After his retirement he would begin his management career when he was given the chance to manage the national youth team. By 1963 he would quickly get promoted to the senior team, however with China not entering the Fifa World Cup and the Hunan football team looking for a new manager Nian Weisi would leave the national team. Nian Weisi would return in 1965, despite having China isolated from playing any major competitions; however, he did not let this haggle over the teams individual performances and always made brave team selections. When China started to reopened itself to the world, Nian Weisi had built a team that was able to compete in the 1976 AFC Asian Cup, where he led them to third in the competition, though he would leave shortly afterwards.