Top leaders support soccer partnership
FU JING in Berlin
The presence of President Xi Jinping and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a Wednesday youth soccer match featuring players from both countries indicates the leaders' commitment to strengthening their soccer partnership, according to a senior German soccer official.
Xi and Merkel attend young people's match, an extension of a training camp
The presence of President Xi Jinping and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a Wednesday youth soccer match featuring players from both countries indicates the leaders' commitment to strengthening their soccer partnership, according to a senior German soccer official. The match was held at Olympic Stadium in Berlin.
Friedrich Curtius, secretary-general of the German Football Association, said the exhibition match is part of a soccer camp organized by both nations in Berlin for Chinese youth players.
Curtius said both sides consider the camp an excellent example of cooperation in talent promotion and education.
"The interest shown by Xi Jinping and Angela Merkel proves that both governments stand behind the two football associations. We are very glad to receive such an encouragement, which serves as motivation for us to continue working hard to achieve the cooperation project's goals," said Curtius.
China and Germany entered into a soccer partnership last year, and "putting our signatures on the partnership agreement was a great moment," he said.
"I am firmly convinced that we can make a major contribution toward making President Xi Jinping's great Chinese football dream come true," Curtius said.
Volker Heun, founder and CEO of Invest in Football GmbH in Duesseldorf, said the soccer partnership shows the closeness of the relationship, which has paved the way for Germany to help China become a soccer power by transferring know-how.
"Under the national framework of cooperation, I believe many new opportunities will occur," said Heun, also the author of a book on China's soccer and business, which has been translated into Chinese.
Heun said he thinks training young players should be a crucial part of the cooperation between China and Germany, a country that is successful in forming teams and identifying promising players.
"We must try to explore opportunities by training boys at age 7 or 8," Heun said.
Heun and his business partners are launching the Sino-German Football Academy for Youth Players to do that. "We are in the process of selecting our Chinese investors," he said.
The academy will target youths from second-tier leagues, soccer schools and second-or third-tier cities in China. "We are not going to target the first-tier leagues as they have already forged sound ties with football powers, and our strategy is to help those that are hidden stand out," Heun said.
Heun said the academy is expected to open branches in both China and Germany to train 50 to 200 boys at a time.
Youth squad will join German league
By Sun Xiaochen
A Chinese under-20 soccer team is training to become the newest member of the fourth division of the German soccer system.
The Chinese Football Association said a team will join the Regionalliga Sudwest, a fourth-tier league in southwest Germany, for the 2017-18 season.
The plan is part of a five-year agreement between the two countries to improve Chinese soccer.
"To provide this group of players with a more competitive environment in order to improve, we have been talking with the German side to finalize the arrangement for the U20 (team) to play in the German league," CFA spokesman Huang Shiwei said last week.
The Regionalliga Sudwest, one of five regional leagues in the German fourth tier, has 19 clubs. The new season will be from August to May.
Felix Wiedemann, managing director of the league, confirmed the Chinese team's inclusion.
"All 19 clubs in the league have signed their approval for the Chinese side to play," Wiedemann told German newspaper Bild. "I see the project as being in a good position."
China is working to develop its soccer talent. Two years ago, education authorities included the sport in the national curriculum for schools.
Ronny Zimmerman, vice-president of the German Football Association, said German clubs are in favor of the idea.
"The planned cooperation with China is well-known, and of course we need good content for it, so we have to see if the idea is successful," Zimmerman was quoted by German sports magazine Kicker as saying.
Germany and China signed a five-year soccer exchange partnership in November, witnessed by Chinese Vice-Premier Liu Yandong during her visit to Germany.
Since then, soccer development exchanges on multiple levels from youth training to national program development have been organized between the two countries. In June, Frankfurt hosted a Chinese-German Football Summit.
The CFA's Huang said technical and logistical issues, such as where the Chinese youth team will play its "home" matches, have yet to be addressed.
"We are trying to reach agreements with the Germans," she said.
It's not the first time a soccer team from China will have played in Germany. In 2004, an under-18 team traveled to Bavaria for a two-year training program under German coach and former player Eckhard Krautzun.
"This new program now is like an upgraded version ... with a more consistent framework to play in an established league," said Ma Dexing, a commentator with Titan Sports media. "Hopefully, the intensity of consistent competition over there will help the players grow fast."
