Soccer boys net success in city

By Wang Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-12 09:49

An international player (orange jersey) from the Beijing Yueye Soccer Club competes against the junior team at the Olympic Sports Center on Sept 26. [Wang Jing/China Daily]

Green is the symbol of vitality in the Chinese culture, but the Beijing Yueye Soccer Club junior team, decked in the lucky color, came up short against the orange jerseys of the club's international team. The junior team, whose players are all native to Beijing, lost 11-3 at the Olympic Sports Center on Sept 26.

Established last year by Cai Wei who used to be a professional player, the club trains youths under the age of 16 and is one of the only soccer clubs in the capital with foreign players - half of the team's roster are foreigners.

Players include children of expatriates, Chinese who lived overseas and some Chinese who have lived in Beijing their entire lives. At present there are three soccer clubs that are now recruiting foreigners in Beijing.

Part of the international team's success seems to hinge on blending what's good in its international players and the strict mindset of its Chinese players.

Andrew Nugent, an American who helps organizes the club, said his goal is to successfully mix "the Chinese discipline and the passion of its foreigners into the team culture."

Nugent said his team doesn't encourage players to think that they are Chinese or foreigners - it is an international team. What matters to him are cultural integration, friendship and sportsmanship.

"With my foreign players, nobody wants to do drills. All they want to do is to play matches," Nugent elaborated. "The problem with Chinese football is that players are either serious and they want to play at the professional level, or they don't take the sport seriously at all." Apparently, there is no in-between with Chinese national players.

One of the biggest stars on Nugent's club, Wei Delong, is a perfect example of Nugent's goal of successful integration.

Delong, a 13-year-old Chinese born in Germany, scored four goals in the September game and hardly spoke any Chinese prior to his arrival in Beijing. His mother Yuan Binbing, who works as a housewife, said she brought her son here to train as well as to help him understand the Chinese culture.

"Since he started playing here two years ago, he has made many Chinese friends and they would hang out together after training. Not only has his soccer skills improved significantly, so has his Chinese," she said.

Hao Runze, son of professional soccer player Hao Haidong, said proudly that he trained at Yueye to turn pro just like his father. Hao Haidong played for the Chinese national soccer team and is regarded as the best striker China has ever produced. The younger Hao said training with foreign players has vastly improved his skills.

"I will gain more strength and run faster by drilling with foreign teammates," he said. "It also helps me to understand the foreign football theory."

During each break, Hao Runze speaks in fluent English about tactics and positioning with his coach and teammates.

Other players on the team are here simply to have fun. Kevin Evans from the UK works at the British Embassy in Beijing. Both of his two sons, Cavan, age 10, and Dylan, 11, play at Yueye.

"I don't know whether they will become professional or not. I just want them to play hard and to have fun," he said.

Nugent said his international program allows them to play better against other teams, one of the reasons why many foreign parents send their children to join Yueye. "It allows children who have more skills to have more training," he said.

Cai, the club's general manager, said the primary difference between his club and the majority of Chinese soccer clubs is that his club runs under a Western system where players only meet when they train. After training they can enjoy their personal lives. Chinese soccer clubs, on the other hand, operate like a boarding school where every child lives, drills and studies together. Yueye's international program runs four days a week. The admission ranges from 30-60 yuan each class.

"Running a soccer club isn't a very lucrative business anymore as Chinese national soccer team's performance has been very bad," Cai said. "All I want to do is to let Chinese play better soccer by training with foreign counterparts when they are young."