Two consecutive goals in extra time sealed the win as Guangzhou beat Dandong Tengyue 4-1 away from home in the 12th round of the Central League, winning two consecutive matches for the first time this season. These two consecutive wins also kept Guangzhou away from the relegation zone. For well-known reasons, all of Guangzhou's teams come from the Evergrande Soccer School. While Team Guangzhou was happy with their winning streak, Evergrande Soccer School also heard good news. After about two years of hard work and optimization, the soccer school has also become self-sustainable, thus becoming a strong backing group for the Guangzhou team.
Due to the circumstances of the last three years, many professional clubs have failed to withstand and become synonymous with history, Evergrande could not avoid this shock. It was for this reason that Guangzhou was relegated from the Chinese Super League to the Central League. At the same time, the Evergrande Football School, which was in transition, was also affected. When the elite training model took shape, they encountered financial pressure.
To this end, Evergrande Football School began to actively help themselves, first of all, "reduce staff". Evergrande Soccer School has more than 1,000 elite players. Due to the free training under the elite model, the cost can be imagined. Evergrande Soccer School selects the best, leaving nearly 400 small players, equipped with ladders at all levels.
After staff streamlining, the huge Evergrande Soccer School has large areas of vacant space. over 1,000 acres of Evergrande Soccer School obviously rents out some areas, and rentals have become a source of income for Evergrande Soccer School. In addition, the Evergrande Soccer School has become the first choice for spring and winter training for many youth training organizations in the north, where soccer training and matches cannot be held in the spring and winter. In addition, Evergrande Soccer Schools also conduct various winter and summer camps, thus generating a large amount of funds to meet the operational needs of the schools.
By the beginning of 2023, Evergrande Soccer School basically realized self-financing, getting rid of the group's long-term "blood transfusion". Although the scale has dropped a lot compared with the original, the complete hardware facilities ensure that Evergrande Soccer School has no worries.
Meanwhile, for the 2023 season, all of Guangzhou's team came from the Evergrande Soccer School, also known as the Soccer School Class. For this reason, Guangzhou recovered many of its previously rented players. Meanwhile, the 2023 season of China A is also an opportunity to test the achievements of Evergrande Soccer School in the first 10 years of training.
After the early season without the pain of "bringing in the old to bring in the new", Guangzhou started to get on the right track from the 1-1 draw with Jinan Xingzhou. In the last 5 rounds, they won 3 and drew 2 to remain undefeated, and in the last 2 rounds, they won the first consecutive victories over Jiangxi Lushan and Dandong Tengyue. The table jumped to the middle of the table, which made Evergrande Soccer School more confident. The current results prove that Evergrande Soccer School's cultivation mode is correct and can produce excellent players. They not only have the ability to meet the requirements of China A, but also many players have no problem to play Chinese Super League.
Therefore, Evergrande Group Chairman Xu Jiayin also put forward the goal of "relegation in the 2023 season and overtaking in the 2024 season" for the team in the recent soccer club meeting. Through the exercise of 2023 season, the team will make strength in 2024 season. It is not difficult to see that Xu Jiayin's confidence in the players cultivated by his own soccer school is also the affirmation of Evergrande's soccer school.
In the current stage of the youth league, two Guangzhou U19 teams participated in the group stage of the China Youth Football League and the CFA National Youth Football League. U19A advanced to the next stage with five wins in the second stage of the already completed matches; U19B is actually a jumping competition for Evergrande Soccer School U17, and the team is half of the 06th and 07th grades, led by the famous player Gao Hong. The team drew Zhejiang Greentown and Changchun Yatai in the first two games, and beat Nantong Zhiyun and Cangzhou Lions 3-0. and 4-0 in the third and fourth rounds respectively. Facing higher and stronger opponents, this team is still all-attack, all-attack attacking soccer, which is in line with the playing style of the first team now. It can be seen that Evergrande Soccer School attaches importance to match training and talent cultivation, much higher than the pursuit of match performance and results.
After solving the problem of operating funds, although the staff size of Evergrande Soccer School has dropped significantly, the selection of the best of the best allows the remaining players to continue to pass on to the Guangzhou team, and will also contribute revenue to the future transfer market, forming a virtuous cycle. At present, Guangzhou team is only in the Central League, and it is difficult to surpass it this season. However, the future Guangzhou team may not have too long a point in time to help the full-football school against the Chinese Super League.
From 2012 to 2023, Evergrande Football School has finally seen the dawn of harvest after more than 10 years of hard work. After being caught in the whirlpool of controversy in the past 10 years, Evergrande Football School will prove its model absolutely correct with various harvests in the future, and its original intention of contributing to Chinese soccer has finally become a reality.
