In June 1998, Osvaldo Giménez was appointed head coach of Tianjin Teda F.C. in the second tier league of China, as replacement for local coach Lin Xinjiang. The same year, Tianjin was promoted to Chinese Jia-A League without losing one game in the whole season, but Giménez decided to work for the Uruguay national football team at the end of the season.
Giménez returned to China after eight years. He took over as head coach of Shanghai United F.C. on 6 June 2006, replacing BrazilianJose Carlos.[1] In 2007, the club owner Zhu Jun and his company The9 Limited bought a majority share of inner-city rival of Shanghai Shenhua F.C. and began to merge Shanghai United into Shanghai Shenhua. Zhu Jun also announced that Osvaldo Giménez would replace the previously successful existing head coach of Shanghai Shenhua, Wu Jingui.[2] With him at the helm, Shanghai Shenhua had won the A3 Champions Cup in 2007. However, he was sacked on 1 October for poor performance in the league.[3]
He returned to Shanghai Shenhua in December 2008, and was appointed the club's first-ever foreign managing director.[4]