A couple of Chinese Super League clubs have been keen on sending youth players to get trained in abroad for the recent years.

In January 2012, Dalian Wanda Group sent a group of 30 youth football players aged at 12 or 13 to Atletico Madrid along with Valencia and Villarreal for three-year systematic trainings. Wanda took the same approach in the following two years.

Not long after Wanda’s efforts, Guangzhou Evergrande FC accelerated their overseas youths training plans by opening branch football schools in Spain and Netherlands. And similarly, 25 players aged around 14 were grouped to get trained in Madrid in 2014.

Shandong Luneng Taishan FC and Guangzhou R&F FC joined Wanda and Guangzhou Evergrande in overseas training strategies among youth player. The difference was Luneng Taishan bought a sports base in Brazil and took part in youth league in Brazil where 5 Chinese players could feature per match. While Guangzhou R&F chose to jointly open football school with Chelsea FC.

The resemblance among these clubs’ efforts in educating youth players overseas was the big deal of costs to deploy the plans. As reported, clubs did not charge any fees on those players who were sent abroad. In terms of Guangzhou R&F, they annually pay Chelsea 30 million yuan for the training programs.

So why are these CSL clubs keen on overseas training programs which would cost much more than that in China?

This high expectation on quality training programs is definitely one of the reasons for the clubs to take actions. And clubs see this as an investment in the future of promising players.

Secondly, young players can attend much more football matches in broad where youths leagues are on good track. This is critical to young players as they can learn more experiences through regular matches. But most events for youths in China are football cups which means not a lot of players can manage to play enough matches.

Thirdly, partnering with likes of great clubs will boost the CSL brands. CSL is getting more and more attentions as a range of international coaches and star players come to China. In the meanwhile, China has a huge marketplace where European giants have planned to get deep into. Establishing partnerships with CSL teams will help promote the brands of both sides.  

In a word, it is still not clear whether the overseas training strategies will work or not. But undoubtedly there would be more and more international exchanges in football between CSL teams and international clubs.

Source: Netease