Rafa Benitez offered £12m per year to leave Newcastle and take over at Chinese Super League club

RAFA BENITEZ is being courted in China as his Newcastle contract goes into its last 12 days.

Dalian Yifang are trying to capitalise on the Spaniard’s uncertain future at St James’ Park with the offer of a megabucks deal.

Benitez, 59, has turned down numerous approaches from Chinese Super League sides during his Toon tenure.

He once admitted: “I could go away and make some money. If you go to China you can make a lot of money.”

Benitez would prefer to stay living near his Merseyside-based family and feels he still has another ten years managing at the top level in Europe.

But he IS willing to listen to other clubs having so far failed to agree a new contract at Newcastle.

It is understood Dalian Yifang have offered Benitez a whopping £12million per year which would see him surpass Fabio Cannavaro as the highest-paid coach in China.

The Italian legend nets a tidy £11m per year to take charge of Guangzhou Evergrande but Dalian Yifang are backed by China’s fourth-richest man, Wang Jianlin, who is worth a reported £17.2bn.

If Benitez did take the job in China, he would inherit a side which includes Slovakian star Marek Hamsik.

But arguably their best player is Yannick Carrasco – but he looks set to leave after being linked with a move back to Europe, 18 months after signing from Atletico Madrid.

As revealed by SunSport, Bin Zayed Group’s takeover of Newcastle is still on track.

Multi-billionaire Sheikh Khaled wants to acquire the St. James’ Park club for £350m and there is still hope the deal can be finalised by the end of June.

The takeover would surely make more funds available to the Toon manager to spend in the transfer window in order to strengthen the squad after years of Mike Ashley’s tight purse strings.