"Now the conditions of the football school are too good, we really did not have such good conditions at that time."
Last year, Luneng Football School's twentieth anniversary of the interview process, Wang Tong once on the Luneng Football School today's conditions of improvement expressed enviously. 1999 Luneng Football School was just built when the hardware facilities are far less than today's so superior. Han Peng once recalled that they even had to attend cultural classes with students from the Electric Power Technical College. This twenty years of time, Luneng football school also a little bit in the continuous construction, now Luneng football school hardware facilities even in Europe is also considered to be very good conditions of a youth training camp.
In 1998, Luneng Taishan FC was officially established, and since then, Shandong soccer has seen a qualitative improvement in economic conditions, and the hardware facilities behind it have gradually become more and more perfect. But in the early stages of professionalization, Shandong soccer is another scene, for many fans who have not experienced that era, the hardship may also be difficult to imagine.
In 1994, the Chinese soccer league officially implemented the reform of professionalization, and since then Chinese soccer has entered a new era. This year's A League, Shandong team was lucky to participate as one of the members. The reason why I say lucky is that the league implemented an expansion policy that year, and the Shandong team, which was not qualified to participate in the A-League, was able to participate in the 1992 A-B League as the third-place finisher. (In 1993, the league was suspended for a year due to Schlapner's World Cup commitments, so the 1992 league results were used as an entry criterion.)
Despite the transformation into a professional team, the Shandong team was still essentially a professional team from the days of the Gymnastics Brigade. The team was sponsored and managed by the Jinan Municipal Government, and the team's accommodation remained in the dormitory courtyard of the Shandong Physical Fitness Brigade (which was soon moved to a warehouse under the East Stand of the Provincial Sports Center). Compared to the previous era of specialization, the actual situation of the team has not changed much.
I remember during last year's interview, Wang Tong lamented that their 93rd generation had to go to the collective bathhouse to take a shower in their dormitory back then, and now the young players can take a shower in their own rooms. But compared to the conditions of Shandong players in the early stages of professionalization, Wang Tong is still much happier. After moving to the warehouse underneath the East Stand of the Provincial Sports Bureau, the players at that time had to run to the big central bathhouse next to the cafeteria of the Provincial Sports Bureau, which was not close by, if they wanted to take a shower after training. Fortunately, the coaching team headed by Yin Tiesheng got special treatment and installed a water heater in the room where they lived, so the players later used the dormitory where the coaches lived as a bathhouse.
To go to the coach's room to take a bath is just a microcosm of the team's hard life, when there is no sponsor of the Shandong team and even mosquito nets need to be donated by the fans of this kind of thing. However, it is also this kind of hard material conditions, that year's Shandong team but honed a tenacious spirit of will, coupled with the year is also considered a young coach Yin Tiesheng extraordinary personal charm, this team, although not like Dalian, Shanghai, Guangdong and other teams as the country's top big-name stars and the best material conditions, but in the game showed a little bit of willpower to lose to the team's super strong. In the first round of the league, with Guo Kanfeng's right-footed cross, the team's center forward Su Maozhen jumped up and smashed the ball into the goal, which opened the door for the team's first game in the professional league. Throughout the season, the Shandong team, which was originally not favored by outsiders, won the 5th place in the league, which is beyond everyone's expectation.
In 1994, Shandong's "one high, one fast" was a big hit in the country, and many of the team's leading players were selected by other big teams. 1995, Guangdong Hongyuan head coach Chen Yiming came to Jinan to negotiate the introduction of three core players from Shandong, namely, Su Maochen, Tang Xiaocheng and Xingrui. The introduction of the three core players of Shandong. After seeing the team's hardware facilities, Chen Yiming was shocked like never before and said, "How did you get to the fifth place with such conditions?" Such exclamation.
In fact, the province, whether it is the fans or all aspects of the leadership also understand that such a team in the country for the Shandong glory countless team deserves better material treatment. So in early 1995, the team received a bonus of 200,000 yuan from the Jinan municipal government, and raised more than a dozen companies funded by the winnings bonus, and from then on the team won a game can also share 30,000 yuan of the prize money (Dalian backed by Wanda sometimes a game can take ten times that amount of prize money), and the team also finally have their own chest advertising, Jinan People's Mall for the team to provide
This year, the team's treatment in all aspects compared to the previous year is not a small improvement, but that year in the domestic team in all aspects is still relatively poor. Here is a small story can illustrate the team's situation: that year away to Guangzhou in the game, Wang Jun accidentally injured in the game can not continue to adhere to the game, see Yin Tiesheng with the replacement goalkeeper Li Qingshan will be replaced; however, at this time but a shocking scene, only to see Wang Jun on the spot to take off their own goalkeeper's gloves and will be handed over to Li Qingshan; at that time, there are Wang Jun Shandong team, Zhang Pongsheng and Li Qingshan The three goalkeepers, but the team has only one pair of special goalkeeper gloves, this pair of gloves can only be used by the three goalkeepers in turn, which in today's conditions is how we do not dare to imagine.
The 1995 F.A.C.A. Cup final was a watershed moment for the team, as it reversed three consecutive victories over Jiangsu, Beijing, and Liaoning, and then went on to play in the final against A.A. champions Shanghai Shenhua. At the time, the outside world was generally lopsided in favor of Shanghai to win the first "Double Crown" of the professional league, but this also provoked the fighting spirit of the Shandong players. Now the Luneng football school has been the head of the Chinese goalkeeper coaching team Zhang Pongsheng was the game's first goalkeeper, recalling the past year he is still vividly.
"The outside world is optimistic about who is not a big influence on us. After all, before the league and Shenhua lost two games, we are still holding our breath want to prove themselves, to prove the strength of our Shandong team. At that time, we are also the domestic ranking of the middle of the team, we still want to try to prove it. Before the game Yin guide also found our players to talk, of course, each player to speak of things are not quite the same, and the time past twenty years, the specific said what is not very clear, but at that time the general meaning is to tell me to let go of the mentality of the game as their own growth on the road to a workout and accumulate."
And into the FA Cup final, for the year of Qilu is also very exciting news. In order to make the championship trophy can take the team Shandong, Shandong Provincial Government also proposed a million bonus incentives. In such a double stimulus, with Tang Xiao Cheng's opening blitz and Li Xiaopeng (still registered in the name of Li Xiaopeng) of the next city to make the team 2-0 win, took the AFC Cup trophy.
Because of this AFC Cup title, the Shandong team's influence in the country further increased, and the team gradually became the meat and potatoes of the major companies competing for the team. 1996 Generals Group with a considerable amount of money to buy into the team, and the Shandong Tourism Group also bought out the team's home tickets at a record price, coupled with the sponsorship of the previous Jinan municipal government, the team's financial situation has greatly improved. By this time, the team's financial situation had improved considerably. At the end of 1997, with the withdrawal of the General Group, Shandong Electric Power officially became the owner of the team and established Luneng FC in 1998. The team moved into a base on the second ring road and has continued to do so ever since.
Nowadays, Luneng's base is clearly different from the early days of the professional league. In September 2013, after nearly a year of construction, the brand new Luneng Sports Base was put into use, and the training area and living area of the base are of a very high standard. The high standard of natural turf, the European style of decoration of the players' apartments, a variety of high-tech training aids and medical facilities, as well as a well-equipped gym, which is the early stage of the professionalization of the Shandong team players can not be expected in any case.
The conditions at Luneng's soccer academy are also top-notch, and in 2019 the academy won the inaugural "Youth Academy of the Year" award from the AFC, which is a major factor in the good hardware facilities that made it possible to win the award. More than 20 pieces of natural turf, tactical analysis equipment and physical therapy equipment, etc., all of which are rare conditions in the domestic and even the world's youth training camps. The wearable technology analysis equipment used by the Luneng football team, according to the foreign coaches of the team even in Europe, due to the high cost of the reason is not every team can afford to use.
In today's players enjoy superior conditions, we might as well recall the tough conditions of the Shandong team players at the beginning of the professional league. Without the relentless perseverance of the Shandong soldiers in every game, the team would never have been able to achieve such favorable conditions through good results. Further, when the team was penniless, the players with unyielding faith and twisted into a rope general cohesion hard to perennial national forefront, today's players have a good material conditions, which also requires that our players in the training and the game to put in more effort, do not let those old Taishan players have been sweating was wasted.