The reporter reported coldly With the 36-year-old Deng Zhuoxiang as the acting coach of the Three Towns, plus Shao Jiayi, who has just turned 45 years old and led the West Coast to play a beautiful start, Xie Hui (Yatai), Li Xiaopeng (Manatee) and Li Guoxu (InBev), who previously started their coaching career as "young marshals", together with Li Jinyu of the Chinese League, and Chen Tao, Zheng Zhi, Huang Bowen, Yu Dabao, etc., who have "experienced" in the national teams of all ages, local young coaches have become a force that cannot be ignored in Chinese football.

For a long time, the outside world has called for attention to youth training, but it mostly refers to young players, but in fact, the systematic training of young coaches cannot be ignored.

Successes are rare

45 years old, is the age limit of the so-called "young marshal" in the football circle, and after the professionalization of Chinese football in 1994, it is not uncommon for young marshals to be young.

In the opening season of 1994, the 33-year-old Zhou Sui'an led Guangzhou Sun God to the runner-up and reached the peak of his career. Zhou Sui'an was already the coach of the Guangzhou team at the age of 29, and won the 1992 Best Coach Award at the age of 31 for leading the Guangzhou team to a runner-up in the league. In the opening season of A, the local young coaches also have 37-year-old Tang Pengju (Guoan), 38-year-old Yin Tiesheng (Shandong), Li Huen (Jilin), 39-year-old Yang Yumin (Liaozu), and the youngest is 31-year-old Jia Xiuquan (Bayi).

Professionalized for more than 30 years, the local coaches who debuted as young marshals include Shen Xiangfu, Ma Lin, Tang Yaodong, Xu Hong, Wei Kexing, Cheng Yaodong, Wu Jingui, Li Bing, Zhu Jiong, Li Jinyu, Li Xiaopeng, Zhao Junzhe, Li Weifeng, Li Tie, Hao Wei, Xie Hui, Chen Yang, Shao Jiayi and others, all of whom have been coaching for at least one year, and unfortunately there are not many successful ones.

In 1995, the 39-year-old Yin Tiesheng helped Shandong win the FA Cup, the only heavyweight trophy in his coaching career. In 2001, 44-year-old Shen Xiangfu led the U20 national youth to the top 16 of the U20 World Youth Championships, which was the best result achieved by a local coach in the lower age group after 1985. In 2003, 36-year-old Cheng Yaodong coached Shanghai International, only one point behind the runner-up of A, losing to 42-year-old Wu Jingui's Shenhua, but the championship was stripped due to match-fixing. In 2015, the 38-year-old Hao Wei led the team to the top 8 of the Women's World Cup, which is the best result of the Chinese women's football team in the 21st century. From 2020 to 2023, he also coached Taishan to win 1 Chinese Super League championship and 3 FA Cup championships, making him the local young coach with the most trophies.

The most successful local young marshal who led the team should be Gao Hongbo. In 2005, the 39-year-old Gao Hongbo led Xiamen to the Chinese Super League, and in 2007, he coached Yatai to win the championship, setting a record for the youngest age of a champion coach in China's top league (41 years old). In 2009, Gao Hongbo coached the national football team, drawing 1-1 with the world champion Germany in the warm-up match, and in February 2010, he led the national football team to win the only championship in the history of the East Asian Cup, and defeated South Korea 3-0, ending the history of the national football team for 32 years without winning against South Korea in a total of 27 games. In addition, in June 2010, Gao Hongbo led the national football team to a 1-0 victory over France, which was the last time that the national football team defeated the champion teams of the world, Europe and South America.

At the beginning of 2011, Gao Hongbo led the team to stop in the group stage of the Asian Cup, although the coaching winning rate (65%) at that time was second only to Nian Weisi (67.9%) in the history of the national football team, or was replaced by Camacho 7 months later, it can be said that Gao Hongbo's achievements in coaching the national football team are second only to Qi Wusheng who entered the Asian Games finals in 1994 among local coaches since professionalization.

The future of the new "young marshal" is promising

Unlike the "ball system" where most of the young coaches in Europe retired from the football field and entered the coaching field, and the "academic school" with few professional player resumes, the vast majority of China's local young coaches are professional players. With the gradual withdrawal of senior local coaches from the stage of history, the number of local young coaches has been increasing in recent years, and fans are looking forward to qualitative changes in the future. This season, in addition to Shao Jiayi, Xie Hui, Li Xiaopeng and Li Guoxu of the Chinese Super League, the young coaches also have Li Jinyu, Liu Jianye, Zhou Lin and Liu Zhiyu of the Chinese Super League.

Xie Hui has long been famous in the Chinese Super League because of "pressing and beating"; After Shao Jiayi took over the West Coast to lead the team to relegation last year, he got off to a stunning start this year. Together with Deng Zhuoxiang, the acting coach of the three towns, only Yu Genwei (Jinmen Tiger) is over 50 years old among the 6 local coaches in the Chinese Super League, plus the 4 local young coaches in the Chinese League, the trend of younger is becoming more and more prominent. This is not counting Chen Yang, who has rich coaching experience and is currently idle, and Zhao Junzhe, who has coaching experience in the Chinese Super League in recent years.

In addition, in the men's and women's national teams of all ages, the local young coaches have initially had a scale effect. The national football team has Zheng Zhi (44 years old) and Chen Tao (40 years old) as assistant coaches, Huang Bowen (37 years old) and Yu Dabao (36 years old) as assistant coaches of the U23 national team, Wan Houliang (39 years old) as assistant coaches of the U19 national youth team, and Wang Hongliang, coach of the women's U17 national youth team, is only 40 years old. Zheng Zhi served as the firefighting coach of the Guangzhou team as early as 5 years ago (39 years old), and then coached the team twice. Chen Tao coached for three months two years ago, and both of them have some experience in coaching in the Chinese Super League.

Compared with their predecessors, these local young marshals have the advantage of being assisted by high-tech wearable devices and big data platforms, enjoying the dividends brought by the scientific and technological progress of the football industry, and can learn foreign advanced technology and tactics faster and better. Moreover, with the mass rise of the European "academic" marshals, the use of high-tech means and big data platforms, China also has the foundation for the production of "academic" local marshals.

Compared with player youth training, the systematic and large-scale training of local young coaches also needs to be accelerated. If we can establish a training system for local young coaches who start from youth football and gradually move up to professional football, it will be a more powerful impetus for the sustainable development of Chinese football. Chinese football not only needs a large number of young players as a foundation, but also needs both quantity and quality of young local coaches – just like the players, local young coaches form a pyramid structure to support the huge system of Chinese football.