In July 1986, the 23-year-old Wang Baoshan was faced with a choice: study or continue to play football.
At that time, Wang Baoshan had been playing in the Shaanxi provincial team for several years and had some fame, but he felt that he could not enter the national team, and this was his goal all along.
The training is very bitter, but some of the bitterness is what he "asks for" - every morning at 6 o'clock, when others are still sleeping, he gets up and practices, after the end of the training every day, he has to practice for an hour, the Shaanxi Provincial Sports Brigade has a time limit for eating, Wang Baoshan sometimes misses the "meal point", can only go outside to eat bowls of noodles, eat a burnt cake; in addition, sometimes there is no bath water.
Wang Baoshan told the coach about his ideas, and the coach advised him several times, but Wang Baoshan kept hesitating, and later, the coach told him that there was a "Baocheng Cup" in July, playing in Xi'an, the national team and the national youth team came, "If you still have no hope after playing, I will agree." ”
On July 19 of that year, the Shaanxi team and the national team fought at the Northwest Stadium (the predecessor of the Shaanxi Provincial Sports Center), with public ticket sales and spectators. The Shaanxi team won, 1-0, wang Baoshan performed well.
But the fans did not do it, at that time, Shaanxi was only a second-class team, and the national team that existed in the whole system at that time actually lost, which triggered the anger of the fans.
At that time, the head coach of the national team was Gao Fengwen, although there were forwards such as Ma Lin and Liu Haiguang in the team, he still paid attention to Wang Baoshan, and before coming to Shaanxi, he greeted the local, "I want to see Wang Baoshan."
Not long after the national team returned to Beijing, the national sports commission's requisition letter arrived at the sports brigade, and Wang Baoshan's dream came true and became a national footballer.
Many people think that Wang Baoshan is the first Shaanxi international, but this is not the case, before him, there is also a "fierce man" Xia Yongwei, a forward who changed from central back to play, in 1977, he was selected for the national team coached by Zhang Honggen, but did not stand up because of injury.
It is worth mentioning that at the 1983 National Games, Wang Baoshan fought side by side with Xia Yongwei.
Xia Yongwei was born in Tianjin, when he was 11 years old, his parents responded to the call of the state to support the construction of the third line, and went to Xingping, Shaanxi; Wang Baoshan was similar to his situation, he was born in Linyi, Shandong, when he was a child, he followed his father to Baoji, who worked in the Baocheng Aviation Instrument Factory under the Aviation Industry Group, which was commonly known as "Three Eight Factory" (factory mailbox).
The first aviation gyroscope, the first set of missile autopilots, the first set of aviation attitude navigation systems and the first set of aviation flight guidance systems in China's aviation industry are all researched by this factory. When the economic situation in Baoji was in a downturn, everyone said that "three or eight will not fall, and Baoji will not fall.".
But in Wang Baoshan's eyes, the most powerful thing about the "Three-Eight Factory" is that there is a natural turf court, which he has always been proud of.
Wang Baoshan's home at that time was on the side of the court, and his father could not play football, but he liked to watch. His soccer initiation teacher was a physical education teacher in his class, and he was a female teacher.
Wang Baoshan was in good physical fitness, and was the top sports player of "38 Primary School" at that time, and the captain of the three materials - football team, basketball team and track and field team. Later, the Shaanxi Provincial Athletics Team found Wang Baoshan and hoped that he would practice middle and long-distance running, and if Wang Baoshan went, it would be equivalent to having a formal job, so he consulted with his father, who disagreed, "I still like you to play football." ”
As for basketball, due to the size of the reason, Wang Baoshan also gave up, just like this, the first choice in his life, so "completed".
Later, Wang Baoshan went to Baoji Sports School, where he was once again faced with a choice.
In the 1979 National Games, there was a junior group competition, and the Shaanxi team in the Taiyuan Division selected people to play in the qualifiers, Wang Baoshan was not selected, and at that time, he considered himself the first star of Baoji Sports School.
Discouraged, Wang Baoshan did not want to play, he wanted to enter the Xi'an Sports Academy, in this process, the Shaanxi youth team was formed and Wang Baoshan was selected.
Wang Baoshan consulted with his father again, and his father said, you are admitted to the sports institute, you will become a physical education teacher when you come out, if you continue to play football, you may "kick out".
Years later, Wang Baoshan recalled that when he received the notice of being selected for the national team, he was "not excited."
In the national team, Wang Baoshan began to play as a substitute, and the highlight was the 1988 Asian Cup in Qatar, because Liu Haiguang Liuyang could not participate, Wang Baoshan and Ma Lin partnered to help the Chinese team get the fourth place.
But in the next two years, Wang Baoshan, like Chinese football, suffered a series of bad luck, first the "black three minutes" in the World Preliminary Tournament, and then the defeat at the Beijing Asian Games, and Piero's sword sealed his throat. "The kicks stink so badly, our glass has been smashed." The national team disbanded and Wang Baoshan returned to Shaanxi, which was the first thing his mother said when she saw him.
At that time, the whole country was discussing why it lost to Thailand, the Asian Games had passed for a long time, Wang Baoshan went to give lessons to the junior sports school, and the children raised their hands in the classroom, "Why did you lose to the Thai team that day?" ”
After the Asian Games, Wang Baoshan went abroad, and went with Duan Ju in Tianjin to Japan's second division team Otsuka Pharmaceutical (now Tokushima Whirlpool), helping the team to upgrade in the first year, and the next year, Duan Ju left and Tang Yaodong came.
Before going to Japan, the Liaoning team wanted Wang Baoshan, but the Shaanxi team, which had been rumored to have been disbanded many times, did not want to let go, and the leader told him not to want to go to other provincial teams, but it was okay to go abroad. In this way, Wang Baoshan stayed in Yangyang.
In fact, before the Beijing Asian Games, a German club had sought out Wang Baoshan, but in the context of the time, it was impossible to let him go.
In Otsuka, Wang Baoshan played for two years, at that time, the level of Chinese football was higher than that of Japan, playing Japan "casually two or three balls", but the self-discipline of Japanese players made Wang Baoshan "afraid".
For example, push-ups, in China, are counting, And Japanese players may not be able to do 19, "I said you can't do it, he will be in a hurry with you." Wang Baoshan said: For example, running in circles, the Japanese will "run until they throw up."
"It's a terrible thing." Many years later, thinking of that scene, Wang Baoshan still couldn't help but sigh.
Originally, Wang Baoshan could continue to play in Japan, but 1993 was the year of the National Games, and Shaanxi demanded that he "must come back".
At that time, Liaoning, Shenzhen, Bayi, and Lokomotiv all wanted him, but in the end, he chose Foshan for the simple reason, "Foshan promised me to be a coach after retiring." ”
For being a coach, Wang Baoshan has always had a heart knot. In August 1990, the Chinese team went to New Zealand to play a warm-up match, at that time, New Zealand was an amateur player, before playing the first Game of new Zealand national team, Gao Fengwen took the players around the resident community, to a bakery, a buddy who was cleaning saw them, asked if it was the Chinese team, they said yes, the brothers were excited, "In the afternoon we are playing with you." Wang Baoshan had a "disdainful" look on his face, and he and Xie Yuxin said, "What does this guy say, we are the national team." ”
Looking at the warm-up of the New Zealand players before the game, Wang Baoshan laughed even more, "Look at how rough their skills are." But as soon as the game started, the Chinese team was confused and was shocked out of shape, although Liu Haiguang advanced a goal, but the other side pulled two in a row, and finally lost the game 1-2.
Wang Baoshan didn't understand, so he lost? In fact, what he didn't understand at the time was that the Chinese team trained for almost three hours a day, but still couldn't beat the European team – he hoped that at the coaching level, he could "understand" these things.
At that time, the Foshan team was a "private official assistance" model - in 1988, Foshan's 30 enterprise alliances raised 5 million yuan to establish the Foshan Development Football Foundation and the Foshan Football Team. The Foshan municipal government supports football reform, gives policies economically, cares about athletes and coaches politically and in life, and even allows the families of the team to settle in Foshan.
Compared with the "Baiyun model" and the "Wanbao model", the "Foshan model" is called the "professional laboratory".
In 1995, Wang Baoshan became the coach of Foshan and started his coaching career, since then, clubs in Yunnan, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Chongqing, Jiangsu, Beijing, Henan, Tianjin and other places have left his presence, in addition, he has also coached the national brand.
Unfortunately, for so many years, Wang Baoshan has always had no connection with Shaanxi, and only briefly served as an advisor to Chang'an Athletics in 2018, and he has repeatedly said that "as long as Shaanxi football needs me, I am obliged."
In 2022, the opportunity came, and he became the coach of Shaanxi Chang'an Athletic. He is good at relegation, can he help the team realize its dream of super?