milicic’s approach to avoid resetting the team, or introduce changes where the recent results suggest they’re needed. The CFA’s published totals don’t reveal which course would fit the squad best, and the results alone shouldn’t be treated as a full performance review. A careful assessment would have to account for match footage, player roles and the level of each opponent. Here’s the thing: the coaching change creates a fresh start, but it also puts a premium on learning quickly.

Milicic’s international experience

Milicic previously coached Australia’s Matildas to the round of 16 at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup. He also served as a Socceroos assistant at two World Cups and was part of Ange Postecoglou’s staff when Australia won the 2015 AFC Asian Cup. That background means his departure comes after a coach with experience across both women’s and men’s international football, including major tournaments and continental competition.

Experience at that level can help a coach manage the demands around a tournament: concentrated preparation, high-stakes matches and limited time between games. It doesn’t guarantee results. The work has to fit the players and the team’s needs, and a coach’s previous success with one national side can’t simply be transferred to another. The China job will require its own assessment of the available squad and the football the team can execute under pressure.

For China, the more useful question isn’t whether Milicic’s record looks strong or weak in isolation. It’s what the CFA wants the team to become before Brazil, and whether the next appointment can make that direction clear. The 40 goals scored and 32 conceded provide a starting point for discussion, not a diagnosis. They may prompt questions about attacking output or defensive control, but the totals don’t show how those goals came about. That distinction matters when a new coach is deciding what to preserve.

A narrow window to prepare

China’s immediate task is to appoint a successor with limited time to prepare the qualified side for Brazil. The next coach will inherit a team that has already reached the World Cup, along with results from a defined run of 21 matches. The appointment will shape how the team uses the preparation period, but the quality of that work will depend on more than the résumé attached to the new coach. Clear priorities, a sound reading of the squad and consistent training will all matter.

If you’re working in this space, the staffing change is a reminder that qualification and tournament readiness are different jobs. A team can earn its place through a continental competition and still need to refine its approach before facing World Cup opponents. The successor will have to make decisions without the luxury of a long cycle: which players to build around, how much tactical change the group can absorb, and how to turn recent experience into a coherent plan.

This is more significant than it looks. A coaching departure can alter the direction of a national team just as it enters the final stretch of preparation, and the CFA’s account makes clear that the decision followed discussions and considered Milicic’s family situation. That context deserves to remain part of the story. The change is not, on the information provided, evidence of a dispute or a verdict on his performance. And yet the practical challenge is real: China now needs a successor who can take the qualification already achieved and make the remaining months count.

One point is easy to overlook (and this is the part most people overlook): a new coach’s first task may be to learn what the team already does well before trying to change it. The results leave room for both optimism and scrutiny. Qualification is a meaningful achievement; fourth place at the Asian Games and a semi-final loss show that the work isn’t finished. A short runway. The choices made now will determine how much of that gap China can address before Brazil.