In the early spring of 2024, Sun Jihai announced on social media platforms, aiming to incubate the local international footballers among the top five leagues, officially launched a selection action called "Future Football Program".
At the same time, this year coincides with the 80th birthday of Xu Genbao. On the second day of the New Year, many Chongming disciples gathered on the island, as if it were a lifetime ago, people can not help but marvel at Xu Genbao's far-reaching influence on Chinese soccer has been more than 20 years.
From Qatar across to North America, Xu Genbao incarnation of the national team behind the "invisible" think tank, two World Cup cycle, Chongming players almost half of the national team.
As for Sun Jihai, he seems quite low-key recently. In an interview, he confessed his expectations for Xinjiang youth soccer: "I think Xinjiang soccer has great potential, perhaps my soccer dreams can be realized there."
The concept of "Xinjiang youth training", which seemed to fit the public perception and was slightly politically correct, gradually gained popularity. At this time, Sun Jihai was still serving on the Olympic team and was vice president of the Xinjiang Football Association.
In August 2019, Gao Hongbo was appointed vice president of the FA and Sun Jihai then submitted his resignation and left the Olympics. Hao Wei took over and the team's chaos was put to rest.
national Olympic maze
Before exploring Sun Jihai's move to the North West, his work with Hiddink cannot be ignored.
In September 2019, the Chinese Olympics and the North Korean Olympics met in the Yellowstone Four-Nation Invitational. When the camera was on the Chinese Olympic coaching box, it wasn't Hiddink but Sun Jihai who commanded on the sidelines.
Hiddink's crisis of confidence in the CFA reached its peak three days later when he faced a two-goal loss against the Vietnam National Olympics, coached by his former assistant Park Hang-su.
In this Olympic training match, only Abdukhemi's performance impressed the fans, which may also be one of the motivations for Sun Jihai to devote himself to Xinjiang youth training.
At the time, Hiddink turned a blind eye to the Chinese Super League and Chinese League One, and did not examine the players' form, remaining mostly stranded at home in the Netherlands. Nearly half of the Olympians selected by Hiddink's assistant, Sinkehraafen, came from the agency Xinghui and Sheng.
After the fiasco, a clue is gradually emerging that the selection of the national Olympic team during Hiddink's tenure was manipulated by an agent.
Brokerage firms work with lower-level Portuguese clubs to push young domestic players overseas, complete their overseas gold-plating before choosing a national brand for a new round of packaging and finally selling them at a high price to domestic clubs.
In addition, Luneng players led by Duan Liuyu were long neglected by Hiddink and Sun Jihai. This situation did not improve until Hao Wei took over. However, the end of the failure did not change.
Olympic myths include, but are not limited to, why has no one been held accountable for using the national team as a tool for enrichment? Was Hiddink passive or active in relinquishing command? What role did Sun Jihai play in the Olympics?
Business Opportunities in Xinjiang
Xinjiang youth training, is it as sacred as people think?
If one were to delve into the details of Sun Jihai's youth training in Xinjiang, one would find that his model is similar to that of Li Ming's former Xinghui Hesheng.
In the Xinjiang youth training program, Sun Jihai pushed the actual manipulator, is hi ball technology CEO Bong Yu Mang.
Sun Jihai also has a lesser-known status as the chairman of Hi-Ball Technology, which is rumored to bring in $20 million a year.
Xinjiang youth training is special, in the context of football reform, Xinjiang Football Association formally separated from the autonomous region Sports Bureau Football Management Center, Xinjiang Daming Mining Group for the first time as an entrepreneur, Chairman Xu Minglai Football Association Chairman.
In this case, youth training in Xinjiang is extremely autonomous, but it may also be self-contained as a result. No one can answer the question of whether an excessively high level of superior will interferes with the rules.
According to the director of the Xinjiang Football Administration Center, the reason for the high expectations of the local youth training is quite succinct.
"Currently, dozens of Xinjiang players play in leagues at all levels across the country. Authoritative studies have also shown that Xinjiang players are generally better than other regions in indicators such as blood testosterone and red blood cell levels, which means they have better stamina and more endurance."
However, the harsh reality is that it wasn't until Baitijiang was selected for the Xinjiang national team that there was the first truly international player.
At the end of 2018, Sun Jihai, together with Beijing Hi Ball Technology and Xinjiang Daming Mining Group, co-funded the establishment of Xinjiang Snow Future, which operates commercially as an entity to develop soccer in Xinjiang.
"Youth training is not a business," Sun Jihai said firmly. "If it were pure business, I would not choose to devote myself to youth training. The input is disproportionate to the output and the payback cycle is too long."
It is difficult to distinguish between true and false words, Chen Xuyuan still shouting "conscience is dead", Li Tie seemed to be more pure than Sun Jihai, the savior of Chinese soccer in the moment of crisis to deal with quite a lot of attention.
Most notably, of course, Sun Jihai's Xinjiang Youth Training is beginning to experiment with fundraising and crowdfunding.
Youth training leeks
There has been a sudden surge in public opinion to express gratitude to Sun Jihai, nine years after breaking through the Asian Youth League group from the National Youth League's victory over Saudi Arabia to a draw with Kyrgyzstan.
Efirdin came to Shaanxi Old City Roots from Kashgar in 2014. Baihelamu and Buyulang both joined the Luneng soccer academy around 2016. Only Mutalifu traveled to Chengdu at the same time as Sun Jihai.
Almost all of the current prominent Xinjiang players left before Sun Jihai left for Xinjiang's youth training. Sun Jihai himself has never worked with the national youth team. The national youth team's appearance seems to have nothing to do with him.
From this point of view, Chinese soccer "leek" seems to be really too much, not cut really sorry for themselves.
In fact, Sun Jihai painted a grand blueprint for Chinese soccer back in 2016. "Golf live audience of more than 1 million explosions Gao Hongbo black material", but he never had the opportunity to realize this promise.
The problem with Chinese soccer is not youth training, but a poorly constructed professional league system. Due to the lack of a system, the number of professional players in the Chinese soccer league is very limited, and it really doesn't pay to play soccer in China except for head players who make money.
I don't know if Sun Jihai will be able to form multiple professional training teams by attracting investment, but it's unknown if those players who initially followed them will have any other options once the youth-feeding industry goes south.
Therefore, it is better to ask Sun Jihai, Star Sports that year and the National Youth Olympic Games whether there is a disconnect, is to go to Xinjiang to expand business, or really contribute to Xinjiang soccer, thinking about whether there are other considerations.
Xinjiang seedlings themselves have escaped the local youth training system. Sun Jihai entered the business operation with capital, and all he did was try, even through crowdfunding to try other people's money.
A statement rooted in Xinjiang's youth training is enough to inspire Chinese people's passion for soccer. I wonder if anyone still remembers his once unconfident statement that "Chinese people are not fit to play soccer".
As for youth training, Wanda's Atletico Madrid program, Hebei Elite, and other projects were all completed at the best time in the Chinese soccer gold dollar environment, and ended up being a non-starter. I believe Sun Jihai knows better than anyone the effectiveness of centralized selection and training.
It would be admirable if you actually engaged in popularizing and building small teams in the area as others have done. Traffic is up and the tone is set so high that it can only be a little embarrassing.
In Chinese soccer, everyone is acting, some are solving problems, some are trying, but for the real problems, everyone pretends not to see them.
