Gilberto Meireles Ferreira played in two of the top local clubs and now teaches in Zhuhai
Jose Arlindo Filho (better known as Josecler) a Brazilian coach and former footballer based in Macau, who has been working on the field for many years, has a strong opinion about the evolution of the game in China.
When interviewed by the Times, Josecler commented that “for sure China will have an ambition to win a World Cup. But this will only happen when China finds a way to have a real base work.” According to Josecler, this requires not only the training of young people that has been going on, but also the creation of “competitive championships on the junior levels, that in China is lacking, which leads to a low appearance of young players around 16 years old playing in the championships.”
“I believe that without that base China can’t go anywhere. We see many people opening football schools in China but many of them are aiming for just the financial side of this,” he said. He however reaffirmed that there are others “doing this and working with children to achieve their goals because they are passionate about the game.” “I believe in the next 10 to 15 years China will start to be rewarded for that work due to this big investment in coaches that brings an added value [to the development of the sport],”Josecler said.
The coach also remarked that China is doing “what Japan and [South] Korea did before” so we can expect a similar or even better outcome due to the large population of China and therefore the large number of potential football players, statistically speaking.
Josecler states that this potential lacks in Macau not only because of the reduced number of people but also (and mostly) due to the lack of space and difficulty of renting those places to play football. In Macau “you can’t book a pitch to play. You look across the border and there are 56 pitches available,” he compares. “Of course China will develop because the government is creating the conditions for it and investing [in football].”
Despite the difficulties noted in the region, he still reaffirms that “we are doing it and I need to thank the people that are supporting us to continue.” Based in China is Gilberto Meireles Ferreira or Gil, the defender who played in two of the top local clubs (Monte Carlo and Ka I) and embraced the project of one of the Brazilian historical football clubs Grêmio Football Porto Alegrense across the border.
Partnered with the “Black Panthers,” the Grêmio Football School in Zhuhai is working in collaboration with the Zhuhai local government in a project that involves 12 schools.
”I believe in the next 10 to 15 years China will start to be rewarded for that work due to this big investment in coaches.”, Josecler
The coach admits some difficulties in the beginning due to the “communication problems since the coaches can’t speak the local language” but those difficulties were tackled through shared experience of the game.
In Gil’s opinion the game in China “is growing a lot” and forcing the coach team to change their plans because “the kids are learning a lot and learning fast,” he said adding: “It is very different from Brazil or Portugal where the six and seven year-old kids they like more to play and do not pay so much attention to sporting fundamentals. In China [the situation] is different, they are very competitive with each other and that makes them very focused. The evolution is very big in a short period,” he mentioned.
To the question of what is missing to give the final boost, Gil has no doubts in saying that they are “missing more international players in the championships. There is a restriction of only four per team and that is not helping,” he said, recalling that the “competitiveness that they have needs some references to develop. If they don’t have someone in a higher level that serves as reference for them to follow and try to be better than, the level will continue to be low,” he stated.
Gil remarked that “football in China needs to be more disseminated… people have plenty to work with and investment is also happening a lot, contrary to other countries in Europe and South America.”
Further, there is a concrete and explicit project “to take, in 2030, China to a semi-final of the World Cup,” he said, stating that this goal was clearly mentioned to all people and “at this pace I think that it’s perfectly possible as long as there is will from Chinese football decision-makers to raise the bar bringing more foreigners in,” he concluded.
Gil agrees with Josecler in that there is a need to replicate what Japan did at the early stages of the J-League as well as the stages of the South Korean K-League.
“If that happens I think it is achievable, kids are very smart and they learn very fast,” Gil concluded.
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