In the 12th round of the Central League, Guangzhou scored two goals in extra time to beat Dandong Tengyue away from home by 4-1, ushering in the first double win of the season and successfully escaping the shadow of relegation. The members of this team, without exception, are all from Evergrande Soccer School. With the successive victories of the Guangzhou team, the Evergrande Soccer School also came with exciting news: after unremitting efforts, the school finally realized independent profitability, providing a solid backing for the team.
However, over the past three years, the environment of professional soccer has changed drastically, and many clubs are overwhelmed, and Evergrande is no exception. Dropping from the Super League to the Central League, the Evergrande Soccer School in transition has faced the same financial difficulties. But even so, the school has stubbornly survived on the basis of its elite training model.
Evergrande Football School has adopted the strategy of "streamlining and simplifying", screening out nearly 400 outstanding young players from the original 1,000 elite players, and constructing different levels of echelons. At the same time, the school has rented out a large number of unused venues, and the rent has become a new source of income. In addition, the school has attracted the attention of many northern youth training institutions, organizing winter and summer camps to raise funds to ensure the normal operation of the school.
By the beginning of 2023, Evergrande Football School has basically become self-sustainable, ending the Group's long-term financial support. Despite the downsizing, the perfect facilities make the school worry-free. And Guangzhou, the team delivered by Evergrande Soccer School, also showed amazing strength in the 2023 season.
At the beginning of the season, Guangzhou experienced the pain of "old and new", but then they found their form. In the last five rounds of matches, the team won three and drew two, beating Jiangxi Lushan and Dandong Tengyue in succession, and successfully relegated. The position on the table has also risen steadily, injecting confidence into the Evergrande Soccer School. These results prove the success of Evergrande Soccer School's training model.
Evergrande Group Chairman Hui Kayan set the goal of "relegation in 2023 and overtaking in 2024" for the team at a recent meeting. He firmly believes that the team will explode in the 2024 season after the training in the 2023 season. Xu Kayan has full confidence in the players cultivated by Evergrande Soccer School, which also indirectly affirms the development mode of the school.
In the Youth League, both Guangzhou U19 teams achieved excellent results. U19A won all their matches in the group stage and U19B, a team that jumped from U17 of Evergrande Soccer School, performed equally well. This shows that Evergrande Soccer School's emphasis on match training and talent development far exceeds the pursuit of results.
After solving the financial problem, Evergrande Football School has reduced its scale, but through selecting talents, it has delivered a steady stream of excellent players for Guangzhou team and accumulated wealth for the future transfer market. Although the Guangzhou team is still in the Central League, it is believed that they will help Evergrande Soccer School to fight against the Chinese Super League in the near future.
From 2012 to 2023, Evergrande Football School has weathered the storm and finally ushered in the harvest season. In the future, the school will prove the correctness of its model with more achievements and contribute to the development of Chinese soccer.
