The out-of-the-loop incidents related to Chinese football are always unexpected. The keyword that is hotly searched for today is "Li Sirong".
On Weibo, "Li Sirong", "Li Sirong is too handsome", "Li Sirong signed a contract with The Hague", "How high is Li Sirong's father's appearance" Several topics have been read more than 140 million times, more than 60,000 discussions, and even the Douban melon group that is keen to discuss entertainment gossip is discussing him. "My brother will not scold you no matter how bad he plays in the national football team", "You can debut at any time", and some people have left a message saying that competitive sports still rely on strength.
But in addition to "Li Sirong is too handsome", there are 4 things behind his signing with The Hague that you may not know.
Why can he sign a professional contract?
First of all, it's certainly not because he's handsome.
Secondly, he was signed to an adult contract by a professional club in Europe's top league, so it couldn't be because he was a "relation". Even as we all know, his father used to be the main core of the national team, the only Chinese player to score in the final of the Asian Cup. Even the shareholders of the Hague Club are sports companies from China, Heli Wansheng.
Through the above two points, we can draw a basic common sense judgment: signing an adult professional contract must be basically recognized because of his skills. Of course, there is one more thing that everyone may not know, just playing well is not enough.
Family financial support is an important prerequisite. Li Sirong, who is only 17 years old and 9 months old, has been playing in the Netherlands since 2014, and his mother and sister have also been "accompanying training" in the Netherlands for many years, and the family's expenses in study, life and training for 6 years are not affordable by ordinary families.
The background of the "Ball II" is another important reason. After participating in the daily affairs management of the Hague Club, Wu Xuesong, CEO of Heli Wansheng, is often asked such a question: I am ready to develop my child in the direction of professional players, do you see that he has the potential to play in the Chinese Super League? But such a question has never been asked from Li Ming's mouth, first because Li Ming, as a professional player, can get a more professional judgment. In addition, as a former international, he knows that professional players themselves are a process of picking one out the world, so he can more calmly cultivate his son. "The less you suffer from gains and losses, the greater the probability of success." Wu Xuesong told Lazy Bear Sports.
"Thanks to my parents' cultivation over the years, I have become a real man." In an interview with a Chinese media outlet, li Siyong, who had just come of age, used "man" instead of "player" to describe himself. It can be seen that whether he can become an excellent professional player in the future, at least in terms of education, Li Ming has achieved stage success.
Second, borrow the European model to train Chinese players, what efforts have we made?
It can be said that since the establishment of the new Chinese football team, we have been learning from the advanced experience of Europe (and south America). It boils down to 6 words: go out, please come in.
I started out studying Eastern Europe. At that time, Chinese football did not have a youth team, so it was directly sent to the adult national team to learn. The famous football commentator Li Yuankui traveled to Hungary in the 1950s.
Later, when it reached a certain stage and had money, he sent a group of selected young players to learn. So there was Jianlibao staying in Brazil. Although the outside world later criticized the "Jianlibao model" centralized accommodation, training, and competition, that team still came out of Li Tie, Li Jinyu, Li Weifeng and other national players.
Later, we became richer, and we thought of going further on the basis of Jianlibao. Pulling young players to Europe and scattering them across teams to make them "more accustomed to local culture and football styles", there was the "Wanda Model" around 2013. Later, some media made a football reality show "The Heirs of Green" around that team, and Wang Shilong, who served as the captain in that film, has represented Guangzhou Evergrande in the Chinese Super League and the AFC Champions League this season.
However, all of the above models can not get rid of the problem, our young players go abroad and cannot participate in official competitions. It needs to be explained here that participating in regular youth team competitions in European countries basically requires the young players themselves to immigrate or guardians. Among them, in order to prevent some large clubs from carrying out minor transfer operations, the motivations of immigrants will also be identified.
If you can't play a regular game, it is equivalent to spending a lot of money and not achieving the effect. Later, Evergrande thought of a way to invite them in - every year in their own football schools to hold a "Evergrande Cup", inviting outstanding youth teams from all over the world to participate. Of course, this method is a palliative rather than a cure, after all, such a tournament system competition is only once a year.
There are also many Chinese bosses who want to open up the channel to stay abroad by buying teams overseas, but this seems to be different from cultivating young players. Because before the age of 18, whether to obtain the status of a player in the local youth training system is a hard indicator of whether you can participate in the game. It's too late to send your child to the so-called "Chinese team" after the age of 18, or this is not something that can be solved in the category of youth training at all.
Can the Hague model be different this time?
"Our point of view is clear, we want to use one of the best youth training systems in Europe (Eredivisie) to allow players to grow across the board through long-term development and reach a higher level, rather than 'export to domestic sales'." In an interview with Lazy Bear Sports, Wu Xuesong repeatedly emphasized this concept.
There are currently 3 Chinese players at The Hague Club. Li Sirong, who has just signed a professional contract, joined in 2014, another player, Feng Zihao, joined in 2019, and there is a small player surnamed Ding in the club's U11 echelon.
"If we want to export to domestic sales, such a long training cycle, is the investment risk too great?"
Wu Xuesong's export to domestic sales refers to the behavior of some players who sign european clubs (usually second-tier league teams) to make their resumes look better after they reach adulthood and achieve a significant increase in annual salaries and transfer fees. With the Successive Promulgation of transfer fee policies and salary restriction policies by the Chinese Football Association in recent years, this business seems to have been less well done.
In Wu Xuesong's view, the reason why Li Sirong and Feng Zihao can sign adult professional contracts in The Hague is closely related to their own family influence. 'Coming early and being able to play is key. So he has always hoped to open this channel.
According to him, Heli Wansheng once had a special meeting with the Dutch government parliamentarian and the minister of sports to discuss the issue of Chinese young players participating in official competitions in the Netherlands. "I very much hope that they can give some preferential policies to Chinese young players, and everyone knows that China and the Netherlands have close and friendly cooperation not only in football, but also in the economic field."
The policy doesn't quite work out yet, but Mr. Wu said The Hague is also trying to address the status of Young Chinese players through other means ( such as corporate and commercial collaborations.
"We're trying to do it. Of course, I think this is a very high threshold in itself, and it is unlikely to be copied in large quantities. ”
Previously, Dark Horse Sports's "Football Excellent Boy" documentary has told the story of Li Sirong.
How strong are Chinese players overseas?
In the impression, Li Sirong should be the first Chinese player to be on the hot search by his appearance. Some fans have even begun to compare him with South Korean star Son Heung-min.
The reality, however, is that with the exception of Wu Lei, we haven't seen a Chinese player in Europe's top league for many years. Son Heung-min is an international player who started for a Premier League team in the Champions League final.
What about the younger generation of Chinese players? Unfortunately, the answer is even more brutal.
A national youth player in the 1999 age group once told lazy bear reporters that when he and several teammates arrived in Spain at the age of 18, they could only play in the 4th division (West C), and the 3rd level (West B) was "too fast to keep up". Another football agent said more directly, "Some Chinese Super League clubs do not add foreign aid, that is, the level of The West B B." ”
The Eredivisie has a special requirement for non-EU foreign aid over the age of 21: a minimum salary limit. Yes, you read that right, it's a minimum limit rather than a "pay cap". Wu Xuesong told Sloth Bear Sports that the figure was 425,000 euros. This means that only if you play well enough can you qualify for a high salary and be a thigh, otherwise the Dutch local players will not buy it.
So you see, staying in the west to play football is never an easy task, especially when the team owner is still Chinese. And Lee Si-yong, as a player trained from the Hague youth system, is not currently regarded as a non-EU foreign aid. He still holds a lower apprenticeship salary. Wu Xuesong mentioned the term "delayed gratification" and admired young Chinese players who are willing to hone their skills overseas, including Zhang Yuning, who once played in The Hague.
Wu Xuesong finally said: "This time out of the circle is surprising, and thank you for your attention to The Hague and Li Sirong. But we hope that everyone will pay more attention to Chinese football and the efforts and explorations made by many people in youth training. For Li Siyong, such a young player with a dream, at this stage of his professional support is a kind of love, other aspects of excessive attention may be a distraction to growth. ”
Football people, although to enjoy the exposure brought by Lee Si-yong this time. This is a rare chinese football that can be exposed to the public eye. If you don't believe it, you can ask your friends around you, many people may know Li Sirong through this year's hot search, but maybe they didn't even know Wu Lei, the "hope of the whole village" before.
(Lazy Bear Sports author Fu Rong also contributed to this article)