Guangzhou Songri Xu Genbao would appoint Gao Hongbo as his assistant player coach when he signed him in the 1997 league season before he left the team to coach the defending champions
Dalian Wanda. The next season saw him replaced by
Edson Tavares and Gao remain as his assistant; however, Aristeu Tavares left Guangzhou Songri at the end of the 1998 league season and Gao Hongbo went on to succeed him as the head coach of the team at the beginning of the 1999 league season at the age of 33. He would, however quickly run into trouble with his players and would leave the club after only 11 matches despite having a decent start to the season and he would go abroad to study coaching. He studied in several clubs in
London and
Southampton, and his long-time teammate
Yang Chen invited him to study in
Germany as well.
China U-17 After several months of studying, Gao Hongbo was appointed the coach of the national U-17 team. Although the team eliminated
South Korea despite
Koreaphobia and qualified from group stage in the
AFC U-17 Championship 2000, the 1–7 defeat to Japan essentially ended his job. After the game, Gao Hongbo resigned from the national post and returned to help Xu Genbao in coaching
Shanghai Zhongyuan. This duo again won the promotion to
Jia A and left the club together in 2002. Gao Hongbo worked as an assistant coach in the national team between 2003 and 2004. After
Wu Jingui, the coach of the new champion
Shanghai Shenhua, was introduced to the national team, he left the team to coach
Xiamen Hongshi.
Xiamen Hongshi Gao Hongbo's career in
Xiamen was a surprising success and he was able to transform
Xiamen Hongshi into potential promotion contenders when he was able to take them to third within 2004 second tier. The following season would see them actually win the table and promotion into the 2005
Chinese Super League.
Changchun Yatai He led
Changchun Yatai as
League Champions in 2007. Gao was dismissed by Changchun in 2008 as the club struggled to repeat their form of the previous season.
China On April 16, 2009, Gao signed a contract as Head Coach from the
China national football team. Serbian
Vladimir Petrovic was the last full-time coach but his contract was not renewed after China was eliminated from the qualifiers for the
2010 World Cup in South Africa. Gao is the first China national team coach that was chosen through an open selection process, which included four other candidates:
Wu Jingui (former
Shanghai Shenghua coach),
Yin Tiesheng (previous temporary caretaker manager) and
Shen Xiangfu (under-23 team coach). His arrival saw China opting for a new strategy, turning towards ground passing tactics and adopting the
4–2–3–1 formation. It was noted that Chinese footballers had relied too heavily on the long balls and header strategy for almost a decade. Above all, Wei Di, the chief of the
Chinese Football Association, stressed that, "Anytime, no matter win or loss, they must show their team spirit and courage. I hope, after one year's effort, the national team can give the public a new image." In his debut as manager, China drew 1–1 with
Germany in
Shanghai on May 29, 2009. China defeated
Iran 1–0 in a
friendly match just three days later.
Shaanxi Renhe On September 24, 2011, Gao became the head coach of
Shaanxi Chanba.
ADO Den Haag In September 2015, Gao was appointed as the assistant to manager
Henk Fräser at
Eredivisie side
ADO Den Haag, a Dutch football team owned by Chinese Sports Marketing Company
United Vansen.
China (2nd time) After
Alain Perrin was sacked for
China's poor performance at the
2018 FIFA World Cup qualification, Gao volunteered himself to be the next head coach, stating that it was his mission as a football coach to help the national team when it needs help. He was appointed the team's coach on 3 February 2016. In his first two matches, and also China's last matches to qualify for the last round of
2018 FIFA World Cup, Gao Hongbo and the Team Dragon created one of the most miraculous stories in their qualification history. China continued their journey by beating Maldives 4–0 at home; therefore they took the second position back from Hong Kong due to Qatar's 2–0 win over Hong Kong. In the last match, China must win Qatar while waiting
North Korea,
Jordan,
Syria,
Oman, the
UAE and
Iraq (
Kuwait is being banned) to fail to defend their positions. China beat Qatar 2–0, and due to
Socceroos's 5–1 thrash over Jordan and North Korea's shocking 2–3 loss to the
Philippines, China managed to qualify to the last round of the 2018 World Cup qualification in Asian zone, as the last of top four teams. They also earned a ticket to qualify direct to the
2019 AFC Asian Cup held in the UAE. Later, Oman also failed to defend their positions after losing 0–2 to
Iran. Gao resigned on October 11, 2016 after losing to
Syria 1–0 and
Uzbekistan 2–0 respectively in the
2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC third round. ==Career statistics==