A mature football industry shall not be separated from the growth of youth football, which lays the foundation for fostering a talent pool of youngsters.

The ninth Peace Cup in Shenyang, which featured 308 teams from China and abroad, serves as a great opportunity for football lovers to peep into the future of the sport.

Unveil the secrets in youth football

Serbian side Crvena Zvezda U14 maintain great strength in carrying forward the senior team's spirits on the pitch.

As the youth team of the 13-time Serbian champions Red Star Belgrade, they hammered China's Dongguan 7-0 in the quarterfinal, and then dominated the seminal with a 5-1 victory over a united team of Tsinghua University High School and a local Shenyang team. In the final, they suffered a 2-1 loss to a team from Dalian, also in northeast China's Liaoning Province.

"Footballers' love and participation into the sport are key in youth football," noted Serbian side coach Djordje Cirkovic, adding that practice is also necessary.

Like father, like son. The team's top goal-scorer Filip Vukovic is the son of Jagos Vukovic, who made eight appearances for the Serbian national football team from 2009 to 2017 and played for Chinese club Qingdao Football Club from 2020 to 2022.

"It's a family honor to play football," said Vukovic junior, wearing the No. 9 jersey.

Twelve-year-old defender Sun Xiran from a Chinese team said his passion for football was inspired by his parents.

"Both my mom and dad like watching football matches. As long as they have time, they would never miss a match," Sun said. "I like playing football because I feel I can think on the pitch," he added.

Eleven-year-old winger Yang Zichen, also from a Chinese team, said he felt so happy at the Peace Cup because he was included in the team's starting line-up for every match.

"My idol is Cristiano Ronaldo because he is handsome, and I want to play like him," said Yang, who had a daily two-hour training session in football.

It's worth noting that 293 out of 308 teams in this tournament are from China.

"It is surprising to see so many Chinese football teams during the event," said Coach Kim Kyoo-hyung of South Korean Daejeon Jeil Football Club.

"The basic skills of playing football are quite important for a young player. Only if a junior player could master the basic skills, he or she can have a good performance in their senior career," the coach noted.

According to coach Kim Jung-ho of STS Football Club U12, China's young footballers play better during the tournament than they would have thought.

A footballer should have his or her initiative on the pitch, instead of following the coach's instructions exactly, noted the coach.

"When I was young, I played football with Chinese players," recalled coach Park Min-young of STS U10. "Nowadays, A huge improvement can be seen in the cognitive level and skills of football among Chinese players."

"For youngsters, feeling the fun of the sport is fundamental in youth football," said Park. "Children are allowed to have their own judgement on when and whom should they pass the ball to," he noted.

Refereeing difference

There is a difference in refereeing youth and senior football matches, said Head of Referees Zhang Junjie.

"In contrast, youth football matches are less competitive than senior ones, especially those in professional leagues," Zhang said.

"Young footballers' skills and tactics are immature. As a result, they have a high turnover. But there are very few flagrant fouls, so very few yellow cards or red cards are given out here, which is the key difference between juvenile and senior games. Even for fouls, young players have few actions that really hurt people."

Also, there is a difference in refereeing in the Peace Cup Football Park and in the regular football stadiums, according to Zhang.

"In regular stadiums, a referee has a distance of about 100 meters with spectators," Zhang said, "Here on the pitch where there is no spectators' area, the distance between a referee and spectators is approximately three or four meters. Because spectators, including young players' parents, just stand outside the fence and the referee can clearly hear when they talk, yell, and even scold."

"As long as a referee is honest, fair and accurate, the spectators will be polite to the referee," Zhang noted.

Coaches' reflections on Chinese football

"It's a great opportunity for young footballers to exchange their skills with both foreign and domestic players at Peace Cup," said Wang Zihua, coach of a Dalian-based team.

"The Chinese football is likely to embrace a promising future, if the youth football's popularity rate could reach 80 percent, or higher at 90 percent. Unfortunately, the percentage is quite low nowadays," said the coach.

Zhang, who had a 27-year span as a player in Chinese football, also noted some parents may have misunderstandings toward the sport.

"Some parents may believe football is a brutal sport. Some may believe playing football may take up too much time, further shrinking the school time in academics," Zhang said.

"Actually, battles on the pitch could manifest the charms of both the players and the sport," he added. "Hopefully, such parents could change their mindsets and China's football talents could be fostered and trained through a system that suits them well."

According to female coach Song Liyan from east China's Shandong Province, "Youngsters can learn a lot of great characters through football, such as being strong, persistent, and united with the team."

Like the Peace Cup, high-scale competitions can promote the growth of youth football, said Kulik Anatolii, coach of Russian club Amur Radiance.

"China is a powerhouse in table tennis. Hopefully, China's football can be as popular as table tennis with a big talent pool of world champions," he said.

Text by Chen Rong 

Videographer and editor: Zhao Yuxiang

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