Blazević advised before his death: Chinese football should undertake the mission of reclaiming national pride

Text/Jia Yanfeng Blazevic's life is long and brilliant. He had tried several times to find an opportunity to return to China to coach, but his body did not allow it after all. His advice on Chinese football may still be worth thinking about today.

Legacy one

He changed the fate of a group of Chinese teenagers

Many people say that Blazevich came to China to pan for gold, but in fact, he is challenging for a higher goal in life.

If it were not for the challenge of himself, with an annual salary of only 1 million euros, Lao Bu would not have been worth the risk of ruining his reputation and taking Shanghai Shenhua, known as the "Chinese Super League Kindergarten Team" that year, to play in the league. At that time, everyone thought that it would be good for this Shenhua team to be relegated, but no one expected that Lao Bu with this Shenhua team eventually won the third place in the Chinese Super League, and he also promoted and cultivated a group of outstanding 89-year-old players, Dong Xuesheng, Feng Renliang, Song Boxuan, Wu Xi, Jiang Jiajun, etc., these players later brought huge economic benefits to Shenhua in the transfer market, and were also the main team of the Chinese Olympic team.

▲ Blazević became the manager of the National Olympic Games

"Everyone I've worked with, every team I've led, I've left them something tangible and valuable so that I'll always be remembered by them. Achievements are only a small part, and it is really a good coach who can really help some people find direction and purpose in life, and even change their destiny to develop in a better direction. "Dong Xuesheng and Wu Xi these players have indeed changed their fate because of Lao Bu's insight.

From the moment he decided to come to China to coach, Lao Bu has always believed that he can bring value to this ancient oriental country that is higher than football itself. The biggest difference between Lao Bou and other professional football coaches is that, in addition to being a professional football coach, he is also a university professor, a member of the Zagreb City Council, and a staff member and close friend of former Croatian President Tudjman. Lao Bu's life experience is rich and colorful, not limited to football, so he can always stand at a higher level to see problems, with strong psychological quality and perseverance.

▲ Wang Dalei remembers his mentor

Lao Bu has a famous nickname called "the coach of all coaches", which is not a joke, but a recognition of his comprehensive strength. The current head coach of the Croatian national team, Daric, summed up the nickname of Lao Bu incisively and accurately: "The reason why Ciro is the coach of all coaches is because he has opened a development path for us, in such a complex international situation, in such a difficult situation, he has achieved such brilliant results, and has laid a good foundation for Croatia's future international football status, so we can step on his shoulders and continue to move forward, which is one of the main reasons why we respect him from the bottom of our hearts." The elder Buzer said that President Tudjman is his mentor, allowing him to re-examine the value of football from the perspective of national and national righteousness and make more contributions to the industry.

Therefore, when the Chinese Olympic team invited him and could only give him an annual salary of 600,000 US dollars, Lao Bu agreed without hesitation, and he even said that if this part of the salary of the Chinese Football Association also has difficulties, he can still accept a certain degree of salary reduction, money is not what he cares about the most, he wants to be able to stand in the national coach of this great country, to examine everything, looking for opportunities to help China.

▲ For many Chinese fans, Lao Bu is worth remembering

However, this is just wishful thinking on the part of the old cloth. The embarrassing position of football in the entire Chinese sports family is beyond his imagination.

"I've admired China for a long time. I would like to know how this mysterious ancient oriental country has created one miracle after another with incredible speed, but at the same time I am curious why football work has been stagnant in such a great country. I would love to find the answer to this question and make the most pertinent suggestions for the development of Chinese football. I have this confidence, but I don't know if I have the time and opportunity. No matter what, I will do my best, if I don't have a chance when I am in office, then I will tell you everything I see and know, and hope that one day, you can pass on my advice to Chinese football. Lao Bu once said such a seemingly joking but full of meaning to reporters.

▲Blazevic took a group photo with reporters and Ivankovic

Legacy II

Chinese football mission: to reclaim national pride

Lao Bu coached Shenhua for a season and six months with the Olympic team, and a year and a half is enough for him to see some core problems. If you just point out the problem and pick out the fault, not only him, but any foreign teacher who has come to China to teach can do it, but how to rectify the problems encountered? What are the steps and strategies? How to implement the reality of Chinese football? That's something that not every coach can straighten out.

"When I used to teach entrepreneurs, I used to mention the miracle of the 1998 World Cup. At the heart of everything that led me to do it all were four main elements—mission, vision, values, and strategic planning. Since Croatia's independence, the men's national team has been tasked with shaping national consciousness, rallying national pride, and unifying social values. Our vision is, what are we ultimately going to achieve? The answer is that we need to be regular visitors to the World Series, and there are more good players in the five major leagues, and the Croatian flag can be seen flying in the top matchup of every major competition; Values are the guiding principles used in the process of completing the mission and realizing the vision, and in recent years, no matter who is the head coach of the Croatian national team, it has adhered to the unified values of 'the interests of the country first, the interests of the country above all else', so no matter who is chosen or not, what is the relationship between the players, once wearing the national team shirt, there can only be the interests of the country in their hearts. Strategy, on the other hand, is how to accomplish the mission and achieve the vision. It can be said that mission is the reason, vision is the goal, values are the principle of action, and strategy is the concrete method. In China, I just see the vision and strategy, and the mission and values are less clear. ”

▲ He is a worthy hero of Croatia

In Lao Bu's view, football should not add to the society, and the mission of football must be a long-term significance and not abandoned by the change of time and times. "The entire Chinese society is full of European and American culture, not impossible, but any foreign culture is only auxiliary should not be the mainstream, Chinese football should undertake the great mission of reclaiming the pride and self-identity of the Chinese nation." Only driven by such a mission can Chinese football continue to move forward. ”

Lao Bu gave an example to further illustrate that without strong support from the state, it is impossible to achieve such a remarkable result with a single team. In 1996, Blažević led the team to the European Championship for the first time since Croatia's independence, and the national team made its official appearance in an international competition, and they made it all the way to the quarter-finals, where they met Germany in the quarterfinal, and Croatia lost 1-2. "It was a bitter memory, but it almost led to the shortest war in world history. In all seriousness, there was a lot of controversy in the game, including the Klinsmann affair, where he should have been sent off with a red card; the Stimatt incident, where he was sent off; There was also the Summerr incident, the apparent foul before they scored the winning goal. It was because of these three penalties that Croatia stopped in the quarterfinals. If all this happened in China, surely first criticize our own players, or look at it in the traditional way of thinking - isn't it normal for a small Croatian country to lose to German tanks? What are the reasons for the judge? However, after that match, without waiting for the Croatian Football Association to protest, the Croatian government took the lead, and President Tudjman took the lead in attacking Germany, telling the staff of the German embassy through diplomatic channels: You are not welcome. Frightened, the German ambassador hurried back home to report. ”

▲ Lao Bu and his best friend, former Croatian President Tudjman

Tudjman directly escalated a football match into a diplomatic incident, and Lao Bu felt that it was too serious, so he suggested to the president that it should be resolved through normal sports litigation.

However, Tudjman's answer at the time impressed Lao Bu, and it was also a thing he often said to his family and children later: "You are wrong, you think that this is only a dispute in the field of sports, but in my opinion, when football is played between national teams, it is not just a competition between two teams and sports, it is also a competition between two countries and peoples in some form." When you wear the Croatian uniform, you no longer represent yourselves, but the dignity of our country and nation. Our nation can be defeated fairly, but we will not allow the dignity of our own nation to be blatantly trampled! We can't change the outcome of past games, but we won't let the same tragedy happen in the future! Later, the turmoil reached FIFA, which attracted Blatter's great attention, and he sent a condolence message to the Croatian Football Association, saying that he would definitely give Croatian football an explanation.

▲ Lao Bu and Aitu Boban and Suke

In the 1998 World Cup quarter-final, the two teams met again, and Blatter also gave a trustworthy explanation: "Blatter expressed his attitude to the Croatian president through the president's office: I personally called the on-duty referee of the Battle of Dirk, reminding him that he must keep his eyes open, and if he dares to make an irreversible situation, he will directly disappear from the refereeing world!" As a result, Croatia beat Germany 3-0 and finished third in that World Cup. Croatia was able to perform miracles at the 1998 World Cup, and they were able to play in a fair and just environment.

"All of this comes from the high unity of Croatia's football mission, vision, values and strategy. The government attaches importance to the achievements and honors of the national team, and it has become a tradition from that era, whether the results are at the peak or the trough, football is an important part of the national grand strategy. Blazević suggested that China can use this thinking to re-examine and measure the development of Chinese football, which may gain some useful enlightenment.

▲ Blazevic, who was the manager of Shenhua at the time, was interviewed by reporters

Legacy III

Chinese football is difficult to follow the path of Olympic strategy

For Chinese football, Lao Bu and Lippi have actually put forward the same point of view, that is: the football market seems to be very large, it seems that there is a lot of money injected, but the actual situation is not this - the market seems to be very large, but there are more people who watch the excitement than people who are really willing to engage in the football industry, even if it is the audience, there are more people who regard football as an emotional outlet than people who are willing to study football, create football culture and respect the laws of the industry; It seems that there is a lot of money, most of which circulates at the top professional league level, and the number of people who go to the grassroots level is very limited; Seemingly huge population, the city can provide football fans with playing courts and high-quality learning platforms are very limited; It can enable practitioners to have a more long-term development, gain more social recognition, and lack even the most basic respect.

"It is difficult to do an industry that lacks objective evaluation by society, a professional skill that is not respected by society, but to undertake the mission of winning glory for the country." It is true that any respect must be won by strength, and the premise is that the play of one's own strength is either controlled by oneself or fully guaranteed by the collective, but Chinese football has obviously not achieved both. ”

▲In 2015, Lao Bu and Xu Genbao reunited

"A lot of fans and journalists have asked me the same question: Why can't I find 11 out of a billion people who can play football? I said, when no one will ask such a question, especially if people who have enough influence and decision-making ability in Chinese football stop looking at the problem in this way, Chinese football will really improve. Quantity does not mean quality, large quantity can do a good job of popularization, really to produce results, quality is more important. China is amazingly fast in many fields with rapid development and high quality, but this law is not suitable for football, so when Chinese proud of the rapid rise of the country, do not use the progress of other industries to degrade football, while recognizing the advanced football concept of Europe and the United States, there is no need to completely deny yourself. Poor soccer results in China can identify mistakes and criticize, but there is no need to escalate criticism to insult their dignity or even to their families. ”

"There are radical fans all over the world, but it is not common for Chinese football to focus only on shortcomings and completely deny themselves. Criticism is okay, but many comments have clearly gone beyond the scope of criticism, and Chinese professional players are obviously a character who can be insulted at will, which is rare in the world, and this is not normal. Chinese football needs to let more people understand the difficulties and complexity of this sport, and everyone does not have a scientific and comprehensive understanding of this sport, so that football as a sport has never been basically respected in the Chinese sports community. ”

▲ Lao Bu's advice is worth our deep consideration

Lao Bu believes that whether it is to formulate a mission or focus on youth training, if everything is only linked to achievements, it will be a dead end.

Who is responsible for popularizing these professional ideas? This is a problem. "The Football Association, the professional media, the practitioners, all have a responsibility. Don't expect everyone to understand the industry all at once, but at least do such things, step by step, establish a positive image for the industry and win the most basic respect. Someone has to do it. ”

Lao Bu believes that without a good external environment, even if the internal efforts are made, the strength will be damaged by external misreading and attacks. "It is difficult for Chinese football to follow the path of Olympic strategy. Many of China's Olympic champions know nothing about them until they achieve results, and even if some don't produce results, the outside world doesn't know about them, so they have much lower pressure and risk of failure than football. Lao Bu believes that do not always compare Chinese football with Olympic sports, except for the big ball, the living environment and operation mechanism of football and Olympic sports are completely different, there is no comparison, so the behavior of using Olympic champions to demean Chinese football is not worth encouraging.