Reporter Chen Yong reported that on March 7, the Chinese Football Association announced the latest U21 national team list, 30 players were selected, of which 7 were selected in Shandong Taishan, and 3 were selected in 4 clubs such as Shanghai Haigang, Beijing Guoan, Shanghai Shenhua and Dalian.
The U21 national team, the 2001 age group, did not qualify in the 2019 Asian Youth Championship qualifiers, and for the first time after 25 years, it did not qualify for the final stage of the Asian Youth Championship. Objectively speaking, the 2001 age group did not qualify for the final stage of the Asian Youth Championship, which is more worrying than the poor performance of the national team's top 12 matches, which means that the Chinese football youth training has slipped to the bottom in this age group, and this age group will be the main force of Chinese football in the future. At present, the Asian Youth Championship has been renamed the U20 Asian Cup, and this year, the 2003 age group (U19 national team) will play in the preliminary round of the U20 Asian Cup, which is held in September this year.
Back to the level of the U21 national team, the main goal of this team is to qualify for the 2023 U23 Asian Cup preliminaries and strive to qualify for the 2024 U23 Asian Cup finals, and the 2024 U23 Asian Cup final is actually the qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
This task is indeed too difficult for the U21 national team, and as a result, in the past two years, the U21 national team (then known as the U19 and U20 national teams) has participated in the Chinese Second Division for two consecutive years. The latest news shows that the Chinese Football Association intends to let the U21 national team participate in the Chinese League A this year and strive to get more exercise.
In fact, the national youth team playing in the middle two or the middle league and the U23 policy in the league are not what a normal professional league should look like, but on another level, Chinese football does have a youth training fault phenomenon, not only that, the quality of the U19 league, including the reserve team league (currently changed to the U21 league) is very bad, and it is difficult for young players to get enough training through the reserve team league or the U19 league. In this case, the introduction of the U23 policy, the national youth team to play in the middle B and the possibility of letting the national youth team play the middle division are all emergency choices in helplessness.
Comparatively speaking, the national youth team playing in the second division or the middle division is relatively little damage to professional clubs, because this matter does not infringe too much on the interests of the club, and the young players play in the league earlier, but it is equivalent to cultivating players for the club. On the contrary, the national team that the relevant parties have been thinking about playing in the Chinese Super League is a fundamental violation of the club's interests, because the adult international is the core asset of the club, and this proposal is not only fiercely opposed at home, but also extremely rare in the world, on the contrary, the national youth team plays a low-level professional league, which is not uncommon in overseas leagues.
Theoretically, the U19 national team and the U20 national team play in the second division, the 2001, 2003 and 2005 age groups are not big problems, these age group players may be difficult to play in the 19 to 20 years old to play the Absolute main force of the Chinese Super League or the Chinese First Division, even if there are individual or a small number of members of the national youth team to become the main force of the Chinese Super League or the Chinese First Division, or become the main rotation players, the national youth team will not be recruited. As for the 2007 age group and the 2009 age group and beyond, it needs to be evaluated, if there is a group of outstanding players emerging, then this policy can be cancelled, or the age group can be lowered, such as the U18 national team and the U19 national team to play in the second division, and even downgraded to the U17 national team or the U18 national team to play the middle two in the future.
In this case, at least in terms of the 2001 age group, the U21 national team and even the U22 national team playing in the middle division is theoretically feasible, but it should be noted that the players in the 2001 age group are also gradually gaining a foothold in some Chinese Super League teams, and because of the existence of the U23 policy, it is expected that in the 2022 season, no less than half of the 30 players of the current U21 national team will be the main U23 players of their respective clubs or U23 rotation players, which brings certain conflicts.
Another conflict is that teams such as Guangzhou, including Hebei, have basically determined the strategy of rejuvenation in the new season, and these clubs may use young players aged 21 and under on a large scale or on a small scale, so the U21 national team faces great difficulties in recruitment.
In this case, the U21 national team to play in the first division, in fact, there are many barriers, if you fully consider the use of U23 players by clubs, and then consider the strategy of some clubs to rejuvenate, Cheng Yaodong may find that the players he hopes to use in the U23 Asian Cup and the players he can use when he can play in the U21 national team, there is not much overlap at all. More importantly, if the best players in the 2001 age group cannot be recruited, the U21 national team may not have enough combat effectiveness in the middle division, and the value of the game will decline, taking the 2021 season as an example, the U21 national team will only rank 5th in the middle division (a total of 8 teams in the same division).
Of course, the cancellation of the U23 policy, the U21 national team to play in the middle of the first division basically no problem, but the quota is also a problem, if the current 18 chinese first team did not withdraw, forced to insert a U21 national team, the schedule is prone to trouble. Of course, at the moment, the league does not rule out the possibility of a team withdrawing.
As for the 2003 age group players, the 2022 and 2023 seasons of playing in the second division is basically not too much of a problem.
If the U23 policy is abolished, the future national brand name can be set as follows: 19 years old (the future can be 18 years old or 17 years old) to start playing two years old B, and then play two years old, during the middle league team play the next age group in the middle two, and so on, the league order will not be disordered.
Of course, once the youth training returns to normal and the quality of players improves, these temporary emergency measures need to be adjusted as soon as possible.