Sports Weekly special reporter Wu Haoyu sent from La Liga headquarters
Not long ago, La Liga and the Chinese Super League club Chengdu Chengdu officially reached and signed a strategic cooperation agreement. The purpose of this agreement is to promote the construction of the youth training system of the Chengdu club, move towards professionalism and achieve its further development. After the agreement is signed, La Liga will assist the Chengdu club in building a youth training system that not only meets the highest international standards but also adapts to local actual conditions. This is a key and important part of La Liga's assistance in Chinese football youth training. Chengdu Chengdu Chengdu has also become the first Chinese club to have in-depth cooperation with La Liga at the youth training level.
In April this year, a Chengdu Chengdu Club delegation visited Madrid, Spain, to hold talks with La Liga executives and held a professional seminar on youth training. During the visit to Spain, the club delegation visited clubs such as Leganes and Atletico Madrid. At the youth training cooperation seminar held at the La Liga headquarters, Chengdu Chengdu Club representatives claimed that as a young club, Chengdu Chengdu Chengdu is not yet clear enough in terms of the club’s own youth training camp planning. When cooperating with La Liga this time, the club has the determination and willingness to promote the establishment of the youth training system, hoping to build the youth training camp in stages, and to achieve a staged investment-output ratio.
At the meeting, Juan Florit, the general director of the La Liga football project, who affirmed Chengdu Club's determination to seek to consolidate the youth training camp, also congratulated Chengdu Club on its good results in the Chinese Super League in recent years. Juan stated at the meeting that La Liga has assisted the Chengdu Chengdu Youth Training Club in stages. To carry out this stage, we must first establish contact with the club to understand the basic situation, then formulate a specific youth training improvement plan, secondly build a professional youth training team and improve infrastructure and resources, and thirdly cultivate concepts to ensure the comprehensive development of players and transfer them to the professional football level. It is also a very critical course on how to balance basic education and football so that young players can improve psychologically. Juan specifically pointed out that Chinese youth training players are quite weak in the area of withstanding pressure, and a lot of work needs to be done to address this.
During the seminar, the author conducted an exclusive interview with Juan Florit on La Liga’s support for Chengdu Chengdu and its Chinese football youth training plan.
Sports: First of all, can you tell us about the opportunity to launch this cooperation project with Chengdu?
Juan said that La Liga is full of excitement about this project because this is the first time we have the opportunity to directly cooperate with Chinese clubs at the youth training level. Chengdu Chengdu FC is currently one of the more outstanding clubs in China. It has made significant progress in recent years. Since its establishment, it has achieved outstanding results and consolidated its position in the Chinese Super League. So far this season, it has maintained an unbeaten trend and is at the top of the list. Therefore, we have full confidence and expectations for Chengdu FC because we believe that the club has huge development potential.
This cooperation stems from La Liga’s many visits to Chinese institutions in recent years, especially the most recent visit to Sichuan Province. We reached an agreement with the Chinese Football Association in June 2025. One of the pillars of the agreement is the cooperation and exchange between Spanish and Chinese football clubs, and La Liga will play a core role in this. The Chengdu club has shown strong interest in this potential cooperation. One topic they are particularly concerned about is the establishment of their own professional youth training camp.
The potential of the youth training of Chengdu Club does not only originate from Chengdu, but also comes from the entire Sichuan Province. It is worth mentioning that we fully expect that Chengdu Club and Sichuan Province can become the cradle of Chinese football talents and gradually establish domestic and international influence. We will use this preliminary consulting project to help them achieve this goal, lay the foundation for youth training step by step, and then make it a benchmark in China and even Asia.
In the sports world, this is a choice. Why was Chengdu Chengdu Club selected? It also served as the beginning of a youth training cooperation project. period.
Juan, a native of Chengdu, said that we have noticed that clubs in Chengdu Chengdu have developed strongly in recent years. They have firmly occupied a particularly important position within China and even in the entire Asian football world and cannot be underestimated. The results they have achieved are steadily improving step by step, and they have also participated in the AFC Champions League. Regardless of the overall situation or the observation and analysis from the economic level, the Chengdu Club fully meets all the conditions we need to carry out the project. The club itself has good economic sustainability characteristics and has also received support from Sichuan Province.
In recent years, the organizational structure of Chengdu Club has been extremely stable. It is one of the few Chinese Super League clubs that has not been affected by recent problems (point deductions). For us, it is very important to regard the cooperation project with Chengdu Club as the foundation. Only after the foundation is solidified can we cooperate with other clubs.
Sports: What are La Liga’s goals for this project?
Juan said that our goals and priorities are particularly clear. To be precise, they are to develop the club’s youth academy. In recent years, the first team of Chengdu Club has achieved quite outstanding results and consolidated its position in the Chinese Super League. They have qualified for the AFC Champions League and are currently at the top of the league. However, although some young players in the first team have performed very well and have outstanding performances in the national team and club, the club currently does not have its own youth training camp, nor has it established a strong youth training system. A club with great potential like Chengdu Chengdu should have a strong youth training camp. Therefore, our focus is to establish a youth academy for the club.
In the first phase, which is the phase we are in now, we will carry out analysis work, we will carry out research work, we will carry out diagnostic work to fully understand the current situation of the club. First, we will compare Chengdu with the Chinese football ecosystem and some of China's top youth academies. Secondly, we will benchmark against youth academies in other parts of Asia. After that, we will gradually expand our horizons to a broader global scope.
At this stage, we will carry out various types of working meetings. First, the staff of the Chengdu Club will visit Madrid, and under our leadership, they will visit the youth training conditions of clubs such as Leganes and Atletico Madrid. At the same time, we will also use this exchange to gain a preliminary understanding of the club's situation. Immediately afterwards, La Liga's football expert team will go to Chengdu to inspect the club's facilities and meet with the club's staff. In addition, they will also provide preliminary training for the club's coaches to lay a solid foundation. At the end of the first phase, we will write a report on behalf of La Liga. This report will outline the subsequent strategic plan. The purpose is to build a youth training academy for Chengdu Club that we believe can become a benchmark in China, Asia and even the world.
In the sports world, as it is so far, La Liga and Chinese Football have launched a series of cooperation at the youth training level. So what aspects do you think Chinese football youth training needs to improve the most?
Juan said that the first thing to bear the brunt is that in his personal opinion, our cooperation with Chinese football is encountering a particularly critical moment and a rare opportunity. It is undeniable that in the past 10 to 15 years, Chinese football has gone through various stages of development, including stages with good results and stages that were unsatisfactory. However, we have always firmly believed that with the latest reform measures carried out by the Chinese Football Association and various relevant institutions, including the Chinese Football Federation and a group of Chinese Super League clubs, we are now facing a critical development opportunity.
First of all, I think the stability of the Chinese football structure has been achieved, and then the mid- to long-term development vision has been established. This is probably one of the most lacking elements in the development of Chinese football. In my opinion, Chinese Super League clubs must ensure steady progress within safety limits, whether at the level of grassroots football investment, financial control and supervision, or compliance with the rules set by the Football Association. I think Chinese clubs have greatly improved their investment in grassroots football and their understanding of youth training camps and the development of young players in recent years. La Liga firmly believes that investing in youth training camps and cultivating young players is the most convenient way to improve the level of football competition. At the same time, this is the most direct path to achieve sustainable economic development.
According to my observation, there are probably two aspects that need to be improved in terms of youth training in Chinese football. First, at the structural level, each club must understand that it is very critical to create a specialized structure for the youth training camp. This does not only involve technical cultivation, but also requires the establishment of a complete system. All professionals, such as methodologists, analysts, scouts, fitness coaches, goalkeeper coaches, scientists, psychologists, must be involved in the training and development process of players. Every club must realize that the integrity of the structure is of great significance. I think this is the first aspect that Chinese clubs need to improve in the field of grassroots football.
In recent years, we have achieved excellent results in cooperation, and I can sense that we are on the right path. The second aspect is to continue to invest. La Liga has cooperated with the Chinese Football Association to organize various training courses and seminars, and has witnessed the results. The Chinese Football Association is beginning to build a professional coaching team. At the same time, it should continue to invest and strengthen the training of professional coaches.
In the sports world, let me ask about the recent U12 championship hosted by La Liga. The Shanghai Harbor U12 team was invited to participate in this tournament, and they have played against many clubs from La Liga. So how would you express and evaluate their performance in this situation?
Juan said that Shanghai Harbor can participate in this Hope Cup, which demonstrates our commitment to Chinese football, the Chinese Football Association, and the current commitment to Chengdu Chengdu and all Chinese Super League clubs, that is, to strive to build a bridge between China and the West so that young players have the opportunity to play in Spain Gaining game experience will help them grow and improve their performance in national teams. It is extremely important for young players to have such international experience. This is also what the club expects from us. At the same time, this is one of the goals we hope to jointly promote with Chengdu Chengdu in the youth training cooperation project.
The performance of the Harbor players in the game and my evaluation of this show the current development situation of Chinese football. 10 to 15 years ago, if someone said that Chinese 11 or 12-year-old children could play against the best players from the world's top youth training camps, it would be unimaginable. However, they have shown relatively good performance. They failed to win the game in the end because they still had room for progress and improvement, but this means that Chinese football is taking a crucial step forward, and the level of grassroots football continues to improve. I always emphasize this point. As far as Chinese football is concerned, we must pay attention to the progress of youth training for those under 12 years old and below, because the longer it takes to train players, the higher the possibility of training professional players.
In the future, will there be more opportunities in the sports world to invite youth training teams owned by Chinese clubs to participate in similar events?
Juan said, yes, one of the main goals of La Liga, which is also one of the main commitments in the agreement signed with the Chinese Football Association a few months ago, is to promote such exchanges, which not only include learning exchanges, but also include actual combat experience exchanges. We believe that high-level competition is an indispensable element in the growth process of young players, so we are cooperating with Chinese clubs to invite them to participate in or jointly build high-level events.
We have held a number of events, and the youth training teams of La Liga clubs have gone to China to compete. We will continue to invite the youth training echelons of Chinese clubs to participate in high-level events in Spain because we believe it will be beneficial to young players and Chinese clubs. We will develop other experiential activities, covering training and competition formats, all of which adhere to the concept of helping the development of Chinese football youth training.