One day in 1984, a little boy wearing a Tianjin team uniform who had just started to practice football climbed onto a stone lion to take pictures.
The boy in the photo is smiling brightly. On his knees, there are still bruises left from practice.
This year, the boy named Yu Genwei was 10 years old.
In the 40 years since, the name Yu Genwei has been closely associated with Tianjin football and even Chinese football......
10 years later, Yu Genwei is already a rising star in Tianjin football.
The year before, Shen Furu, then the head coach of the Tianjin football team, boldly used 19-year-old Yu Genwei to bring him to the field of the 7th National Games in 1993.
In the game against the Sichuan team in the National Games, Yu Genwei scored twice with a kick on the top of his head.
All this was seen by Qi Wusheng, the coach of the Chinese Olympic team at the time.
In 1994, at the age of 20, Yu Genwei was selected for the Chinese Olympic team to prepare for the Asian qualifiers for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
It is not difficult to imagine what kind of vision Yu Genwei, who was in his prime at that time, had for his football career.
However, it was also this year that Yu Genwei suffered a serious injury that affected his entire career.
In September of that year, the National Olympic Team and the North Korean Olympic Team played a friendly match in Zibo.
In the potholes, Yu Genwei broke through with the ball in the second half. The defending North Korean team member suddenly fell down while blocking, and his body smashed directly into Yu Genwei's right knee joint.
Yu Genwei, who suffered a serious injury to the meniscus, returned to the Tianjin team.
In the two years when the Tianjin team hit the A-A in 1994 and the A-A relegation in 1995, Yu Genwei, who insisted on appearing with an injury, also missed the best opportunity to treat the injury.
A right knee injury that fell at the end of his first decade in football stayed with Yu throughout his career......
Today, many people are saying: It's hard to imagine what Yu Genwei would be like in Chinese football if he had healthy legs.
In the 1996 season, Yu Genwei was elected the best rookie in the A of the season.
The following year, he also successfully entered the national team that hit the 1998 World Cup in France.
However, in the third round of the top 10 against the Saudi team, Yu Genwei injured his knee again and bid farewell to the national football team.
That year, Tianjin Samsung also suffered relegation.
In the 1998 season of the A-B League, Yu Genwei, who had undergone surgery again, made a comeback in the middle of the season and led the Tianjin TEDA team back to the A-League.
After that, Yu Genwei wore the number 10 and the captain's armband, and truly became the leader of Tianjin football. He also used wonderful goals one after another to help the TEDA team gradually stabilize in the middle of the league.
On October 7, 2001, in the top 10 of the Asian qualifiers for the South Korea-Japan World Cup, the Chinese team played against the Oman team.
Yu Genwei completed a historic blow.
His goal-grabbing goal went down in the history of Chinese football.
Since then, the only time the Chinese men's football team has broken into the World Cup has been inseparable, and Yu Genwei's name cannot be avoided.
Participate in the World Cup and continue to lead the TEDA team forward as a core role.
Tianjin fans have become Xi to watching the game with great roots.
In 2004, the first A became the Chinese Super League, and at the opening ceremony of the first year of the Chinese Super League held at the TEDA Football Stadium, Yu Genwei took the oath as the player's representative.
Who would have thought that at the end of his second decade in football, Yu Genwei's professional career was nearing the end of his career......
In the 2005 season, Yu Genwei made 25 appearances for TEDA and scored 12 goals. It was the most goals scored in a single season of his career.
However, in January of the following year, Yu Genwei, who had just passed his 32nd birthday, announced his retirement due to reasons such as making way for young players and preparing for injuries.
Yu Genwei, who bid farewell to his career, served as the deputy general manager of TEDA Football Club.
In the days that followed, as a club manager, he experienced the glory of breaking into the AFC Champions League for the first time with the team, but some subsequent events also made Yu Genwei realize that the workplace is much more complicated than the stadium.
It wasn't until 2014, at the end of Yu Genwei's third decade of contact with football, that he obtained a professional football coach certificate, and the best destination for a football person may be the stadium......
On the occasion of the fourth decade of contact with football, Yu Genwei Youth Football Club was established in 2015, and the banner figure of Tianjin football began to deepen youth football.
With the anti-gambling and anti-crime in football pressing the restart button for Chinese football, Yu Genwei, who devoted himself to youth training, became a pioneer.
In 2021, Tianjin professional football came to a crossroads.
At the critical moment, Yu Genwei was appointed to become the general manager of Tianjin Jinmen Tigers Football Club and the head coach of Tianjin Jinmen Tigers Football Team.
In the past three seasons, the Jinmen Tigers have stepped up one step at a time, from completing relegation with a patchwork squad in 2021 to completing a year-round home unbeaten run in 2023.
In the past three years, Yu Genwei has continuously upgraded the team's lineup and playing style.
More importantly, he instilled the spirit of "Tianjin team is not afraid of any opponent" in his bones into the team and reshaped the spiritual core of Tianjin football.
On January 7, 2024, Yu Genwei will be 50 years old, which is the 40th year of his association with football.
As the old saying goes: Fifty knows the destiny of heaven. Meaning: When a person reaches the age of fifty, he knows what things are not at the mercy of man, and which are not subject to man's will......
However, even on the first day of "Knowing the Destiny of Heaven", he was still as busy as ever......
Busy for the implementation of the winter training plan, busy for the best of the recruitment work within a reasonable budget, and busy for the future of the Jinmen Tigers......
All this busyness is his hope to do his best to lead Tianjin football to a better future.
Perhaps, this is his "destiny......
Happy Birthday!Yu Genwei! All the best!