Original title: Very public football, Shenhua lasted for 8 years and more than 10 people were selected as national brands at all levels
On the afternoon of October 4th, the Shanghai Under 15 Blue Team, formed with the Shanghai Shenhua 07 echelon as the team, won the first championship of the Shanghai Rising Star Champions Cup at the SAIC Pudong Football Stadium. When head coach Tao Jin and his players stood on the podium, Shenhua Club chairman Wu Xiaohui had mixed feelings on the sidelines.
This is not the first time such a scene has appeared in Shenhua’s youth training echelon participation experience. The meaning is slightly different from the current championship in 2022. In the last two years, due to the difficulties in the operation of the club, Shenhua’s first team has been hit and the budget has decreased significantly, but the support of the club for the youth training has never stopped. Grŵp Greenland continues to invest money and does its best to ensure the normal operation of all layers.
In 2014, when Greenland Group took over Shenhua, the club had no echelon, and the youth training was empty.
The club started building from “0” to “1” in the youth training system. The first step was to acquire the Lucky Star 1995 age group as a whole. In 2015, through the placement of youth training, the club completed the process of forming two age groups, 1997/1998 and 1999/2000. At the same time, under the leadership of Wu Jingui, the club’s youth training director at the time, the club reached a strategic collaboration with Jiangzhen Middle School to form the 2001/2002 echelon, the 2003 echelon and the 2004 echelon.
So far, the club has rapidly built five tiers in three years, and the rebuilding of the youth training system has begun to develop.
In 2016, Yan Xiang took over the position of youth training director from Wu Jingui, In order to improve self-hematopoietic function, Shenhua continued to increase the number and quality of youth training points. The club has increased cooperation with Yangpu Football School, Yangpu Sports Bureau, and Junior Sports School, but is still aware of the weak overall strength of some age groups in its youth training framework. At the beginning of 2018, Shenhua acquired the entire 1999/2000 echelon from the Genbao base.
In 2017, the club began hiring foreign coaches to lead the echelon, and Spanish youth training coach David Piri served as the head coach of the Greenland Shenhua U16 echelon. In the middle of 2018, Croatian coach Besek became Shenhua’s youth training consultant and head coach of Shenhua 03 echelon.
In order to solve the problem of zero base for youth training, Shenhua gradually built the system by acquiring the entire team in the early days, but the way of acquiring the echelon as a whole cannot fundamentally solve the problem of the reserve forces. Therefore, starting from 2019, Shenhua has continued to increase the distribution of youth training points and improve its self-hematopoietic ability.
In the summer of 2019, Shenhua collaborated with the Spanish NAMA football training camp. After the echelon introduced Spanish and Serbian coaches, they invited the European training team to improve the youth training system. In 2020, the two sides officially reached cooperation. The Spanish coaching team participated in the recruitment and selection, daily training, elite team competition and other processes of the Shenhua youth academy, to develop personal and high-level training methods for young players, and to provide learning and exchange for the Chinese coaching team Opportunity for advanced football concepts.
In addition to quantity and quality, the club’s managers choose youth training coaches based on the principle of not being famous, and are more willing to give more to those coaches who are pragmatic and hardworking, who able to sink their hearts into a youth coaching career and Chinese Football.
Currently, Shenhua’s top tier coaches at all levels include Yu Tao from the U21 echelon, Xu Yibin from the U19 echelon, Ye Zhanggen from the U17 echelon, Tao Jin from the U15 echelon and Zheng Kewei from the U14 echelon. Among them, Xu Yibin is from Shanghai Putuo Football School. As the mentor of Wang Haijian and other players, he has been rooted in Chinese football for decades. Several other coaches have strong Shenhua elements and have played to Shenhua in different periods. At the moment when there is a shortage of coaches on the ground, they choose not to be famous and fortune, they choose to sink their hearts, and quietly contribute to Shenhua’s youth training for many years, which is a valuable asset of the club .
Today, a total of 9 tiers from the 11 to 19 age group have steadily developed and become Shenhua’s reserve force. It is understood that echelon’s total annual expenditure is around 3 million. Based on the normal operation of the echelon, there is a lot of other expenditure which is directly or indirectly related to the youth training.Since 2014, Greenland has invested hundreds of millions of yuan in youth training.
Despite the impact of the epidemic in the last two years, teams at all levels have fewer opportunities to go out and compete, and the salaries of coaches and staff have been disregarded. The Greenland Group’s total investment in youth training has fallen from compared to the previous two years years, butEven in relatively difficult times, the quality of youth training is still basically guaranteed.
“The Greenland Group, President Wu and President Zhou are very supportive of Shenhua’s youth training. For example, to maintain cooperation with the Spanish training team, it is not uncommon to do this when the group first took over Shenhua, but under the difficult circumstances at the moment, the group It is not easy to continue investing in youth training.”Shenhua Youth Training Director Yan Xiang said, “In addition to ensuring the training, competition and daily life of teams at all levels and continuing to cooperate with high-level Spanish training teams,Shenhua also thinks about the future of young players, and cooperates with some schools to provide them with learning opportunities, improve their thinking ability after they usually play football, and they can take another path in the future..”
For the future, the Greenland Group’s approach is to preserve all layers as much as possible:“If you give up now, it will be in vain. No matter who takes over in the future, keeping these layers is a matter for them and for these players.”
02
The predecessors planted the trees and the latter enjoyed the shade
This is real charity football
The 07 echelon trained by Tao Jin came from Shenhua youth training at Jiangzhen Middle School.
Last year, they won the U14 Elite Invitational event. In March this year, due to the epidemic, the team’s training was suspended for several months, and it was not until July that it was regrouped. In this Shanghai Rising Star Champions Cup, the team defeated Chinese Football Association Tigers 3-2, beat Dortmund Academy 2-0, and defeated Shandong Taishan 2-0 to reach the final, followed by 3-0 with a clean sheet . Zhejiang Energy Greentown U15 team won the cup.
“I came to the club in 2002, from the youth training to the first team until retirement, and now I’m starting to do the youth training again.” Tao Jin said, “I have been with this team for three years, and I hope to improve myself first through my own efforts. , and then improve the players’ ability to send more players to Shanghai and’ the country.”
“Special thanks to my club (Shenhua) for not giving up the youth training under such difficult circumstances. President Wu (Xiaohui) and President Zhou (Jun) have always given a lot of trust and encouragement to me, so that I may always be sure.” to lead the youth training. I also know very well that I did not have a very magical resume in my playing days. There were some doubts at that time, but at that time, I was determined to lead the team in earnest – to do something. I will use my achievements to repay the support of the club and the leadership to me.”
As a player who debuted in the youth training system, Tao Jin has been working in the youth training for three years, and has a deeper understanding of the cause of youth training from a coach’s perspective.“In the early years, Guangjiang Town Middle School established a youth training site, with an investment of 40 million yuan per year, which is equivalent to one year’s operating capital for the current Chinese League One team. Over the years, the club’s defense for the Jiangzhen Middle School team has always been They are all big.”
Tao Jin said bluntly that under normal circumstances, private enterprises are reluctant to do such things.“After all, it is a very long process from establishing the youth training to the development to the harvest of results. Moreover, for the investors of the youth training, it is uncertain from the beginning whether they will get the expected results in the end. To put it bluntly, this is what predecessors planted trees and later generations enjoy the shade.”
“Greenland Group has done a good job in this regard. This is the real public welfare football. We are ready to consider the future of Shanghai and Chinese football and cultivate more talents.”
Youth training is one of the indicators of whether a club is truly thriving. In the past two years, the development of Chinese football has fallen into a slump, and many clubs that have invested heavily in economic problems have struggled and even moved towards liquidation. In this case, the youth training is usually the first part to be eliminated, a small number of young potential players leave, and most of them don’t have a ball to play, nobody cares, and they are forced to end their football careers.Financially troubled Shenhua Club did not have a similar situation.
After 8 years of constant investment by Greenland Group, the successive efforts of two directors, and the quiet cultivation of many coaches and grassroots workers, Shenhua has begun to reap the fruits of its youth training. In addition to the familiar Liu Ruofan, Zhu Chenjie, and Jiang Shenglong from the Guozihao team, the younger age group players are preparing and playing for their respective Guozihao teams. Zhu Qiwen, Jin Shunkai, He Longhai, Zhu Yue and Jiang Zhixin are training on behalf of the national under-21 football team in Croatia. Wu Qipeng and Liu Chengyu, selected for the national under-17 team, are participating in U17 Asian Cup qualifiers. in Australia.Return to Sohu, see more
