In the passionate World Cup feast, national teams competed, but the Chinese men's soccer team has become the object of public ridicule. The public's expectations of the national football team are mixed with disappointment. In order to save the national football team, we have made a lot of efforts, one of which is to hire foreign coaches.
Thirty years ago, Schlapner was invited to China as a "savior", eagerly awaited by the fans and well-paid. However, Schlapner was in fact an "international fraudster", and the so-called savior was just a flickering meteor.
Klaus Schlapner, born in Germany in 1942, played soccer in his youth, but did not achieve significant success, and did not even make it to the German First Division. 24 years old, he left the game and became a professional soccer coach. In his coaching career in Germany, Schlapner was a quiet and unknown player, and although he considered himself to be very talented, he had few achievements.
It wasn't until 1984 that Schlapner became the coach of Germany's Waldhof after many years of hibernation, a year in which he led the team to the German Bundesliga and won several honors. Although there are many similar coaches in Germany, Schlapner's ability to come to China as a head coach came about by chance.
In 1984, Schlapner led a visit to China and it was natural for the team to participate in the tournament. Schlapner's team took part in the Great Wall Cup and won it in one fell swoop, leaving a deep impression on the Chinese fans. In this way, Schlapner left a heroic image in the hearts of Chinese fans and his reputation spread far and wide.
In the 1990s, Chinese soccer was not yet professionalized, and the national football team had no chance of winning against mature teams like Germany. This made Chinese fans feel helpless, after all, the national football team lacked experience in the international arena.
Beckenbauer, the German soccer legend, once led the German team to win the World Cup, known as the "Emperor of Soccer". 1990, Beckenbauer led the German team to win the championship, the world was abuzz. Beckenbauer even said: "Germany will be invincible in the next few years!"
Germany's brilliant record, coupled with Beckenbauer's grandiose words, so that Germany has become a soccer fans in the heart of the Holy Land. In this context, Chinese fans have called for a German coach, for the national football team "small stove", to enhance the strength.
It was against this background that Schlapner was brought to China. Although he was only a "third-rate" coach in Germany, to Chinese fans who knew nothing about Chinese soccer, Schlapner was already a top figure in the pyramid.
Schlapner was undaunted by the invitation. He has always considered himself to be very talented and now he has finally met his soulmate. In order for Schlapner to come to China, Fang Hong, president of Shanghai Volkswagen, took the initiative to sponsor the FA and paid Schlapner's retainer.
In 1992, at the age of 52, Schlapner arrived in China and was welcomed with the highest level of hospitality. A special plane picked him up on his arrival in Beijing, a red carpet was spread over the steps, and a large number of fans formed a spontaneous welcoming procession, which was very loud and powerful.
After taking office, Schlapner began to improve the national soccer team with German soccer philosophy and training methods, and made remarkable progress. Under his efforts, the national football team became more standardized and professional, and many outstanding players were showcased.
Schlapner advocated the "Panther Spirit": hard work, never giving in, and unparalleled resilience. He once said: "If you don't know where to kick the ball, kick it at the opponent's goal."
Schlapner was very hands-on, keeping detailed records of the physical condition of the national soccer players, their diets and their lives, and managing them very strictly.
In just a few months, the national soccer team has been transformed. Under Schlapner's leadership, the national soccer team finished third in the Asian Cup, and fans were abuzz with excitement, giving credit to Schlapner's "magic".
With the results coming in, the expectations for Schlapner are getting higher and higher. More than a year later, the World Cup is coming, can Schlapner lead the national soccer team to the World Cup finals? People are confident about this.
Schlapner became the most popular and discussed foreigner in China, and was known as the "Soccer Bai Qiu En". During the Spring Festival, he also appeared in the Spring Festival Gala and became the comic relief for Niu Qun and Feng Gong.
Schlapner's popularity reached its peak when his hair was auctioned off for 50,000 dollars at the Spring Festival. The nation is pinning its hopes on him to lead the national soccer team to the finals.
However, the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment. After all, Schlapner is just a coach, he is neither a god nor a savior, he is just a capable foreign coach.
In May 1993, the World Cup qualifier, the national soccer team against Irbid, originally no suspense in the game, but accidentally lost the game, which also announced that China and that World Cup is not related.
After the World Cup loss, those who had been avid supporters of Schlapner blamed him for the fault and started attacking Schlapner furiously. A few months later, the national soccer team lost again in the Asian Cup qualifiers, and Schlapner was reduced to the guilty party.
With two negative records, Schlapner became infamous, and fans began to dislike him, believing him to be incapable of coaching, or even "unworthy of being a coach".
Schlapner was also reduced from head coach to "consultant", a virtually unprofessional position. At the end of his contract, Schlapner returned to Germany.
According to media reports, Schlapner left China in a spectacular scene. He received all kinds of gifts, expensive Chinese furniture, jewelry and accessories, antique collections, etc., filling a whole large container.
Fans angrily demanded that Schlapner give up his gifts, arguing that he shouldn't take anything away.
Schlapner was presented with a small car by the federation with the inscription "Out of Asia", which he also towed back home.
After the failure to hire a "foreign manager", everyone is still angry at Schlapner, through various channels to denounce and attack him, that he is a real international fraud, cheating the feelings of fans and money.
In fact, although Schlapner is not a very good coach, he is not a liar either. He has been a coach in Germany for decades and has made some achievements, and before coming to China, he was even named "Germany's top ten soccer coaches of the year".
His arrival to a certain extent alleviated the embarrassing situation of the national football team's lack of professionalism and specialization, and brought a whole set of German soccer concepts and soccer training methods, which formed the training mode of the national football team at that time.
There is indeed a huge gap between the national football team and German soccer, and the goal at that time was to reach the World Cup finals, regardless of how many places, as long as they went in even if successful.
Schlapner's help as a good German coach cannot be denied. But we can't pin all our hopes on him just because of his achievements and the aura of a German coach, which is also unfair to Schlapner.
There are a lot of factors to consider for a team to be successful, and in addition to great coaching, it takes a strong team, and closeness between the coach and players. It's a group, if not an entire era.
From the perspective of historical materialism, Schlapner can drive the development of the national football team in the "point", but absolutely no way to form a "surface" or even "three-dimensional" progress.
Furthermore, Schlapner has only been in China for two years, and he hasn't been in charge for very long, taking months just to settle in, let alone get on the right track with training.
Schlapner has gone to great lengths to bond with his national soccer teammates, but instead of being defused, the conflicts between the two sides have become more and more intense.
The most important conflict was the problem of discipline. At that time, due to the lack of discipline, many players in the team had the problem of drinking and smoking, which is absolutely taboo nowadays, but at that time, there was no law on abstaining from drinking and smoking, so this phenomenon prevailed.
Schlapner in Germany as a coach for many years, the team quit smoking and drinking is a common thing. Alcoholism and smoking will lead to athletes' physical decline, addicted to rest, no interest in training, which is Schlapner can not accept, so he started with the players of the "war on alcohol and tobacco".
In order to keep an eye on the players at all times, Schlapner checked the dormitories every other day during their breaks, each time looking around the edges as well, not being able to spot a single beer cap or cigarette butt.
Because of this incident, Schlapner often had conflicts with his players. Even sometimes after he confiscated the players' alcohol, the players objected in the dormitory and refused to participate in training.
What makes Schlapner even more angry is that sometimes, when it is time to play, some players are still loitering in the disco every day, unmotivated to train.
In the eyes of the players, Schlapner was after all an "outsider", whom they could not recognize and even rejected.
There is also a point of contradiction in that Schlapner likes to change players. Schlapner valued more the significance of individual strength to the team, and for some outstanding performers, he did not spare his appreciation, and at every turn, he transferred some players from other teams to the national team, so that he could prepare for the game together with other players.
But by doing so, Schlapner has undoubtedly broken the hearts of the players as well. Appropriate replacement of players can indeed remove the wheat from the chaff, but Schlapner's frequent substitutions, and even change of generals at the last minute, led to the team's lack of bonding and tacit understanding, and the team was scattered on the pitch, even the division of labor was not clear.
Such a scattered team, even with outstanding individual strengths, will find it difficult to cope with teams that are well disciplined and work together silently.
These conflicts of philosophy were actually perceived by Schlapner, but he could not overcome them, and the conflict with the players intensified until both sides had completely disagreed with each other, and there was no point in playing this game.
In December 1994, Schlapner's contract with the FIFA expired and he officially stepped down to return home. After Schlapner left, Qi Wusheng took over and continued to lead the national soccer team in training and competitions. Under Qi Wusheng's conservative and rigid style of play, the team slipped further and further, and it was difficult to hand over the team to him, as it was already a mess!
After leaving China, Schlapner still maintains his love for the country. In fact, when he first came to China to coach, the retainer was not so expensive, and the treatment he enjoyed was all because of the support of the fans.
After stepping down, a reporter interviewed Schlapner, who made a few simple gestures when talking about his salary. He put his hand on the table up to his waist, a height that was given to him by the German club; then he put his hand on the ground, which was the salary paid by Volkswagen.
The reason why he didn't ask for too much money is that Schlapner has always had a "China complex".
As early as 1984, after the end of the visit to China, Schlapner has led Chinese coaches and players to study in Germany. Some of them have become Schlapner's "disciples", which is why when the Football Association looked abroad, want to hire "foreign coach", Schlapner the first time into the eyes.
Since coming to China, Schlapner always carries two flags with him, one is the Chinese flag and the other is the FA flag, and when he takes pictures, he always tries to find a way to get both flags into the shot and take a picture with himself.
On his return to Bensheim, Schlapner's residence changed from a five-star mansion to a small, modest garden. He called it the "China House", where Schlapner would receive his guests from China whenever they visited.
He displayed his China collection, his furniture and even his car in the "China House" and proudly introduced all the wonders and beauties of China to everyone.
Sometimes Schlapner would encounter people who were critical of the national soccer team, and he would interrupt them with displeasure, not allowing them to speak so highly of the national soccer team.
After returning to China, Schlapner initially sold beer under his own name as a trademark, but it didn't work and business was poor.
Later, Schlapner came up with the idea of hiring some members of his family as brokers, specializing in "intermediaries" to absorb Chinese players to Germany for training.
This program has been a huge success, and under Schlapner's influence many players in China have gone on to study abroad and improve themselves no end.
Schlapner is also very concerned about the cultivation and development of young soccer players, because this is a country's soccer can flourish the power and source. He likes to give the national football "advice", out of countermeasures, including vigorously develop the youth soccer cause.
Now 80 years old, Schlapner is still in good spirits, having followed the development of the national soccer team over the years, commenting on various situations and often getting to the crux of the matter.
It's true that Schlapner didn't do much as a coach, and his role in the National Football League wasn't exactly irreplaceable. The problem is that there was no need to over-mythologize Schlapner then, and there is no need to over-depreciate him now.
No matter when, we should stand in an objective and rational point of view to evaluate the merits and faults of Schlapner. He is not a liar, nor is he a savior, he is just one of the many attempts of the national football team to hire a "foreign coach", an ordinary coach in the history of national soccer.
1. Schlapner went from being a Spring Festival guest to being an international fraudster, and Chinese soccer's foreign managers have gone from strength to strength.
2. Sino-German soccer love affair: the origin of Schlapner's young players will start a new chapter CNN.com
