On the afternoon of October 4th, the Shanghai U15 Blue Team, formed with the Shanghai Shenhua 07 echelon as the team, won the first championship of the Shanghai Rising Star Champions Cup at SAIC Pudong Football Stadium. When head coach Tao Jin and his players stood on the podium, Wu Xiaohui, chairman of Shenhua Club, had mixed feelings on the sidelines.
This is not the first time that such a scene has appeared in the Shenhua youth training echelon’s participation experience. The current championship in 2022 has a slightly different meaning. In the past two years, due to the difficulties in the club’s operation, Shenhua’s first team has been hit and the budget has been greatly reduced. However, the club’s support for the youth training has never stopped. Greenland Group continues to invest funds and is doing its best to ensure the normal operation of all echelons.
In 2014, when Greenland Group took over Shenhua, the club did not have an echelon, and the youth training was blank.
The club began to build 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 arrangement of youth training, the club completed the formation of two age groups of 1997/1998 and 1999/2000. At the same time, led by Wu Jingui, the club’s youth training director at the time, the club reached a strategic cooperation with Jiangzhen Middle School to form the 2001/2002 echelon, the 2003 echelon and the 2004 echelon.
So far, the club has quickly built five echelons in three years, and the reconstruction of the youth training system has begun to take shape.
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 it 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 1999/2000 echelon as a whole from the Genbao base.
In 2017, the club began to hire foreign coaches to lead the echelon, and the Spanish youth training coach David Piri served as the head coach of the Greenland Shenhua U16 echelon. In mid-2018, Croatian coach Besek became Shenhua youth training consultant and head coach of Shenhua 03 echelon.
In order to solve the problem of zero foundation 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 reserve forces. Therefore, starting from 2019, Shenhua has continued to increase the distribution of youth training points and enhance its self-hematopoietic ability.
In the summer of 2019, Shenhua cooperated with the Spanish NAMA football training camp. After the echelon introduced Spanish and Serbian coaches, it invited the European coaching team to improve the youth training system. In 2020, the two sides officially reached a 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 personalized and high-level training methods for young players, and to provide learning and exchanges for the Chinese coaching team. Opportunity for advanced football concepts.
In addition to quantity and quality, the club management chooses youth training coaches based on the principle of not being famous, and is more willing to give more to those coaches who are pragmatic and diligent, who can sink their hearts into the youth training career and Chinese football. Chance.
At present, the head coaches of Shenhua’s echelons 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 for Shenhua in different eras. At the moment when there is a shortage of grassroots coaches, they choose not to be famous and fortune, they choose to sink their hearts, and silently contribute to the Shenhua youth training for many years, which is a valuable asset of the club.
Today, a total of 9 echelons from the age group of 11 to 19 have developed steadily and become the backup force of Shenhua. It is understood that the total annual expenditure of an echelon is about 3 million. On the basis of the normal operation of the echelon, there are many other expenditures 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 past two years, teams at all levels have fewer opportunities to go out to compete, and the salaries of coaches and staff have been discounted. Greenland Group’s total investment in youth training has decreased compared with the previous two years, butEven in a relatively difficult stage, the quality of youth training is still basically guaranteed。
“Greenland Group, President Wu and President Zhou are very supportive of Shenhua’s youth training. For example, to carry out cooperation with the Spanish coaching team, it is not uncommon to do this when the group first took over Shenhua, but under the difficult circumstances at this stage, the group It’s really not easy to keep 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 coaching teams,Shenhua is also thinking 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, Greenland Group’s attitude is to keep all the echelons as much as possible:“If you give up now, it will be in vain. No matter who will take over in the future, retaining these echelons is an account 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 coached by Tao Jin came from Shenhua’s youth training in 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 regrouped. In this Shanghai Rising Star Champions Cup, the team defeated the Chinese Football Association Tigers 3-2, beat the Dortmund Academy 2-0, and defeated Shandong Taishan 2-0 to reach the final, and then 3-0 with a clean sheet. The U15 team of Zhejiang Energy Greentown won the cup.
“I came to the club in 2002, from the youth training to the first team to retirement, and now I start 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 ability of the players 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 me a lot of trust and encouragement, so that I can always Be sure to lead the youth training. I also know very well that I didn’t have a very glamorous resume in my playing days. There were some doubts at that time, but at that time, I was determined to lead the team in a down-to-earth manner and make something. I will use my achievements to repay the support of the club and leadership for 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 the perspective of a coach.“In the early years, Guangjiang Town Middle School set up a youth training site, with an investment of 40 million yuan a year, which is equivalent to a year’s operating capital for a current China League One team. Over the years, the club’s protection for the Jiangzhen Middle School team has always been They’re 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 the establishment of 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 enjoyed the shade.”
“Greenland Group has done a good job in this regard. This is the real public welfare football. We are willing 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 dissolution. In this case, the youth training usually becomes the first part to be discarded, a small number of potential young players leave, and most of them have no ball to play, no one cares, and are forced to terminate their football careers.Shenhua Club, which is in financial difficulty, did not have a similar situation.
After 8 years of steady investment from Greenland Group, the successive efforts of two directors, and the silent cultivation of many coaches and grassroots workers, Shenhua has begun to harvest the fruits of its youth training. main force”. In addition to the regulars Liu Ruofan, Zhu Chenjie, and Jiang Shenglong of the Guozihao team, the players of the younger age group are preparing and playing on behalf of their respective Guozihao teams. Zhu Qiwen, Jin Shunkai, He Longhai, Zhu Yue and Jiang Zhixin are training for the U21 national football team in Croatia. Wu Qipeng and Liu Chengyu, who were selected for the U17 national team, are participating in the U17 Asian Cup qualifiers in Australia.Return to Sohu, see more