Chapter 1 Germany's Youth Training System

Like Spain, Germany also places great emphasis on youth training. But in reality, German football didn't always prioritize youth development. Although a world-class football powerhouse, Germany once faced a talent shortage. Their victory at the 1996 European Championship in England seemed to make them complacent. By the 1998 World Cup in France, the aging of the German team was obvious. At the 2000 European Championship, co-hosted by the Netherlands and Belgium, the defending champions were drawn into a "group of death" and unceremoniously sent home after the group stage, a humiliating performance in a major tournament.

It was this crushing defeat that finally made the German Football Association (DFB) realize that after a decade of glory, they had to focus on developing Germany's youth football training system. They made a painful decision to embark on a great reform in the history of German football.

Then-DFB President Gerhard Aigner believed that German football needed to be rebuilt. To this end, the DFB launched the "Talent Promotion Program." However, the football environment at the time was not conducive, and the stadium facilities could not meet the standards. Gerhard had to wait patiently.

He didn't have to wait long. In the 2002 World Cup, the unfancied German team unexpectedly reached the World Cup final. Although they ultimately only won the silver medal, the Germans still enthusiastically welcomed their heroes at the airport. After all, before the World Cup, they were one of only two world-class teams not expected to win – the other being Brazil. The nation's passion for football was instantly ignited, leading Gerhard to realize that the opportunity for change had arrived.

Soon after the Japan-Korea World Cup, the DFB quickly organized personnel to implement this youth talent training program, and has continued it to this day, with plans to continue it further.

Starting in 2000, the DFB redeployed approximately 390 football training bases nationwide, bringing together more than 22,000 talented male and female players aged 11 to 17. They played under the guidance of more than 1,200 youth football coaches. These professional coaches started with the players at a young age, teaching them the most basic modern football skills and tactics.

At the same time, the DFB strictly stipulated that Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 clubs must have their own youth training centers. Including the DFB itself, the 48 professional football clubs spend a total of approximately 48 million euros on this project each year, and this amount is gradually increasing.

From the perspective of the German football youth training system, it is a typical state-supported system. It is impossible to implement such a large-scale youth training plan relying solely on the strength of the clubs. Without the DFB taking the lead and using state resources, this great reform would only exist on paper and would not be implemented.

For example, the uneven hardware conditions and coaching levels of the various clubs may cause many football talents to be ruined due to not receiving good training. The DFB has made corresponding arrangements.

They distributed 390 football training bases as evenly as possible throughout Germany to ensure that each training base can serve approximately 70 clubs. This layout not only provides convenience for the clubs, but also ensures that the clubs can find the most talented players in the shortest time, while ensuring that the training of young players is systematic and efficient. German football experts have statistically shown that through effective training, 10,000 out of 300,000 children will eventually stand out.

The training camps do not belong to any club, but to the DFB.

In addition to training young players, the DFB also regularly trains youth football coaches, requiring coaches to teach one-on-one as much as possible. The DFB assigns each coach a specific schedule, including training courses, videos, and training time at the base. An archive is established within the DFB, using scientific methods to help coaches guide children to play football more systematically.

This is not something that can be done solely by the strength of the clubs.

From the German football youth training reform, we may see another side of Chinese football. Blindly advocating professionalization while completely negating the state-supported system may be one of the reasons for the decline of Chinese football in recent years. After all, the Chinese national team players that we still remember as a top Asian team came from the era of the state-supported system. They were all cultivated in sports teams, not professional football clubs.

The Chinese Football Association has only focused on national teams in recent years, and has no idea about the entire Chinese youth football training system. This is the main factor leading to the decline in Chinese football standards. Of course, this is also normal. In the bureaucratic Football Association, political achievements are the most important, and the performance of the national team is the fastest way to see political achievements. That's why there were things like suspending the league for the Olympics and canceling league promotion and relegation to reach the World Cup.

In contrast, youth football is a long-term endeavor that requires continuous investment from several generations of Football Association leadership teams. The advocate of this work may not be able to enjoy the slightest benefit brought by youth football training until he leaves his post. The person who eventually reaps the fruits of victory may be someone else.

But this is the objective law of football, just like the objective law of Chinese teenagers losing to La Masia's Youth B team. This objective law does not change with subjective will.

Not following the rules will lead to a miserable death in the football world.

The Germans once died miserably, which made them realize the importance of the rules.

Therefore, the most important part of the reform plan proposed by Gerhard was to revise the scope of the DFB president's power, requiring "following the established rules." Successive DFB presidents must faithfully implement this talent training program without interruption, otherwise it will be all for naught.

But even now, the Chinese Football Association has not truly paid attention to the importance of youth football.

Otherwise, the TV show "Green Field Inheritors," which aims to attract more people's attention to youth football, would not have the embarrassing situation of gathering players who are marginal figures in the youth teams of various clubs.

Chinese fans on the internet are also right to ridicule this show. The title of "the strongest in China" is really just self-promotion by the production team. The truly strongest players didn't come at all, and even He Ying can't do much on his own.

When the teenagers arrived in Munich, the show "Green Field Inheritors" had already aired three episodes.

The three games in Spain have all been broadcast, and naturally there is still a lot of scolding on the internet. Public opinion is completely unfavorable to the production team and the team.

Some people have sarcastically called the core idea of "Green Field Inheritors" of "challenging the youth training camps of European powerhouses" as a "football version of hunter and bear," joking that these Chinese football teenagers are not going to challenge at all, but to get beaten…

The production team naturally knows about these voices. Such public opinion puts a lot of pressure on them. For the production team, being scolded episode after episode is like a game after game destined to fail, making them confused.

Moreover, some of the show's sponsors have expressed concern to them.

Sponsors are the lifeline of the show. If they stop sponsoring, the show will be over.

So the sponsor's opinion is very important. If the sponsor is unhappy, everyone will be unhappy.

Losing, losing badly… If this continues, General Director Xu Tao doesn't know how many more episodes this reality show can last. He is trying his best to downplay the impact of failure and emphasize the positive in the show's script. But unfortunately, the inherent impression of being defeated 0-12 by La Masia's Youth B team is too strong. So no matter how you guide it in the show, all everyone sees is "defeat."

Among those who are scolding, there are real fans who are truly angry about the state of Chinese football. They have been heartbroken by Chinese football to the point that they are a bit paranoid. As long as they hear the news of Chinese football losing, they will start scolding preemptively, regardless of how they lost.

There are also some people who don't care about Chinese football at all. They are just following the crowd to vent their emotions and find a legitimate opportunity to show their negative energy. If you swear at someone, others will think you are uncultured. But if you swear at Chinese football, no matter how harsh you are, many people will cheer you on. They treat Chinese football as a spittoon. They don't care about how Chinese football is doing, and they don't want Chinese football to get better, because if Chinese football gets better, they won't have a spittoon to spit in.

Under such circumstances, the last thing everyone wanted to see still happened.

Just two days before the game against Bayern Munich's youth team, the team's starting center-back Huang Chao was injured in training, and it was not a minor injury that could be recovered in a week or two.

This Western expedition only has sixteen people. Apart from the eleven starters, there are only five substitutes, which is the same as the Premier League's squad list. Every player who plays Football Manager will be very dissatisfied with the Premier League's rule of only being able to bring five substitutes, because it always makes people feel unsafe. In case someone gets injured, the substitutes may not be enough in some extreme situations.

Now, Hao Dong has encountered such a problem.

Because there are only sixteen people on the list, he had to spend a lot of effort choosing which positions to bring substitutes for.

In the end, he brought six people in the defender position. Apart from the four starters, there are only two substitutes, one is a center-back substitute, and the other is a full-back substitute.

Six people in midfield, four starters, two substitutes - Zhou Yi and Guo Nu.

Two forwards, no substitutes.

Two goalkeepers, starting goalkeeper Sun Pan, substitute goalkeeper Lai Cong.

Now that the starting center-back Huang Chao is injured, the substitute center-back Yang Fei will naturally have to fill in, but if there are any more accidents in the defense, the troops will be stretched thin.

Continuous defeats, coupled with teammate injuries, before the start of the game against Bayern Munich, the team composed of Chinese teenagers was filled with such an atmosphere of gloom.