Clear goals for youth training
New coaching blueprint aims to streamline approach, identify, nurture China’s soccer talent
Inadequacies in youth training systems have been blamed for China’s so-far fruitless search to unearth its very own Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. The publication late last month, however, of a new youth soccer blueprint aims to put in place building blocks to one day make that dream a reality, and at the very least give the nation’s next generation of talent a better chance of succeeding on the global stage.
The 109-page Chinese Football Association document seeks to clarify the aims, philosophies and coaching guidelines of the country’s youth soccer setup.
With contributions from domestic and foreign experts, scholars and elite coaches, work began on the document in 2018, with a final draft sent to Chinese Super League clubs for feedback and suggestions before a revised edition was published.
The blueprint specifies three goals: 1) Nurturing a group of domestic players and coaches to reach the same high standards of developed soccer nations. 2) To allow all Chinese national teams, including the Olympic and youth sides, to have a unified playing style. 3) To enable all Chinese teams to qualify for the world’s top tournaments.
“First of all, we need to set clear development goals. And based on those goals, we need to explore our training philosophies and study how these philosophies will be influenced and affected by the global soccer environment. Step by step, we can finally achieve our goals and turn our philosophies into reality,” said Gao Hongbo, a vice-president of the CFA and former Team China head coach.
The last and only time Team China qualified for the World Cup was in 2002. The chances of the current crop of national team players making the 2022 finals in Qatar look slim while the men’s Olympics team has missed out on a ticket to the Tokyo Games.
The last time China’s men played at an Olympics was in 2008 when they automatically qualified as host in Beijing.
On the women’s side, China faces a hard time trying to revive the Steel Roses’ former glories, which include runner-up finishes at the 1996 Olympics and the 1999 World Cup.
All these struggles on the international stage point to inadequate youth training, despite recent attempts to learn from world soccer powerhouses, the introduction of foreign training systems and sending China’s most promising youngsters abroad to learn their trade.
The Chinese Super League, meanwhile, has endeavored to level up by employing some of the world’s most renowned coaches, including Italian World Cup winner Marcello Lippi and former Liverpool and Real Madrid boss Rafa Benitez.
“What truly matters is to find a way that’s suitable for the development of our domestic players,” said Gao.
“Our Chinese kids’ advantages are flexibility and speed. Our youth training philosophies have been informed by the experiences of Japan, the UK and Germany. But we should not just directly copy these for our country. We have to refine the details to make these methods fit our situation.”
The new training blueprint recommends a development model that is divided into five categories — skills, tactics, body strength, mentality and social skills. It also stresses that youth coaches should not rely on match results as the sole gauge of players.
“Youth coaches should not make match results the No 1 criterion. Having good results in the very early stage does not mean a player is a true talent. But if you cultivate true talent, he or she will eventually shine... We can’t just simply think about how to select some kids to win a particular competition,” said Gao.
Former China international Sun Ji reckons the guidelines are a step in the right direction.
“There are very detailed measures in the outline,” he said. “I believe it will be a tremendous help for future youth training work.”
Gao added that the CFA is devising talent-selection guidelines and will also build a system to analyze, evaluate and track youth players.
“Some kids are just late bloomers, which cannot be ignored,” Gao said. “With such guidelines and systems we can keep helping them grow and tailor training methods to their needs.”
The CFA has stipulated that all of its national teams, coach training programs and youth training centers must adhere to the principles of the blueprint.
But Gao also said that the CFA respects the youth training traditions of different clubs and training centers, and that the governing body welcomes proposals and ideas on nurturing future stars. The CFA will also facilitate schools to adopt the blueprint in their daily PE and soccer education classes.
“World soccer keeps developing and the CFA will keep refining and improving the details of our soccer youth training blueprint according to the changes in youth soccer development,” said Gao.