U21 National Youth Training for the Paris Olympics Other Asian teams attach great importance to beyond imagination

Source: Sports Weekly

The Chinese women's football team has regained the Asian championship after 16 years, so that the Chinese men's football team has once again "pointed out" and acted as a "background board" for women's football. Moreover, in addition to the smooth return of the Chinese women's football team to Shanghai and to Suzhou for quarantine, various interviews and requests are endless, while the Chinese men's football team is not interested. However, the Chinese Football Association has not stopped working normally. Just yesterday (8th), the Chinese Football Association has officially announced the training list of the new 2001 age group U21 national youth team, and the team will start training in Shanghai tomorrow.

As the age-appropriate team of the 2004 Paris Olympic Men's Football Tournament, although the attention in the case of Chinese football recession is not high, and it is generally not optimistic, this does not mean that it is necessary to give up this team, let alone give up the future Olympic qualifiers. Moreover, if there is no adequate preparation, it is even more unlikely to make a difference on the road to the future impact of the Olympic Games.

It is precisely because of this that under the epidemic situation, the Chinese Football Association has let this team participate in the Chinese Second Division for two consecutive years, and has achieved good results, at least the progress of the players is obvious. Of course, since there is no opportunity for international competitions, the improvement of this team is also lacking in reference. However, the pace of preparation for the team itself has never stopped.

It is reported that as many as 50 training players were announced this time, and one of the purposes was to further comprehensively examine the players in this age group. On the basis of retaining most of the players who played in last year's Chinese Second League, many new players emerged in last year's Chinese Super League and Chinese First League were recruited, including individual players who performed well in last year's National Games.

From the perspective of the distribution of personnel, the Shandong Taishan team has once again become a "big household", with a total of 9 people selected. This once again proves from one side that Shandong Taishan Club has achieved in focusing on youth training in recent years. Moreover, focusing on the growth of these players, the club last year rented most of the players in this age group to other Chinese Super League, Chinese First Division and even Chinese Second Division clubs to accept the actual battle of the league. The Shanghai Shenhua team, the champion of the U19 category in this age group, has a total of 8 people selected, becoming the "second largest household". The Shanghai Harbour team came in third place, with a total of 6 people selected. In addition, guangzhou team and Dalian team each have 4 people selected. The original "big household" Beijing Guoan Team of this age group took a collective leave, and no one was selected this time.

Another important reason for so many players to participate in the training camp is that in previous years, when the team of this age group organized the training, because the domestic clubs and teams have been concentrated, the team can contact the surrounding teams to arrange warm-up matches. However, due to the late end of the Chinese Super League and the Chinese League A last season, most teams have not yet concentrated, so the national youth team has adopted a method similar to the first training session in early January this year, recruiting more players, so that the team can arrange teaching competitions, test the training effect through actual combat, and the coaching team can also further comprehensively examine the players through actual combat in order to select for the next task.

It is understood that according to the vision of the coaching staff, the U21 national youth team hopes to continue to participate in the professional league as in the past two years, even if it cannot play in the Chinese First League, it should continue to compete in the Chinese Second League. However, there is currently more resistance from professional leagues, because of concerns that clubs will have objections to the transfer of personnel. So, can this year's U21 national youth team continue to participate in the professional league? Further confirmation is awaited.

However, if it is impossible to continue to compete in domestic leagues and cannot participate in international competitions in the current general situation, the next development of this age group is likely to encounter new troubles. Because throughout Asia, countries and regions attach far more importance to this age group than we can imagine, like Saudi Arabia is the whole team training in Spain Jira; Indonesia is the whole team in the United Kingdom, Italy and other training; Uzbekistan, Tajik is the whole team to participate in the domestic top league; Malaysia is the whole team to participate in the domestic second division league; like Japan, Australia, etc. have begun to use the 01 age group to replace the 99 age group to participate in the U23 Asian Cup or the Hangzhou Asian Games. Begin comprehensive preparations for the 2024 Olympic Qualifiers.

So, how to better prepare for the Paris Olympics? It is necessary for the Chinese Football Association to better negotiate with local clubs and other relevant parties to solve the problem and come up with more specific and practical solutions.