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Evergrande's youngsters ready to impress in FIFA Youth Cup

Xinhua, March 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

After being entitled "the most valuable" football club, Guangzhou Evergrande are getting ready to impress the world by their youth academy.

The Chinese champions' U-19 team will be the only Asian side to compete in the 2016 FIFA Youth Cup in May, according to the club.

Ten teams including RSC Anderlecht, Benfica, Feyenoord and West Ham United will be in the title race of the 78th edition of FIFA Youth Cup in Zurich two month later.

The only Chinese side to play this event before Evergrande is Beijing Guoan, who finished 8th in 2009.

An official of Evergrande told Xinhua on Thursday that it could be the best chance to test the club's youth development and learn from the world-class academies.

"We are not setting any target for the team, it will be the best chance to find out the real difference between ours and the world top level," he said.

Evergrande's U-19 team could be the best representative of China in this age group. Marco Pezzaiuoli, the 47-year-old German guided the team to win Chinese national youth championship last December.

The team, most of the time during 2015 were trained in Europe. And they played many matches against peer sides across the Europe.

"We in Evergrande played against all youth teams of big European clubs, and lost many games. However we gained a lot of experience, nothing beats experience in football," said Pezzaiuoli in a previous interview with Xinhua. Endit