Chapter Thirteen: Entering the Country's Youth Team

  However, Gao Jun felt a sense of relief about this, because the history of this national youth team (83 National Youth) was completely a tragedy, and the culprit was the head coach Wang Baoshan of the 83 National Youth. He completely ignored the hot climate in West Asia and blindly increased the amount of training before the game, resulting in the physical condition of the national youth players being generally problematic, and as a result, they were defeated in the Asian Youth Games.

  What's even more outrageous is that this guy, in order to shirk responsibility, colluded with team leader Zhang Jianqiang (who was imprisoned during the anti-gambling and anti-blackmail storm), shifted all his responsibilities onto the team members, and fabricated the so-called "Four Golden Youths", causing those four young men with great potential to suffer from endless abuse and ridicule by domestic media and ignorant fans for many years, their careers were also severely affected, not one of them reached the heights they should have...

  Since U19 was not possible, Gao Jun could only start from the U17 national youth team. However, in his view, this was a good thing. Compared to Wang Baoshan, Liu Chunming, the head coach of the U17 national youth team, although also mediocre, at least had a less selfish and malicious heart, and gave players more freedom during matches, which undoubtedly benefited Gao Jun's performance.

  Although even if it's the World Youth Championship, for Gao Jun it doesn't have much training value, but this national youth team has many good young players, achieving good results can help increase the confidence of the national youth team members, which is very beneficial to their development and also beneficial to Chinese football. Therefore, Gao Jun still decides to go all out, if the coach is willing to give him a chance to play without ignoring him because of his short stature and slender build...

  Not only Gao Jun, but also Zhang Chenglin and Yu Hai from Chongming base were selected for this period of U17 national youth team training, which they did not have in the past. This is related to their better training at Chongming base, making them stronger than their historical counterparts, but more importantly, it's due to Xu Genbao's recommendation, highlighting once again how important "guanxi" (connections) are in Chinese football...

  However, Coach Xu can only help them get into the training list. Whether they can stay and even become a regular starter depends on their own abilities. The three of them did not disappoint him. Yu Hai and Zhang Chenglin quickly secured the starting left wing and right back positions respectively, while Gao Jun scored all 5 goals for the substitute team in the first intra-squad training match, leading the substitutes to a 3-0 victory over the starters.

  However, Gao Jun's outstanding performance did not immediately earn him a starting position in the national youth team. The team was currently using a single-forward formation (with no second striker), and Dai Jianying was the most famous player in the team. With his speed and power, he was far more impactful than Gao Jun, so it wasn't enough for the head coach to risk playing 14-year-old Gao Jun as the lone striker just because of his performance in a training match (Gao Jun didn't look particularly young, but rather the team had many overage players). As for having Gao Jun play as a second striker, Liu Chunming hadn't even thought of it...

  More importantly, in the first few matches of the Asian Youth Championship qualifiers, the Chinese youth team performed well, and Liu Chunming, who is conservative by nature, was not willing to take risks. Therefore, Gao Jun, no matter how skilled he was, could only sit on the bench all the time, but Gao Jun, who had experienced similar situations many times before, was not affected by his emotions, and this time, although he did not play as a main player in the national youth team, his gains were not small.

  Firstly, Yu Hai and Zhang Chenglin both gained experience from the match, which was undoubtedly beneficial for their growth. More importantly, at that time, Rao Jiamin, who had the strongest personal ability among the national team players in the history of Gao Jun's school, was facing a predicament due to his football school being dissolved and having no ball to kick. Gao Jun took advantage of the situation and immediately brought him to Chongming base without hesitation, with Xu Genbao's name and tuition fees waived, as well as subsidies (currently only three people from Chongming base have been selected for the national youth team and have such treatment). The generous treatment was enough to move Rao Jiamin and his parents.

  Due to Hao Junmin's introverted personality, he never dared to ask for help from the coach, so Liu Chunming, who was also the principal of Tianjin Taida Football School and the head coach of the national youth team, did not know about this matter at first. When he found out, Hao Junmin's parents had already talked to Xu Genbao, and he couldn't help but sigh that Taida's luck was not good.

  Due to this little episode, Gao Jun, who had been sitting on the bench all along, couldn't help but wonder maliciously, "Could it be that this matter has offended the coach severely?"

  However, Gao Jun finally waited for the opportunity to play, in the semi-finals of the Asian Youth Championship, the Chinese youth team encountered a Yemeni team that was even more exaggerated than ours, including Di Jianqing and other Chinese players. The physical advantage of the "uncles" made it difficult for them to breathe, after scoring a goal, the Yemeni team shamelessly retreated to the defense line, China could not counterattack, and the speed advantage was completely unable to be played out, while the opponent's tall and strong physique became more and more prominent. Seeing that they would definitely lose if they continued to play like this, Liu Chunming finally plucked up the courage and decided to send Gao Jun on the field to take a gamble.

  "Youhai, just pass the ball to me like you did during our training sessions at the base." Gao Jun greeted Youhai as soon as he came on the field. After all, Chinese people always have their own cliques wherever they go. For a forward like Gao Jun, if no one passed the ball to him or didn't pass it well, he would find it difficult to score even with his skills.

  "They are too strong, the referee is blind, every time I get the ball and try to speed up, they foul, the referee doesn't give a card at all..." Yu Haoyu complained gloomily.

  "In that case, don't use the bottom, directly 45 degrees into the penalty area, but never pass high and floating, must be low and flat ball, the faster the ball speed the better, use the shooting power to kick, when passing in the middle, not necessarily limited to the side road, can lean towards the middle, so the distance is closer, accuracy is higher, ball speed is also faster." High Jun grasped the brief moment of dead ball and said to Yu Hai.

  "Who can receive such a pass?", Yu Hai said in dismay.

  "I've received it, believe me! There's no time to say more, just follow what I said earlier!", Gao Jun insisted.

  "Alright." Yu Hai had no choice but to agree, but how could he catch such a fast pass? Moreover, with his current skills, the accuracy of a powerful pass was also a problem...

  However, with the idea of "curing a dead horse like a living one", Yu Hai got the ball again and immediately cut inwards according to Gao Jun's requirements. The opposing defender didn't expect him to do so and was instantly pulled away by a distance. Yu Hai finally got the opportunity to start his shot calmly, he silently recited Gao Jun's words just now, and viciously concentrated almost all his strength on his left foot, the ball suddenly flew out like a cannonball!