In the fall of 2018, Cai Zhenhua stepped down from his position as deputy director of the State General Administration of Sport. Just as he was saying goodbye to Chinese soccer, a brand new policy for young players was quietly born.
Since the 2017 season, the CFA has issued regulations requiring at least one player under the age of 23 to play in every match.
At the beginning of the season, clubs had a muted reaction to this. However, with the opening of the summer transfer window, unlike the previous strategy of bringing in well-known foreign aiders, they have turned to a low-key approach, with few heavyweight internal and external aiders brought in, and instead focusing on replenishing young players who comply with the Football Association's regulations.
At the age of 23, it seems to have become a tipping point in the careers of young Chinese players.
Guangzhou Evergrande abandoned the domestic market and brought in young players such as Feng Boxuan, Deng Yubiao and Wu Xiang from the Portuguese lower league; Beijing Guoan brought in Ning Weichen from Kova Petardi; and Shandong Luneng also poached Wei Jingzong from Portugal.
With the word "Portugal" popping up so often in the transfer window, people are not only concerned about the sheer scale of Chinese players studying in the country, but also wondering how they happen to fit the new policy.
The introduction of the new policy has left many clubs facing a shortage of young players almost overnight, with an imbalance between supply and demand in the market and a rapid rise in the social status of players of the right age.
At this point, if an agent has a large number of players of the right age, it is almost easy to make a profit.
As it happens, there was indeed a soccer agency that had a large number of players of age at the time.
National Youth Black Gold
In 2016, Li Ming, the head coach of the 97 National Youth Football League (NYFL), cried in front of the media after the loss in the Asian Youth Football League (AYFL), claiming that the team had no one to rely on.
What Li Ming is afraid to admit, however, is that many obscure players have suddenly appeared in the national youth teams participating in the Asian Youth Championships, most of them from Portuguese third- and fourth-division teams such as Gondomar and Guimarães.
What he couldn't explain was the fact that during his tenure as national youth coach, the national youth team recruited a large number of players from Starlight Hopscotch in international matches. Li Ming stepped down and half of the National Youth Team players were eliminated.
After Li Ming left, Sun Jihai took over the 97-year-old Olympic selection team and later became Hiddink's assistant coach. At the time, Sun Jihai was under Hiddink and had traveled to Xinjiang to participate in youth training under the banner of Xinghui Hesheng.
Hiddink was almost hollowed out at the time and often had seven or eight Starburst Hopscotch players on the field during his Olympic reign. This team had a winning record all the way through the tournament, alternating wins and losses.
Hao Wei took over and brought in three StarHub players including Yang Liyu, Huang Cong and Zhang Lingfeng to form the Asian Cup squad.
In addition to Yan Dinghao and Shan Huanhuan who could not play due to injury, the former coach Wu Wei, Li Yang, Zhang Yuan, Lin Liangming, Yao Daogang brought the "Starlight Hesheng system" players were cleaned up by Hao Wei, and replaced by Luneng youth training players.
This has almost become a true reflection of the "generation of the son of a dynasty", Chinese soccer is really no one available, has become the most difficult to solve the puzzle behind the national youth black gold deal.
Wade-Giles era
During the Weidi era, StarHub began to tie up with the Football Association. The company found coach Rick Rink for the Nine-Thirds.
In August 2011, Weidi took over as the director of the Football Management Center and officially launched the "Youth Study in Portugal" program and committed to promote it as a key project.
There were two agents in charge of this at the time. One was Qingdao agent Chen Qi, the man behind Dabao's trip to Benfica. The other was Guo Feng, the younger brother of Guo Hui, head of the youth department of the FA, who later became the owner of Xinghui Hesheng.
Weidi left Chinese soccer in 2013, and the "Stay in Portugal Program" was not completed.
Some of the players who stayed in Portugal broke away from the control of their original clubs and football associations and were recovered by Xinghui Hesheng, gradually kicking off the export of Chinese soccer to domestic sales.
When Starlight's players continue to be sent to the National Youth Olympics; when they can still become national junior coaches after Rieklink leaves the National Youth; when people close to Starlight continue to serve as national coaches; and when the policies put in place by the Football Association help Starlight, which has hoarded a large number of players of the right age, to sell at the highest point and make a lot of money.
In Chinese soccer, this could be considered a man-made disaster.
The Death of the New Deal
In 2017, when the new FA policy was introduced, Lippi used only two players under the age of 23, Zhang Yuning and Deng Hanwen, in the remaining five matches of the Top 12. Of these, Zhang Yuning was abroad at the time, while Deng Hanwen had become a starter for Guizhou Renhe before the new policy was introduced.
2019 Asian Cup, Lippi did not bring the players under 23 years old, only Liu Yang, Liu Yiming, Wei Shihao on the list in line with the new policy era of the Football Association.
At the time, Wei Shihao had not yet joined Evergrande or played for Hong Kong or Guoan. Before the policy, Liu Yiming was already the main center back for Tianjin Quanjian. Only Liu Yang may be selected for the national team due to the new policy.
In the six years that the new FA policy has been in place, the national team's record has also been quite poor.
In October 2018, Sung Yiu Tung led the Ninety-Nine National Youth Football League (NNYFL) to two consecutive losses at the Asian Youth Championships, with only an inconsequential win in the final round of the group.In 2019, Sung Yiu Tung led the Zero National Youth Football League (ZNYFL) to elimination at the qualifying stage of the Asian Youth Championships.
Under the leadership of fire-fighting coach Hao Wei, in January 2020, the 97th National Olympic Games, whose team right was changed several times, lost three consecutive group matches without scoring a single goal.
If many of the young players returning to China in early 2017 were still on loan, the market for young players in Chinese soccer went completely crazy after 2018.
Beijing Guoan signed Wei Shihao and paid more than 25 million in signing fees.At the end of 2017, Lippi's team publicly stated that He Chao was Zheng Zhi's successor, and clubs such as Evergrande and Quanjian inquired about it, with the price of Yatai at 300 million yuan.
Not only did the new deal fail to produce talent, but the specific policy at one point sent the market price of age-appropriate players soaring, with agents and players who caught up with the new deal profiting.
Without collusion of interest, such a coincidence would be too centralized. How does StarHub understand the future market for young Chinese players? Why did the FA choose only the age of 23? This is just an explanation that no one believes.
Rick Rink, Portugal's retention program, the 1997 National Youth Olympic Games, Hiddink and other people's network of relations, will reveal more untold secrets? Cai Zhenhua: "U23 new policy" of the cake was moved.
