Reporter Bing Bing reported that last year, Guangzhou team by veteran Zheng Zhi out to put out the fire. 42 years old, he is considered a rare young coach in the Chinese Super League. He and Xie Hui, Hao Wei, Chen Yang, Zhang Xiurui, Li Weifeng, Yu Genwei, Li Jinyu, Zhao Junzhe and other people of the same age of 40-50 years old, forming a new force of local coaches in the Chinese Super League. However, just as 2023 arrived, Chinese Super League promotion horse Nantong Zhiyun appointed an even younger coach who is also a Yang Shuai: David Patricio, who will turn 39 in March, replaced Cao Rui, who is less than 2 years older than him, to help him from the position of assistant coach. Currently, David PatriCio is the youngest coach among the 18 teams in the 2023 Chinese Super League.
Patricio's coaching career began 20 years ago, at the age of 18, when he started coaching at the Benfica Football Academy. Since then, he has almost always worked as a ladder coach for clubs in Portugal's lower leagues, traveling to seven clubs, starting with Benfica 7's and moving on to the U13 youth ladder.In February 2010, the Fire Coach of Sintra People's United of Portugal's third tier served as an assistant coach with only three months of practical experience. After that, he coached Marvera and Mafra U19 youth teams.In the summer of 2018, Patricio coached Estoril, who is one year younger than Ferrélé and has just entered the Portuguese First Division. It was Patricio's first stint as a first-team assistant coach, but he left in January 2019 after less than seven months.
Patricio served as a ladder coach in 2019 when Wei Xin was the Nantong coach. In the last four years, Patricio has worked his way up from youth coach and youth coach to first team technical director and assistant coach. Now, 13 years later, he is once again the first team coach. Nantong is Patricio's longest-serving club, surpassing the two-and-a-half years of Sintra People's United and Mavra Ladders.
Patricio currently holds UEFA Youth Elite A and UEFA Pro Coaching certificates and has no problem coaching in the Chinese Super League. In Nantong, he works with four coaches including Wei Xin and English coach Gary - White, Xie Hui and Cao Rui.
Patricio, who turned 39 in March, is the youngest coach in the Super League, more than five months younger than Wang Song. Nantong has a tradition of hiring young coaches. in 2016, Wei Xin was only 39 when he took over as the first coach; Croatian coach Stipic was only 37 at the end of the year; and the oldest, Garry White, Xie Hui, and Cao Rui, were no more than 45 years old. Cao Rui, Patricio's replacement, will be less than 40 when he takes over in August 2021, and managed to lead the team to the Chinese Super League last season.
Nantong chose Patricio because the Portuguese has been in the team for four years and they are very familiar with the team, less risky than hiring an unfamiliar foreign coach. Nantong's first-team and ladder players from last year's Premier League campaign know him well enough, and he is also familiar with the club's operations and doesn't need to rub shoulders with the management and first-team squad. For Nantong, whose main goal for the new season is relegation, this is not the least risky option.
Of course, Patricio is not the youngest coach in the history of the Chinese Super League. Back in 2006, 29-year-old Chongqing captain Wei Xin led his team through the final round of the season as a firefighting coach, and in 2007, at the age of 30, he led Chongqing as a head coach in the Chinese Super League. A year later, at the age of 31, he led the team back to the Chinese Super League, and in 2009, at the age of 32, Wei Xin led the team as a full-fledged head coach, the youngest full-fledged head coach in the history of the Chinese Super League. Unfortunately, he only led the team until May, when he was replaced by Alihan due to his poor record.
