Chinese football team hopes to improve skills by training in Brazil

World Today

A Chinese football team is using expertise from Brazil — the birthplace of some of the biggest footballers in history — to develop its own talent.

CGTN’s Paulo Cabral reports.

Thirty Chinese athletes are settling into the dorms of the Desportivo Brasil football club, in the countryside of Sao Paulo state. They’re here to improve their skills and help to develop the sport back home.

The Brazilian team was bought by the Chinese club Shandong Luneng in 2014 with the objective of having a top training facility for their most promising young players.

“We try to show them a little the Brazilian way of playing, the tricks The are very determined and disciplined but we think we can help them develop their improvisation skill, mainly for the moments when they’re closing in on the opponent’s goal,” Coach Edmilson Carlos said.

 

They train here for here six months with Brazilian coaches and some get to return for a second tour.

To become top professional players, these young athletes know they have to work hard. But the staff here at Desportivo Brazil also have to do their part — to be ready to host players coming from the other side of the world.

The staff from Desportivo Brazil are taking Mandarin classes to better communicate with their bosses and athletes.

“I think it’s important for us to learn some Mandarin, especially when we see the effort that the Chinese players and directors are making to learn Portuguese. Now, sometimes when I see one of them in the morning,I greet them in Mandarin. And they answer in Portuguese, Rodrigo Pignataro, Desportivo Brasil’s technical coordinator said.