Chinese young players hone skills in Brazil

In Brazil, soccer is in the blood of the people. And like coffee and sugar, young soccer talent has become an exportable commodity for Brazilians in recent years.

As Chinese soccer pays more attention to youth training, in order to build a platform to connect Chinese soccer with the world's top level, China's Shandong Luneng soccer club established the Luneng Brazil Sports Center last July.

Located in Porto Feliz, about 100 kilometers outside Brazil's largest city Sao Paulo, the newly-modified center is the first overseas youth training center for Chinese soccer players. More than 20 selected Chinese young players have been sent to Brazil and opened their learning journey by living, training and competing with Brazilian teammates and coaches.

The young players will receive training with local soccer clubs including instruction on soccer fundamentals, physical training and mental training. They will also learn about local soccer culture and language.

After been in Brazil for almost a year, not only young soccer players but also manager from Shandong Luneng has a better understanding of what youth training should be.

"Besides learning Brazil' s youth training model, we should also learn their attitude towards soccer," said Sun Lichen, executive vice president of the Luneng Brazil Sports Center.

Sun is an experienced manager in Luneng Soccer School in China' s Shandong province, however after coming to Brazil, he finds there are numerous differences between the two countries' youth training.

Here are some topics Sun took on.

Attitude: "I think Brazilian young soccer player work very hard on the court, because the boys treat soccer as their only way to change life. In Brazil, through the power of soccer, young people from the most disadvantaged communities get into work, education and training," said Sun.

Brazilian youth training coaches always analyze technique and tactics on and off the court, and the relations between coaches and players are more harmonious. Whereas in China, the passion towards soccer is much lower than Brazil. Players and coaches are not as dedicated as Brazilians.

Match quantity and quality: Every state and city of Brazil has its own youth competition system. Brazil's soccer federation (CBF) has unveiled plans for an under-20 national league this year. In the past three years the CBF has also implemented under-17 and under-20 Copa do Brasil (Brazil Cup) tournaments.

Therefore under-age teams in Brazil could have near 80-90 formal matches in a year, which is near three times more than the number of matches a Chinese under-age team could have.

"In China we don' t have so many matches to play that our players lack the competitive feeling when they are on court," said Sun.

Sometimes they can perform very well during training, but once entering a formal match they always have lackluster performance."

The lack of qualified coach: This is one of the major problems the Chinese soccer youth training faces. Due to low salary, most Chinese professional players don' t want to join the youth after retirement. China is also lack of coaching institutions. Some coaches without proper way of training will even do harm to the development of young players.

In Brazil, youth coaches need to study in college and receive relative training in psychological, medical and other soccer-related subjects. In the youth level, the coaches should go through systematic training so that they can spread a correct soccer concept. Endi