Lacked of option in searching for a new coach, CFA reappointed Marcello Lippi. To improve the team, China had begun a series of naturalization on foreign-based players, with Nico Yennaris, an English-born Cypriot, and Tyias Browning, another English-born player, being naturalized. Subsequently, Elkeson, a Brazilian player with no Chinese ancestry, was naturalized. Despite the process of naturalization, the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification for China proved to be rockier than expected, the team could only beat the Maldives and Guam, before being held goalless in the Philippines and followed with a denting 1–2 away loss to Syria, and Lippi resigned as coach.