prince's green

Chapter 7 Campus Football
After the surprise of the two Olympic Games, the Japanese team returned to the old way, and everything returned to calm. They are not professional football players who have been trained since childhood. The Japanese team should lose or have to lose.

But with that success, Japanese football has embarked on the road of elite training. They believe that they can train a strong national team by selecting dozens of people to train them to play football just like training the Olympic team.

But this method proved to be unworkable in the end. In the next 20 years, Japanese football has been at the middle and lower reaches of Asia for a long time. Let alone the World Cup, the Japanese team could not even pass the Asian Cup qualifiers. The tragedy of losing to Thailand happened (is it comparable to the Chinese team's 2:5 loss to Thailand).The Japanese team did not participate in too many international competitions in the early days, and the Chinese team had never lost to Japan before 1.

With the advent of the 80s, Japan's economy has grown by leaps and bounds, and it has a tendency to surpass the United States to become the world's largest economy. Under such a general environment, Japanese football has also begun to usher in development opportunities.

The failure of the elite model, Japanese football began to learn from Western countries, intending to adopt the club youth training model.

Beginning in the 80s, the Japanese Football Association began to brew professional leagues. However, at that time, Japanese domestic teams, except for campus teams, were all corporate teams. Those companies had a lot of concerns about professional leagues. Has been difficult to give birth.

Under such circumstances, a manga called Captain Tsubasa was published, which attracted some attention. Then, a year later, this manga was adapted into an anime. With the active promotion of major Japanese TV stations, it quickly became popular all over Japan.

Behind the popularity of this anime is actually the Japanese government’s efforts to promote the development of football and to develop professional leagues. Isn’t that how the protagonist Tsubasa Ozora’s footsteps in the manga are? The arena, go to Europe to play professional league.This manga influenced a generation of Japanese teenagers, who started to get in touch with football.

In addition, the Japanese Football Association has also introduced a large number of youth training coaches from all over the world (mainly Brazil, which is why Japanese players, like Brazilian players, pay special attention to foot skills). Japanese football has embarked on the road of youth training.

Under the promotion of the government, Japan entered the Asian Cup for the first time in 88 (it was eliminated in the group stage), and Japan unexpectedly reached the top in the local Asian Cup in 92 (no one thought Japan could win that year, But the Japanese are like this. They always explode in local games. In the semi-finals, Japan defeated the Chinese team 3:2). Established, Japanese football began to embark on the club youth training model.

The establishment of the J-League has to mention one person, Kawabuchi Saburo, who was also a member of the Japanese Olympic team in 64 and graduated from Waseda University. He is the kind of person who really loves football.After retiring, Saburo Kawabuchi served as the coach of a corporate team and the head coach of the Japanese national team. Later, the Japanese Football Association planned to establish a professional league. He traveled around and actively contacted major companies. He contributed a lot to the establishment of the J League, known as The godfather of Japanese football.

In the early days of the J-League, the enthusiasm of the Japanese for football was high, coupled with the rapid development of the economic level, the J-League became the representative of Jinyuan football. Many famous European players came to Japan to seek gold after retiring.

The only England striker Lineker who has won the World Cup top scorer, the famous Brazilian stars Zico, Dunga, Bebeto, the legendary Danish star Laudrup, the famous Italian striker Schillaci, the former Yugoslavian star Tojkovic (now the head coach of Guangzhou R&F in the Chinese Super League), Bulgarian star Stoichkov (played for Barcelona, ​​won the World Cup top scorer, has a hot temper and is called Thunderbolt, once lost the championship accidentally at home, He directly rushed into the locker room of the visiting team and smashed the trophy won by the opponent), and even famous players such as Hong Myung-bo and Choi Yong-soo in South Korea were attracted by Kim Won of the J-League.

To give an example, the average annual salary of J-League players in Japan at that time reached 2500 million yen, which was more than 200 million RMB. You can imagine the concept of earning 90 million a year in the 200s (the situation of the J-League at that time and the current Chinese Super League Jinyuan football is about the same).

The prosperity of the J-League gave the Japanese full confidence in football, but at the end of 93 they were suddenly hit hard.

That year, Japan won the right to host the 02 World Cup, and the Japan Football Association set a goal to strive to enter the 94 World Cup in the United States. (The 02 World Cup was originally given to Japan alone. Later, Bangziguo believed that he was the representative of Asian football. Why did he give the qualification to Japan and not us, so he went to FIFA to make various noises, FIFA and mud, and At that time, Japan had never entered the World Cup and felt guilty, so they agreed to co-host it, and only then did the god-level performance of Bangzi Kingdom in 02)

In the final round of World Cup qualifiers at the end of 93, Japan only needed to win to qualify for the World Cup for the first time. They led 90:2 within 1 minutes, but they were scored by Iraq in 3 minutes of stoppage time. Missing the World Cup, this matter is called a Doha tragedy by the Japanese (is it very familiar, it is full of the taste of the Chinese team's black 3 minutes).

Saburo Kawabuchi, who was the chairman of the J-League at the time, realized that the prosperity of the J-League had indeed promoted the development of Japanese football, but it also made Japanese football seem impetuous and eager for quick success. This is why things like the Doha tragedy happened, so he began to seek some solutions. way.

Visiting the youth training camps of major clubs in Japan, Saburo Kawabuchi saw that the club’s youth training is not developed enough, mainly because the source of young players is limited. The reason for this is that the club’s scouting system is not as developed as in Europe, and There are still a small number of children playing football in Japan. The football population is inherently insufficient, just like the land is naturally barren and the food is naturally not growing well (same as the current domestic football environment in China).

In the process of seeking a solution, Kawabuchi Saburo discovered that Japan has a long history of campus football. In the 40s, international students returning from Europe began to organize campus football teams.

Occasionally some competitions between campus teams gradually formed the Japanese campus football culture. In the 50s, there was a prototype of the Japanese campus football league. Soccer can barely sustain it, and it has been in a half-dead state for a long time. Only the high school football league and the college football league are slightly better.

In view of this, Kawabuchi Saburo intends to support campus football, and then combine campus football and club youth training for development.

Saburo Kawabuchi first persuaded the Japan Football Association, and then mobilized his own relationship to give campus football funds and policy support, so campus football developed rapidly, and it became popular in a few years. Football was also listed as a compulsory subject in Japanese elementary schools. This has virtually cultivated a large number of football populations, and at the same time can observe whether children have the talent to play football.Then Saburo Kawabuchi encouraged major clubs in Japan to look for youth training seedlings in the school, and they can sign into the youth training camp when they see the right ones.

As a result, the unique Japanese football model, the model of youth training plus campus football was born. Most children have been exposed to football since childhood. After they show their talents, they will be called into youth training camps by professional clubs, but they will not be interrupted. They have to finish high school to become professional footballers, and if they want, they can even finish college before playing professional football.

During their studies, they receive youth training in the club, study at school and participate in campus competitions at the same time. The club cannot force them to end their studies early to participate in professional competitions.

Under this model, Japanese football began to enter a period of rapid development, and football talents emerged in an endless stream. Even after the Japanese economy was hit hard and the salaries of professional players dropped sharply, this unique model was still producing good players.

Today, Japan is the country with the best development of campus football in the world. After winning the Shenzhen University Games this year, the Japanese university football team has won the men's football championship in the World University Games for four consecutive times (the World University Games are held every two years) .

　ps: Talking so much nonsense, I actually feel that Japan’s football development model has a lot to learn from. Many of the roads we are now walking are what they have gone through.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)