Fabio Cannavaro takes charge at Chinese second-tier club Tianjin Quanjian

A file photo of Fabio Cannavaro. [File photo: sina.com]

The new head coach of Tianjin Quanjian, Fabio Cannavaro, held the first training with his squad on Friday afternoon at Haihe Stadium in Tianjin.

Tianjin Quanjian announced on its website on Friday that the former Italian captain had joined as head coach.

However, no details of the contract were released.

Cannavaro arrived in Beijing on Thursday and inspected the team's facilities and met its players.

The former defender previously spent a year as coach of Guangzhou Evergrande in the Chinese Super League.

Cannavaro explained what his first tasks with the team would likely be.

"First thing is to give the motivation again to the players because what I saw in the video they missed the confidence and that is difficult for the players because they always start well. They always.... in the score they were always 1-0 in the first half and in the second half they lose the game."

As a player, Cannavaro won the Ballon d'Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year awards after captaining Italy to the 2006 World Cup.

Cannavaro's first game will be on Sunday when Quanjian, ninth in League One, will play against eleventh placed Xinjiang Snow Leopard FC at the Haihe Stadium.