BEIJING -- World Cup-winning manager Marcello Lippi was hired Saturday to take over the national football team in the latest sign of Chinas commitment to becoming a serious force in world soccer.The Chinese Football Association announced Lippis hiring after reports circulated this week suggesting a deal was close.The 68-year-old Lippi led Italy to the 2006 World Cup title, won five Italian league titles as manager of Juventus, and won three Chinese league titles while managing Guangzhou Evergrande before announcing his retirement in 2014.The Chinese association posted photos of a smiling Lippi signing a contract, but did not immediately confirm reports that his deal was worth 50 million euros ($54 million), which would make him one of the highest-paid coaches in the world.It wont be easy for the Italian. Lippi, who will be formally introduced on Friday, inherits a national team thats made one World Cup in its entire history -- and did not score a single goal in that tournament.Currently, China is ranked No. 84 by FIFA and in danger of missing the 2018 World Cup. Its previous coach, Gao Hongbo, resigned after a 2-0 loss on Oct. 11 to Uzbekistan. That followed a 1-0 loss at home to war-torn Syria, after which fans were seen protesting in the streets.But China has established a national goal of creating a football superpower capable of winning the World Cup by 2050. The drive is led by President Xi Jinping, a noted soccer fan who is said to have watched with frustration a 1983 exhibition in which the English side Watford trounced China.Chinese Super League teams have given big contracts to international players like Alex Teixeira and Jackson Martinez, and prominent coaches like former Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari and former England boss Sven-Goran Erikkson.A 50-point plan to promote football in the country includes setting up school programs, recruiting foreign coaches and creating 70,000 new fields and 50 million school-age players by 2020.China has made improving its soccer performance a test of its prestige on the world stage. Its employed a top-down approach reminiscent of efforts that produced champions in several Olympic sports, though some question whether a World Cup competitor can be developed that way.---Football Association (in Chinese): http://www.fa.org.cn/news/china/2016-10-22/514105.html Supply NFL Jerseys . Louis Blues absence from top spot in the TSN. Jerseys NFL Wholesale . Kuznetsov, who was selected by the Capitals in the first round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, has been playing for his hometown team Chelyabinsk Traktor of the KHL. http://www.nflcheapwholesalejerseys.com/ . Dallas hasnt ruled out the star quarterback for Sunday nights game against Philadelphia, but all signs point to Romos back injury pushing Kyle Orton into the starting role after two years of limited play as the backup. Surely Ortons name isnt the first that comes to mind for fans wanting a change after years of damaging interceptions, fumbles or, most infamously, the field goal flub when Romo dropped the snap on a kick that could have won his first playoff game in 2006. Cheap NFL Jerseys China . The move comes after the Canadiens were approached by the Buffalo Sabres for permission to speak to Dudley - a former Sabres player and head coach. "The Sabres called for permission and I appreciate that, Im flattered, Dudley told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun of ESPN. Cheap NFL Jerseys . Isner, ranked No. 14, won his eighth career singles title and took the title in New Zealand for the second time after his victory in 2010. The match was similar to Isners quarterfinal victory over fifth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber which went to three sets, all tiebreaks and contained no breaks of serve. NEW YORK -- The New-York Historical Society has acquired the archive of tennis great Billie Jean King .The museum said Friday it includes documents, objects, personal scrapbooks and photographs. Highlights include her 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the first to be awarded to a female athlete.Other items include a patriotic Philadelphia Freedoms team dress that inspired a song by friend Elton John. King wore it during the 1974 inaugural season of the World Team Tennis league, which shhe co-founded.ddddddddddddKing won 39 Grand Slam titles and lobbied for pay equality in the sport. She famously beat Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes match on Sept. 20, 1973.The National Tennis Center, which hosts the U.S. Open, was renamed for her in 2006.Selected items will go on view at the museums Center for Womens History, slated to open next spring. ' ' '