On December 16, 2021 Beijing time, Liu Shaoziyang, a youth player and goalkeeper of Wuhan Sanzhen Football Club, officially transferred to Bayern Munich Football Club, and he was also the first Chinese male football player introduced by the club.
Previously, as the first young player jointly trained by the two clubs, Liu Shaoziyang had been training and living at the Bayern youth training base in Munich for 11 months. Liu Shaoziyang, who walked out of the three towns of Wuhan, familiar people are used to calling him Liu Shao, how did this 1.9-meter tall young man grow from a campus football teenager to a professional player signed by a European football giant? Looking back on his football dream journey, confidence, perseverance and patience may be the growth code for him to have today's achievements.
Growing up
In 2014, Liu Shaoziyang entered the youth training echelon of Wuhan Three Towns;
In 2016, as one of the members of the Overseas Star Training Program of Wuhan Three Towns Football Club, Liu Shaoziyang went to Barcelona, Spain to study and receive overseas football training;
In 2017, Liu Shaoziyang was selected for the U14 China National Training Team for the first time. Since then, Liu Shaoziyang has been selected into the 2018 U15 Chinese national team training list and the 2019 Chinese football A team (U16) training list;
In 2019, Liu Shaoziyang represented the U16 national junior team in the "Huashan Cup" International Youth Football Championship and the 8th China-Russia Youth Games, playing as the main goalkeeper in the first round of the competition, making several wonderful saves in the game, helping the team to defeat the opponent 5-0. In the same year, Liu Shaoziyang, who was training in Spain, was invited to Germany for trial training;
In 2020, Liu Shaoziyang began to train with the first team of the Wuhan Sanzhen Football Team;
At the beginning of 2021, Bayern Munich and the three towns of Wuhan reached a cooperation agreement to jointly devote themselves to the training of Chinese youth players, Liu Shaoziyang became the first player jointly trained by the two clubs, and went to the Bayern youth training base in Munich, Germany for training, and then appeared in the Bayern youth team competition. In August of that year, Liu Shaoziyang participated in the pre-season training camp of Bayern Munich U19;
On December 16, 2021, Bayern Munich FC officially signed a contract with Liu Shaoziyang, who also became the first Chinese male footballer introduced by the club.
Growth stories
1. For the goalkeeper, he was finally recognized for practicing for a semester
A good horse meets Bole to travel thousands of miles. Born in December 2003, Liu Shaoziyang has lived with his parents in Wuhan since he was a child. When he was in elementary school, Liu Shaoziyang attended Furen Primary School in Hankou, Jianghan District, which is a football school and where his football dream began.
In the eyes of enlightenment coach Feng Lihua, Liu Shaoziyang not only has a height advantage in goalkeeper, he is also bold, not afraid of the ball, usually training, no matter how many balls come, he does not hide. Every day, before the start of the varsity soccer team training, the coach will teach him the basic save action and hand shape of the goalkeeper half an hour in advance.
Until one game, Liu Shaoziyang played well, and several wonderful saves helped the team withstand the offensive pressure of the opponent. Since then, Liu Shaoziyang has begun formal and comprehensive goalkeeper training, and his mother has also collected goalkeeper training videos everywhere to help her son improve his professional level.
2. Studying in Spain has been selected for many times in the list of national junior training
At the beginning of 2014, in the campus football competition jointly organized by the Wuhan Municipal Education Bureau and the Wuhan Municipal Sports Bureau, 11-year-old Liu Shaoziyang was selected into the campus football youth training system and recommended by the school to enter the wuhan three-town youth training echelon.
And Liu Shaoziyang's seriousness and hard work in training impressed the three town youth coaches who continued to pay attention to him. "The child is not very old, but he is very patient. Sometimes a move is not done well, he will continue to practice, until the practice is good before resting, there is a small mistake on the field, he will be thinking about it for a day or two. In 2015, Liu Shaoziyang joined the Spanish study abroad program in the Wuhan Three Towns Youth Training Program, and went to Spain with his teammates to train and study.
Since then, Liu Shaoziyang has also been a member of the National Junior Team. On August 10, 2017, the Chinese Football Association issued a notice on organizing the third training and competition of the U14 selection team, and Liu Shaoziyang was selected, which was also the first time that he was selected for the national training team.
Since then, Liu Shaoziyang's name has appeared in the national team list many times: on February 8, 2018, the Chinese Football Association issued a notice on the organization of the U15 training list, and Liu Shaoziyang was selected; on March 15, 2019, the Chinese football A team (U16) training list was officially released, and Liu Shaoziyang was also listed. In the first round of the 2019 Huashan Cup-International Youth Football Championship, Liu Shao played as the main goalkeeper and made several wonderful saves in the match, in which China U16 beat Myanmar 5-0.
3. The stage of the three-town football player is still extending
In March 2021, The German club Bayern Munich and Wuhan Sanzhen Football Club reached a multi-faceted cooperation and are committed to jointly cultivating football talents through theory and practice. After many screenings and trials, Liu Shaoziyang entered the Bayern Munich youth training base and opened his new football road.
Talking about more than 10 months of training and life in the Bayern youth training base, Liu Shaoziyang summed it up as: learning is rewarding and colorful. He introduced that the Bayern youth training base will teach according to the individual aptitude of the players, and each player will have a targeted training and teaching program. As a goalkeeper, in addition to technical and tactical training and counseling, there will be strength, physical fitness, yoga and other all-round counseling courses, "goalkeepers are not only goalkeepers", Liu Shaoziyang said: "The deepest feeling here is to learn self-discipline and diligence, physical fitness and strength will not be mandatory to practice, but the gym is open 24 hours, in order to maintain weight and state, we will still often run to the gym, more than half a year, my weight has always remained at about 82 kg, no more than 84 kg." ”
At Bayern, Liu Shaoziyang's goalkeeping coach is Tom Stark, a Bayern celebrity and former Bundesliga player who is the "best coach" in Liu Shaoziyang's eyes, and he is also a teacher and a friend. "At the base, Coach Tom Stark is a mentor, and he will make a very meticulous training plan based on the physical condition, strength differences and weaknesses of the Players in the East and the West. I train with two other goalkeepers and the coach will give us, the young players, the chance to play in various leagues and let us improve ourselves in the game. Liu Shaoziyang said bluntly, "I am very lucky." In life, Coach Tom Stark is also a good friend. During the training holiday, he specially gave one-on-one tutoring to Liu Shaoziyang who stayed at the base, and also invited Liu Shaoziyang to play tennis and travel with his family to feel the local customs and customs of Munich.
In August 2021, bayern U19 training camp opened in Oberstaufen, Germany, where U19 players trained for a month to prepare for the German youth league. This is also the first time that Liu Shaoziyang has gone out with the team for training since he went to Bayern for training. "This is the first time I have participated in an out-of-town training camp with the team, and I am very excited." Liu Shaoziyang said that in the training camp, he trained and lived with players of the same age from all over the world, and constantly cultivated the tacit understanding of the team through learning, exchange and cooperation, and also polished his technical and tactical level. "During the training camp, we played a few friendly matches against the German fourth and fifth division teams and also played against the international combined team of U19 players from different countries, which was a very rare opportunity." Liu Shaoziyang excitedly said that the experience of the game is very different from the master's move, and the competition between the first-class players of the strong team can not only quickly improve the personal level, but also enhance the cohesion of the entire team, and the impact and process brought by these same competitive events have benefited him a lot.
Life in Germany, in addition to training and learning, now Liu Shaoziyang's German has learned A2, and he can communicate smoothly with coaches and teammates. Studying abroad, what he missed most was the sweet and sour ribs made by his mother. In July this year, his mother finally flew to Germany, which not only fulfilled his careful wish to eat sweet and sour ribs, but also greatly enriched his "after-school life", every week he could go home to eat and chat with his mother, and occasionally as a "tour guide" to take his mother out to play and broaden his horizons. "As long as time permits, I will watch the wuhan three towns team." Liu Shaoziyang said that although he is in Germany, he and his mother have been paying attention to the competitions and dynamics of the three towns and first teams.
As a member of the youth training of Wuhan Three Towns, Liu Shaoziyang joined Bayern Munich, which is a successful example of youth training cooperation between the two clubs. Liu Shaoziyang used his efforts and strength to open a new chapter for his football career.
About author:Bai Guohua, born in Yangchun, Guangdong. He graduated from the Department of Journalism of Fudan University in 2002 and worked as a front-line reporter for Football for 18 years, a well-known sports media person in China. Author of "Single Knife - Directly Attacking the Evergrande Dynasty", "Chinese Football Long Shot". He is currently a freelance writer.