June 6, soccer commentator Li Xuan on China's youth soccer training status quo blunt: successive Football Association leadership team, invariably huge sums of money into the World Cup and other performance projects at all costs, but the youth training work blind to the lack of attention to potential stars.
Li Xuan further elaborated, "Kuperman, the head coach of the Madrid team, once said that countries are spending a lot of money on soccer investments, but money does not make soccer thrive. Because many young players are just sitting on the bench, they have to be given a chance to play! I remember when I coached Shenyang in 2005, there were a lot of young players on the team, but they were all given practical training, and eventually three players were selected for the national team. Unfortunately, the Chinese national team has not consistently given young players a chance, and bringing in too many Brazilian players is not a good idea. Also, the young players lack sufficient motivation."
Doesn't Coach Koopman realize that there are no longer the vibrant young players in Chinese soccer that there were during his time? The reason behind this is that successive FA leadership teams have focused on World Cup and other performance projects, and have not invested enough in youth training. Today, there are still many people who firmly believe that the current national team will usher in a qualitative leap, which is really saddening.
