SHANGHAI, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Uruguayan Osvaldo Gimenez has been confirmed Friday to coach the newly combined Chinese super league soccer team Shanghai Shenhua in the upcoming season.

    Gimenez, the former manager of Shanghai United FC club, came to take over Shenhua only two weeks after the two Shanghai-based top-flight clubs were merged into one team.

    Wu Jingui, the former Shanghai Shenhua boss, looks set to leave the club he has coached in the past five years and will study in Germany after he guided the Chinese powerhouse to top honor in 2003.

    "In the new season, the only goal we have is to win the champions of the super league," said 47-year-old Gimenez, who took charge of Shanghai United instead of Brazilian Carlos since last season.

    Gimenez had been coach of the Uruguayan national side and their Olympic squad for about seven years and steered the team to the championship of the American Cup in 1995.

    It was reported that Zhu Jun, the owner of the Shanghai United FC, has invested 150 million RMB (about 19.2 million U.S. dollars) to buy the last year's runners-up earlier February, but retained the more famous Shenhua as the name for the combined team.

    The newly merged Shanghai Shenhua, which comprises 21 United players and 19 from Shenhua, trained for the first time at former Shenhua's base Ankang on Friday, and players will get together again on Feb. 19 after the Chinese lunar new year for the preparations towards the new season starting on March 3.

    The merge also means that the 16-team league will be pared down to 15 and there will be one team on bye for each round in the new season.