Chapter 8 Former Disciple
One of them is Zhang Chenglin, who was trained by him in Guizhou and became a super "universal player". At that time, Zhang Chenglin's main position as a wing-back was only at the level of a marginal international player. However, he could play on both sides, and could also play any position on the field except goalkeeper, with at least a Super League substitute level, which is quite frightening. In a sense, it was because of such a super "universal player" that Gao Hong led the Guizhou team to achieve its best ever record at that time despite suffering from injuries and losing many players...
As Zhang Chenglin's mentor, Gao Jun naturally knew that in history, Zhang Chenglin had entered Genbao Football Base at a young age, but possibly because he was still playing as a forward at the time and it was difficult for him to stand out in the crowded front field of Genbao Base, Zhang Chenglin only stayed for one year before leaving. However, since he has not left yet, Gao Jun will naturally try his best to keep him and exert a positive influence on him, allowing him to achieve even greater success than in history.
Compared to Zhang Chenglin, another former disciple was even more surprising to Gao Jun. On the one hand, he was one of the core players during Gao Hong's coaching period with the national team. On the other hand, historically, he had never entered Chongming Base or its predecessor, Genbao Football School, but now appeared clearly in front of Gao Jun. This kind of "unexpected surprise" is naturally the most exciting.
It turns out that this player came to Shanghai at the age of 10 to study and play football, but when Chongming Base was founded, he already had a small reputation and was recruited by Shanghai International's youth team, so he had no connection with the base. However, if Chongming Base were established two years earlier, it would have been natural for him to choose to come here, after all, Xu Genbao's reputation was there, and the tuition fees were particularly low...
This player is Yu Hai, who was once known as the "Chinese Roberto Carlos" but also ridiculed by many fans. In history, Yu Hai became famous at a young age and was considered one of the best wing players in China at just 17 years old. At 19, he even landed in the Dutch Eredivisie and became an important player for his team, but in Gao Lin's opinion, this was the biggest mistake of his career...
Gao Jun, who had studied in various European football powers for a long time at his own expense, was very clear that although the Netherlands is known as a technical school, the style of the Dutch league is quite rough. Players like Yu Hai, who are particularly prone to being fouled on the field and even in training, are especially vulnerable to malicious fouls. What's more deadly is that East Asian players generally develop physically later, and Yu Hai didn't change his age like most Chinese players at the time. He was a genuine 19-year-old boy, and his physical development was still very immature. Moreover, his height was too tall for the wing position, and his center of gravity was high when dribbling, so he suffered much more damage from fouls than those small-sized wing players...
As a result, Yu Hai's career was short-lived after joining the Dutch league. He suffered a serious injury soon after and spent a year recovering in China. After finally making his comeback, Yu Hai, now nicknamed "Glass Man", got injured again just days into training and spent another year on the sidelines. This not only caused him to miss the 2008 Beijing Olympics but also led to a significant decline in his explosiveness, technique and ball control over the two-year period where he barely touched a ball...
Two consecutive years of injury is a devastating blow to any professional player, and most of them choose to retire directly. However, Yu Hai struggled through it and became an indispensable member of the team with his excellent running position and defensive skills that spared no effort. The "Chinese Robben" who used to dribble past opponents with ease was gone forever, due to the decline in explosive power and technique, as well as the psychological shadow of rough fouls. Yu Hai often couldn't even break through a substitute defender from a Chinese Super League team one-on-one, or didn't dare to try...
Gao Hong often wondered if Yu Hai had chosen to play in the Bundesliga or 2. Bundesliga, which have intense competition but more standardized defensive actions, instead of the rough and wild Eredivisie, whether he could have avoided those two serious injuries and developed better.
In those years, Gao Hong could only imagine in his heart, but now Gao Jun can solve the problem from the source. Yu Hai helped him to correct various technical movements that are prone to injury when he was on the team, strengthened his self-protection awareness, and advised him to avoid the Dutch and French leagues, which were considered rough but technically flowing by most people, before his body fully developed. Once injured, he must be cautious when returning, in order to avoid tragic history.
In addition, there is another thing to pay attention to. Since Hai is still young now, he must be reminded to take care of his eyesight. Anyway, in the future, he will definitely play professional football. For the sake of a little academic achievement (the young players at Chongming Base all have to go to school, and after graduating from junior high school, they decide whether to continue their studies or pursue a career in football), it's really not worth becoming 450 degrees myopic like in history. Although contact lenses can be worn while playing football, it is still inconvenient and has some danger...
These two players are undoubtedly rare talents, but apart from them, there aren't many outstanding young players in the Chongming base's 87 age group. This is mainly because when the base was recruiting students at that time, it had just been established and Xu Genbao was too busy to handle everything himself, so he handed over the selection and position arrangement of young players to the coaches below him. As a result, some of these coaches not only had poor levels but also questionable character, with some even shamelessly asking parents for money...
Although Xu Genbao later had the energy to personally manage the base and gradually cleaned up these harmful horses, the first batch of recruits still inevitably suffered from negative influences. The proportion of relationships and money coming in was higher, and naturally, there were fewer truly promising young talents...
Although the good seedlings are not as many as the teams below, being one year older in adolescence is a great advantage (so changing age is very vicious), so the strength of the 87-year-old group is still stronger than the other three groups. However, Gao Jun, who is one year younger, is still killing four sides in the internal competition...
Gao Jun did this not to experience the thrill of "killing small accounts", but to establish his core position in the team, so that Yu Hai and Zhang Chenglin, who had been making rapid progress after being replaced as a substitute, could listen to his guidance. After watching those matches, Coach Xu also quickly decided to make Gao Jun the core player for future formal team competitions in the domestic league. However, he did not lock Gao Jun in the base for intense training, but instead put forward a new requirement...
