In the early spring of 2024, Sun Jihai announced on social media that he was officially launching a program called the "Haixuan Future Football Program" with the aim of cultivating international Chinese players who can compete in the top five leagues.
This year, it coincided with Xu Genbao turning 80 years old. Many students from Chongming Football Academy visited the island on the second day of the year. Without realizing it, people realized that Xu Genbao's contribution to Chinese soccer has been over 20 years.
From Qatar to the United States, Canada and Mexico, Xu Genbao quietly became the national team behind the "invisible" head coach. In the two World Cup cycles, Chongming players occupy half of the starting lineup of the national team.
As for Sun Jihai, he has been acting quite low-key recently. In an interview, he bluntly expressed his expectations for Xinjiang's youth training: "I think Xinjiang soccer has a huge potential for development, or rather, my soccer dreams are likely to be realized in Xinjiang."
In the public opinion has been hotly debated "Xinjiang youth training" at the time, Sun Jihai is still working in the Olympic team, at the same time as the vice chairman of the Xinjiang Football Association.
In August 2019, Gao Hongbo was appointed vice president of the Football Association and Sun Jihai then submitted his resignation to leave the Olympics. The team's chaos was quelled when Hao Wei took over.
The National Olympic Mystery
It has to be mentioned that Sun Jihai had a stint with Hiddink before he traveled to the Great Northwest.
In September 2019, the Chinese Olympics and the North Korean Olympics met at the Yellowstone Four-Nation Invitational. When the camera was on the Chinese Olympic coaching box, it wasn't Hiddink but Sun Jihai who commanded from the sidelines.
Three days later, Hiddink faced a crushing defeat by the Vietnamese national Olympics, and the CFA's crisis of confidence in Hiddink reached a tipping point.
In this Olympic training match, Abdukhemi's performance impressed the fans, which may be one of the driving forces behind Sun Jihai's commitment to Xinjiang's youth training.
At that time, Hiddink basically didn't pay attention to the Chinese Super League or Chinese League One, and didn't examine the players' status. He spent most of his time at home in the Netherlands. Nearly half of the Olympians selected by Hiddink's assistant, Sinkehlavern, came from the Starlight and Sheng agency.
After the fiasco, a clue is gradually emerging that the selection of the national Olympic team was manipulated by agents during Hiddink's tenure.
Brokerage firms work with lower-level Portuguese clubs to operate domestic young players overseas, selecting national brands for the next round of packaging once the young players have completed their overseas gold plating, and then selling them at a high price to domestic clubs.
In addition, Luneng players led by Duan Liuyu were long rejected by Hiddink and Sun Jihai. This situation did not improve until Hao Wei took over, but the end of the failure did not change.
The mysteries of the Olympics include, but are not limited to: why has no one been held accountable for using the national team to make black money? Did Hiddink passively relinquish his command, or was he actively shelved? What role did Sun Jihai play in the Olympics?
Business in Xinjiang
So, Xinjiang youth training, is it as pure and unblemished as people think?
If one were to delve into the details of Sun Jihai's youth training in Xinjiang, one would realize that his model is quite similar to Li Ming's Xinghui Hesheng.
In the Xinjiang youth training program, Sun Jihai pushed the actual manipulator, is hi ball technology CEO Bong Yu Mang.
Sun Jihai has a truer identity as the chairman of Hi-Ball Technology, a company that is rumored to bring in $20 million a year for Sun Jihai.
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, the autonomy of youth training in Xinjiang is high, but it can also be completely closed. No one can answer the question of whether an excessively high level of superior will affects the rules.
According to the director of the Xinjiang Football Administration Center, who has high hopes for local youth training, his reasoning is fairly concise.
"Currently, dozens of Xinjiang players play in leagues at all levels across the country. Authoritative studies also say 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 do youth training. The input and output are disproportionate and the payback period is too long."
The words in the true or false without comment, Chen Xuyuan still shouted "conscience is dead", Li Tie at first looked much purer than Sun Jihai, the savior of Chinese soccer in the moment of crisis to be properly dealt with.
Of course, the most interesting thing is that Sun Jihai's Xinjiang youth training also involves fundraising and crowdfunding.
Youth training leeks
There is a sudden wave of public opinion thanking Sun Jihai, from the National Youth League's victory over Saudi Arabia, to the draw with Kyrgyzstan, nine years after breaking through the Asian Youth League group.
Efirdin went from Kashgar to Shaanxi Old City Roots in 2014. Baihramu and Buyurang both went to the Luneng soccer academy around 2016. Only Mutalifu and Sun Jihai went to Chengdu together around the same time.
The current young well-known Xinjiang players basically left Xinjiang before Sun Jihai went there to do youth training. Sun Jihai himself never worked with this national youth team. The national youth team outing really has nothing to do with him.
From this point of view, Chinese soccer leeks are really too much, do not cut also sorry for themselves.
In fact, the righteous Sun Jihai drew a big cake for Chinese soccer back in 2016. "Golf live audience of more than 1 million explosions Gao Hongbo black material", he never had the opportunity to realize this promise.
Chinese soccer is not working is not a problem of youth training, but a problem of poorly constructed professional league system.
Due to the lack of a system, the number of professional players in the Chinese soccer league is now 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 remains unknown whether those players who followed them in the beginning will have a second choice once the path of the youth-food industry goes wrong.
Therefore, why not ask Sun Jihai, Star Sports that year and the National Youth Olympic Games there is no disconnect, is to go to Xinjiang to expand business, or really contribute to Xinjiang soccer, think about what are the little things.
Xinjiang seedlings themselves are still escaping the local youth training system. Sun Jihai entered the business operation with capital, doing nothing more than trying, even trying other people's money through crowdfunding.
A statement rooted in Xinjiang's youth training is enough to inspire the Chinese people's passion for soccer. I wonder if anyone still remembers his unconfident statement that "Chinese people are not fit to play soccer".
As for youth training, Wanda's Atletico Madrid program, Hebei Elite, and other programs were done at the best time of the gold dollar environment in Chinese soccer, and they all ended up being gone. I'm sure Sun Jihai knows better than anyone whether selecting and centralizing training is useful or not.
If you can actually engage in popularizing and building a small team in the area like everyone else, that's admirable. Traffic is up and then the tone is set so high it can only be 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.
