On the evening of February 26, when the Chinese Football Association Super Cup Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao vs Shanghai Greenland Shenhua was in the 76th minute, Liu Ruovan replaced Guarin to play, and Wu Jingui used this substitution to hand over the first answer sheet of the "mathematical questions" in the new U23 policy of the Chinese Football Association in the 2018 season.
In chongqing and Nanchong, Sichuan, in the southwest, the eyes of two coaches closely followed the broadcast camera, watching the back of the 19-year-old young man stepping on the green field. Because, this moment for the two coaches, for Liu Ruovan, who is dressed in blue, and Yang Liyu, who stood opposite him 8 minutes ago, there is a special meaning - brother derby.
One red and one blue,
21 and 19 years old;
Yang Liyu and Liu Ruovan are commonly known labels
Is the U23 nova with "unlimited potential";
In fact
Their relationship began more than a decade ago.
The witnesses to this "small" friendship are exactly what was mentioned above
The enlightenment coaches of the two - Shi Meng and He Min.
The two coaches also shared the football stories of the two players as children to Yu Rentuo.
Liu Ruovan thanked the two enlightenment coaches on Weibo
<h1>Met at an early age</h1>
The friendship between Liu Ruovan and Yang Liyu was planted as early as the football enlightenment period of the two. Yang Liyu began his relationship with football at Datianwan Primary School, a traditional football school in Chongqing, under the tutelage of Coach Shi Meng. Liu Ruovan's father, Liu Peng, who was two years younger than him, was a former footballer, and under the leadership of his father, he embarked on the road of football. At the age of four or five, Liu Peng sent Liu Ruovan to a youth football training institution in nanchong, a former teammate of the Chengdu Sports Team, to receive early football training.
Liu Ruovan in his infancy
He Min told us: "At that time, the coaches were very familiar, several teams often played together, and Yang Liyu also came to Nanchong several times to participate in youth competitions in my team. With Liu Ruovan transferring to Datianwan Primary School in Chongqing, he joined Yang Liyu's team, and the two officially became teammates and were jointly guided by Shi Meng. During the time they competed together for DaejeonWan Elementary School, they achieved good results.
Photo of Liu Ruovan and Yang Liyu as children
The days of fighting side by side ended with Yang Liyu graduating from elementary school and going to Wuhan and Liu Ruovan joining the Genbao base, and the two may not have imagined that the next meeting would be in the national team.
<h1>Football "wandering" journey</h1>
The young two drew their own football blueprint in their hearts, and the road to chasing their dreams was destined to be accompanied by the wandering away from home. From Liu Peng, in order to let his son receive more systematic training, sending 9-year-old Liu Ruovan to Chongqing to board in the teacher's home, to leaving Chongqing to fulfill the "Chengdu dream" but for various reasons can not stay in Chengdu, Liu Ruovan's youth time is always associated with "wandering". In 2010, Liu Ruovan was photographed by Xu Genbao, and the two sides signed a ten-year long contract, and Liu Ruovan has since settled in Shanghai, gradually becoming a rising star in all levels of competition.
Liu Ruovan in a youth soccer game please
Before Liu Ruovan went to Chongming Island, Yang Liyu also embarked on the road of leaving home when he graduated from primary school, turned to Hubei, and joined the youth training system of Wuhan Zhuoer. In 2014, Yang Liyu went to Portugal with the help of the project of young players staying in the West, and started his overseas playing career. Initially training with Braga U19, he then played with Gondomar B for the Porto Zonal League, and after a year of adaptation, he was selected by the head coach to gondomar A at the end of the 2015-16 season to participate in the Portuguese Championship (Portugal's third division), and became a member of The Gondomar A in the 2016-17 season.
<h1>Two football "jump students"</h1>
"Skipping" is also a keyword that frequently appears in the growth path of Yang Liyu and Liu Ruovan. Yang Liyu previously recalled his childhood experience of playing football, saying that when he was in the second grade, Coach Shi Meng began to let him practice with the children in the third and fourth grades, and that experience laid a good foundation for him. At the 2013 U17 National Championships, Yang Liyu, who played for Hubei, scored 13 goals in 7 games to win the top scorer and jumped into the 95th National Youth League.
In the first row, Yang Liyu, second from the left, and Liu Ruovan, third from the left
Liu Ruovan, who showed talent at a young age, is more common to play with young players who are one or two years older, which also helps him personally. Shi Meng said: "When Liu Ruovan came to Chongqing, it was the fourth grade, and I asked him and Yang Liyu, the sixth grade, to be in the same team. In those years under Xu Genbao, in the case that there was no team in the 99/00 age group at the Genbao base, Liu Ruovan was arranged to train and compete in the 97/98 age group until the establishment of his age group.
In the years after bidding farewell to Chongqing, the two did not have much intersection in their football careers, although they were selected for the national team, but in different age groups, they did not have the opportunity to play together.
<h1>When we meet</h1>
The pace of brotherly reunion is getting closer and closer in 2017. The 2017 that has just passed has undoubtedly been a very meaningful year for both of them. In 2017, Liu Ruovan, who had just made his debut in the Chinese Super League in Shanghai Shenhua, followed the national youth team back to his hometown of Sichuan to participate in the "Panda Cup" International Youth Football Championship held in Chengdu, which attracted a lot of attention. In 2015, Yang Liyu scored a goal in the "Panda Cup" on behalf of the 97-year-old national youth team. After the end of the 2016-2017 season, Yang Liyu returned to China to join Tianjin Teda due to the opportunity of the U23 policy, and his debut in the Chinese Super League also arrived in 2017.
2016 Panda Cup National Youth Team Jersey (signed by Yang Liyu in the white circle)
In the 2017 season, Yang Liyu scored two Chinese Super League goals for TEDA. He was selected for the national team for the first time, competing in the East Asian Cup in December and making his national team debut. In the same year, in addition to his appearance in the Chinese Super League, Liu Ruovan also qualified for the Asian Youth Championship asian preliminaries for the 99 National Youth League, won the National Games championship for Shanghai U18, and won the FA Cup championship with Shanghai Greenland Shenhua. For this reason, he won the annual U18 China Golden Boy Award selected by 100 domestic and foreign media such as Sports Weekly.
Yang Liyu was in Tianjin Teda last season
At the end of last season, Yang Liyu joined Guangzhou Evergrande. Liu Ruovan also made his AFC Champions League debut after spending his 19th birthday this month, becoming the youngest player in Shenhua's history to start the AFC Champions League.
In the U23 Asian Cup in January, the two were selected for the national youth team at the same time, and Yang Liyu scored a goal in the match between China and Oman. The two brothers left such a photo in the locker room and sent it to the two coaches Shi Meng and He Min.
When the Chinese Football Association Super Cup, the prelude to the opening of the 2018 Chinese Professional League, we may be talking about Evergrande's four Super Cup victories, surpassing Dalian Shide (Dalian Wanda) and Shanghai Shenhua's triple crown; perhaps it is hotly discussed how to link the number of U23 players playing and the number of foreign aid appearances; but in these 90 minutes, there is also this "brother story" playing.
In the post-match handshake session between the two players, Yang Liyu walked past his good partner Liu Ruovan and gently patted the latter's head.
At the moment when the four eyes are facing each other, do their minds remember the days when they ran in rudimentary football equipment in Datianwan as children? Or are you looking forward to being stronger when you meet on the field next time? Or is it a picture of the future together for the national football team to attack the city?
(Some of the photos in this article are provided by Shi Meng and He Min)