With the arrival of 2023, our U20 and U17 national soccer teams concluded their journey in the Asian Cup. The national youth team had an eye-catching performance in the tournament, with a group of young players such as Mutalifu, Hu Huotao and Li Hao breaking through against strong teams such as Japan, Saudi Arabia and South Korea, and advancing to the last eight. Although they suffered a 1-2 defeat against Japan in the group stage, they beat Saudi Arabia 2-0, drew 1-1 with Kyrgyzstan and lost 1-3 to South Korea in the quarterfinals. The National Junior Team, on the other hand, did not fare as well, as they were eliminated from the tournament after much anticipation, drawing 1-1 with Tajikistan, losing 3-5 to Australia, and 0-3 to Saudi Arabia.
The end of the Asian Cup has brought about a sea change in the national youth team. Most of the national youth players were called up to join the U22 national team, while the national youth team suffered consecutive losses, which led to a complete reorganization of the squad. With the departure of the original coach Antonio, the coaching team faces a whole new challenge. Yang Chen is expected to be promoted to national youth coach if he can maintain his normal development, but everything is still uncertain.
On July 25, the national youth team's coaching staff was reorganized with the announcement of a brand new training list. The list covers many members of the U18 national soccer team, many of whom are from the U17 national soccer team. Yang Chen was absent due to family reasons, and Shao Jiayi was appointed to head the coaching team. According to the blogger "Leicester City's Little Fox", the new U18 national football training list of 30 people, the specific candidates have been announced.
National junior players such as Wang Yudong and Ji Wen were successfully promoted to National Youth. The list also includes a host of strong players such as Wang Yudong, Huang Zishun and Peng Xiao. The list was announced before July 24th and the training program has been released and the training will last until August 22nd. The training is aimed at preparing for the 31st China-Japan-Korea Youth Games, which will be held in Wakayama, Japan at the end of August.The U18 national soccer roster is not the final version, and the coaching staff will select more young international players through the training. Shao Jiayi is the head of the coaching team and Ma Quan and Wu Mingkun are members of the coaching team.
According to Beijing Youth Daily, the original plan was to promote the U17 national football coaching team to the national youth coaching team, but due to the fact that the head coach Yang Chen could not continue to coach due to his seriously ill father needing care at home, Shao Jiayi was nominated to be the new coach, and Chen Tao and other people have also joined the coaching team. Currently, the Chinese national youth team is undergoing intensive training at the Beijing Sport University, going all out to prepare for the upcoming challenges.
