Famous soccer figures Fan Zhiyi, Xu Genbao, Chen Xuyuan and the popular international player Wu Lei made a joint appearance.
The Chinese Football Association's elite training camp for young players in the 2007 and 2008 age groups had its grand opening on the 13th at the Genbao Football Base in Chongming, Shanghai.
The training will last for five days and will be guided by a coaching team led by Fu Bo, Lv Jun and Wang Lei. The 80 elite players participating in the training come from all over the country, including club and school soccer teams.
On the morning of the 13th, CFA President Chen Xuyuan, Vice President Gao Hongbo, soccer legends Xu Genbao and Fan Zhiyi, and Wu Lei, who will be traveling to Spain, attended the opening ceremony together. Chen Xuyuan had an in-depth conversation with Fan Zhiyi and Xu Genbao.
The purpose of this training camp is to respond to the policy of integration of sports and education, to implement the requirements of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) to further promote the reform of soccer in a number of measures to cultivate "elite young players", and to comply with the relevant work arrangements of the CFA and strict epidemic prevention and control measures. This is the first time that a training camp has been organized for young players born in 2007 and 2008, with the aim of selecting and forming the U14 national junior team from among them.
Particularly worth mentioning, Genbao base since 2004 has been held here in the national training, at that time for the 1990 age group of the U14 national team, Wu Lei, Yan Junling, and other players born in 1991 have also broken the rules to participate.
Seventeen years have flicked by, Wu Lei and other players have grown into the backbone of the national team, leading the team to break into the World Cup qualifying round of twelve Asian finals.
Chen Xuyuan rushed to Chongming early in the morning and was very happy to see Xu Genbao, Fan Zhiyi and Wu Lei's teacher and disciple and said to Wu Lei: "The next training will be very tough!"
Wu Lei responded without hesitation, "As long as it is the needs of the national team, any hardship I am willing to bear!" Afterwards, Wu Lei took a group photo with the young players.
Chen Xuyuan also has high hopes for Xu Genbao and Fan Zhiyi, stating, "Youth training still relies on the success of Xu's guidance!" And asked Fan Zhiyi if he is interested in leading the team, "Your experience and ability is no problem, the key is whether you can be quiet and stay calm?"
Fan said that as long as the CFA officially hired him, he would "quit all variety shows" in accordance with the management system of the national team.
In the opening ceremony, Chen Xuyuan to all participate in the training of young players put forward expectations, hoping that they can "moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic development", "learning to play football more to learn to be a person".
After watching the players' first training session, Chen Xuyuan discussed many details with Gao Hongbo, hoping to improve the quality of the national team's training.
After the training, Chen Xuyuan had a closed-door meeting with Genbao for nearly an hour, detailing the next youth training program and soliciting Genbao's advice. Genbao, in turn, shared his experience of the 21-year youth training base, ranging from player selection to consistency in technical and tactical style and other specific issues.
"Having watched the European Cup, we found that the gap between the physical quality of our soccer players and that of European players is large and difficult to change in the short term, but we can focus on South Korea and Japan first and try to catch up with them!"
Chen Xuyuan agrees, "That's why we need to catch the under-16s at their level first!"
