Shanghai, Mar 20 (IANS): Former Real Madrid coach Bernd Schuster has been appointed coach of Chinese football club Dalian Yifang.

After having lost the first three games of the Chinese Super League, the country's highest-level football competition, the club's coach, Ma Lin, was fired, according to the club, reports Efe.

Dalian Yifang was the last among the 16 teams in this competition to appoint its coach for the new season and has now become the first to replace its coach.

The 58-year-old ex-player and former coach of teams such as Real Madrid joins the list of European coaches in Chinese soccer, including Portugal's Vitor Pereira of Shanghai SIPG and Italy's Fabio Cannavaro, coach of Guangzhou Evergrande.

Despite the signing limit imposed by the Chinese government, Dalian Yifang is one of the teams that was strengthened at the beginning of the season in an attempt to add it to the group of favourites.

The newly promoted team signed two stars from Atletico de Madrid, Belgium's Yannick Carrasco and Argentina's Nicolas Gaitan.