Young players stay abroad, and the "bilateral channel" model is worth learning from

The reporter reported coldly The young national youth represented by Wang Yudong has recently become a hot topic of discussion in the outside world. When it comes to young players staying abroad, other Asian countries actually have successful precedents that they can learn from. In terms of solving the language, life and training problems of young players staying in Europe, Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other countries have almost all established "Yankee stations" in Europe, acquiring small and medium-sized clubs in Europe or cooperating with clubs, and at the same time establishing close ties with the youth training system led by the country's Football Association or to which the club belongs, and continuously sending young players to European clubs for training and competitions, forming a long-term "bilateral channel" for staying abroad - this can be used as a reference for Chinese football.

As early as June 2012, Qatar's Aspire Zone fund acquired the Belgian club Obeng, Qatar hopes to make Oben a training base for Hope Football School in Europe, and the echelon structure and football style are based on the Spanish style Hope Football School. In the summer, as many as 17 players wanted to join the football team, and in the winter they signed 20-year-old goalkeeper Naim on loan from Sade.

Since 2012, Hope Football School has launched the "European Experience" program to provide young players with a season-based overseas experience. In addition to Hope Football School, Oben has also established partnerships with clubs such as Saad, Galafa, and Duhail to accept young players to join in Europe for "training".

In 2013, Hope Football School signed a cooperation agreement with the Spanish Professional League, and the clubs involved in the cooperation are all over Europe, mainly in Spain, including Sevilla, Villarreal, Real Sociedad, Celta, Alaves, Astega, Malaga, Schalke 04, Fortuna Dusseldorf, Red Bull Salzburg, Linz, Auxerre, Monaco, Celtic, University of Coimbra and Leeds United. In recent years, it has gradually concentrated in Belgium and Spain, especially in the lower Spanish clubs.

In 2015, Hope Football School acquired the Spanish lower division club Leonesa, and then established a close youth training partnership with the Spanish lower division clubs Alcocón (2019) and CalOla (2023), and Hope Football School's general manager Ivan Bravo served as the chairman of Alcocon, and last year, Qatar became the main sponsor. The three clubs' three age groups are managed independently by Hope Football School, but at the same time there will be no changes to the club's homegrown youth academy. At this year's Under-20 Asian Cup, 13 of Qatar's 23 players played for the three lower Spanish clubs.

Qatar's two-time Asian Cup champion Afif is the earliest beneficiary of the Hope Football School's "European Experience" program. In October 2012, he first went to Sevilla U19 for training, 9 months later transferred to Villarreal U19 echelon, and after 6 months of training, he switched to Eupen, and after 18 months of training, he successively trained in Gijón Sports and Eupen, and at the beginning of 2018, he returned to Sade, and made a splash in the 2019 Asian Cup.

The acquisition of low-level clubs in the second-rate league or the five major leagues in Europe is used as a base for cultivating rookies to base themselves in the European league, and at the same time establishing a "bilateral channel" between the youth training of Qatari clubs and European clubs with the hope football school as the core.

Compared to Qatar, the Saudis have taken a detour.

At the beginning of 2018, the Saudi Football Federation reached an agreement with the Spanish Football Federation and the professional league to "appropriate" nine international players to nine La Liga or La B clubs. But these players got very little chance to play, basically wasted nearly 5 months, and then in the World Cup, it was normal for the Saudi team to perform poorly.

At the beginning of 2019, Saudi Arabia changed its strategy of staying abroad and established an overseas training base in Salou, a coastal area near Barcelona.

Since 2020, the Saudi Football Federation has selected more than 40 U19 players to stay in Salou for a two-year overall stay. Since 2021, Saudi Arabia has established the Abutar Cup with 16 teams in Salou, inviting European giants to participate in the same age group to improve the strength of players. The tournament is now one of the highest junior invitational tournaments in Europe.

Over the past five years, more than 230 Saudi young players have trained in Salou, of which more than 40 have joined Saudi Arabia's top clubs, and 21-year-old midfielder Jaber joined Bosnian giants Sarajevo Railways two years ago, and now has established himself in the first team, which can be regarded as a success of the "Salou model".

At the beginning of 2018, the owner of Sheffield United in the English Premier League, Saudi Prince Moussard, bought Belgium's Antwerp Roar Club as a "springboard" club for Saudi players to stay in Europe. Two Saudi internationals, Al-Sahafi and Al-Ghamdi, joined on loan last summer, and the club will welcome more young Saudi players in the future.

In addition, the Saudi Ministry of Sports has partnered with Serie Treviso to send a total of 25 young Saudi players to train with the club's echelon over the next four years. Seventeen-year-old Nayef Jabr and 15-year-old Kharufa are the first batch to form a full Saudi junior team for the new season, staying at H Manor, 13km from Treviso, and participating in a large number of junior invitational tournaments.

Saudi Media Group (SMC) has just acquired Almeria in La Liga, which will be another Saudi "springboard" club in Europe.

It is worth mentioning that last year, the Saudi Football Association announced a new "Future Eagle" plan - 27 U15 players were selected to stay in Spain's Salou base as a whole, and Real Madrid star Salgado was hired as the coach to stay in Spain for a long time. "Future Eagles" plans to establish cooperative relations with Spanish clubs such as Espanyol and Sevilla, and regularly join the echelon training of cooperative Spanish clubs.

Saudi Arabia has replicated Qatar's successful model, with greater investment, more targeting, and more young players staying abroad.

In fact, the Chinese Football Association and non-governmental organizations have also tried it in Spain, Portugal and Croatia before. However, due to the inability to participate in official competitions, the improvement of the player's personal ability is limited. Relatively speaking, the Football Association, club youth training and European "springboard" clubs to establish "bilateral channels", really play on the official game of the stay in the foreign more effective, at present, in Europe to select "springboard" clubs, the Netherlands and Belgium have the greatest advantage. There are few restrictions on the number of non-EU players in the leagues between the two countries, with Belgium, for example, requiring only a minimum of six homegrown players in the first team. After Qatar, Japan, Saudi Arabia's European "springboard" clubs are in Belgium, and this year, the Indonesian Football Association and the Dutch Football Association reached a youth cooperation agreement to send young players to the Eredivisie or Eredivisie club for "training".

Japan has been most successful in establishing long-term "bilateral channels", especially in terms of European "springboard" clubs. In 2017, Keiyuki Tateishi, general manager of FC Tokyo in the J1 League, suggested that DMM Group owner Keiji Kameyama buy small and medium-sized European clubs as a European springboard for Japanese players to stay abroad. In 2017, DMM Group acquired a 20% stake in St. Thaiden, a subsidiary of the Belgian League, and in 2018, it became fully controlled, with Takayuki Tateishi as CEO, to build a long-term "bilateral channel" with the J-League. St. Treiden has established cooperative relations with five J-League clubs, achieving the agglomeration effect of Japanese players staying abroad.

St Treiden have as many as seven Japanese players in their first team this season and the club have brought in as many as 25 Japanese players since 2017. The club's lingua franca is English, and each Japanese player is equipped with an interpreter, so that newcomers to Japan can pass the "language barrier" from the moment they land. There are many employees of local Japanese companies, and a large number of foreign players have attracted more Japanese tourists, solving problems such as language and life for Japanese players, and accelerating their integration into the European football environment.

In addition, together with Portimão, a Portuguese Super League club with a Japanese background, and the "European Headquarters" of the Japan Football Association in Düsseldorf, Germany, the Japan Football Association has built a multi-base network for Japanese players to develop in Europe.

In addition to Qatar, Japan and Saudi Arabia, the Thai-Chinese owner of Leicester City in the English Premier League, Xu Shengyuan, acquired OH Leuven in Belgium in September 2017. In the past seven years, there have been at least eight young Thai players in the team.

Indonesia's "springboard" club has Oxford United in League One acquired by Football Association President Tohir, which has successively introduced current international player Ferdinand and naturalized international player Romeni. In addition, the Indonesian Football Association has established a comprehensive cooperative relationship with the Dutch Football Association, and the future "springboard" club will most likely fall in the Dutch league.

The "bilateral channel" model has a certain reference role for Chinese football's strategy of staying abroad. The Football Association and the Chinese football community should start by solving practical problems and provide substantial help for players to stay abroad. In the Netherlands, Belgium, which basically does not limit the number of non-EU players, the second-rate leagues in Europe have acquired or sought cooperation to establish a "springboard" club for staying abroad. On the premise of ensuring that foreign players have stable playing time, we will solve the problems of language and life for young players to integrate into the European league from the club level. At the same time, it may be a long-term strategy for the sustainable development of Chinese football to establish cooperative relations with domestic clubs and open up long-term "bilateral channels" for overseas football.