Du Zhenyu’s New Year’s wish: to play in the U-20 Asian Cup

39-year-old Du Zhenyu still maintains his athlete’s body shape.
It seems that he is still the "Mr. Football" who led Changchun Yatai to win the Super League championship.
In fact, he has hung up his boots at the end of the 2018 season. Now he is officially an assistant coach of the U-19 National Youth Team. His biggest task is to prepare with the team for the U-20 Asian Cup in March 2023.

Du Zhenyu still retains the unique fighting spirit of athletes. When talking about the U-20 Asian Cup, he said quickly, "I especially hope that our team can take the lead in launching the first shot for Chinese football next year. Everyone in our team wants to give fans
Bring back the fun!"

Du Zhenyu cherishes his current position very much. He said frankly that when he was a player, he went all the way from the National Junior, National Youth, National Olympics, and the national team. It is an honor for him to return to the national team after retirement.
"I am very grateful to the leaders of the Chinese Football Association for giving us young coaches the opportunity to play for the country again." In the National Youth League, he defined his new role, "Learn seriously from the head coach and Brother Jiayi, and work hard as soon as possible."
While improving my coaching skills, I also want to pass on some good skills and experience I have accumulated in football to the kids in the team.”

The coaching staff of the national youth team also paid special attention to combining the most vivid cases in the usual training to inspire the players to think.
In a recent training session, the coaching staff asked the players why Ronaldo’s offsides in the national team and clubs have increased recently?
"Because his physical fitness is declining, it is already difficult to support him to retreat quickly." Du Zhenyu pointed out the reason for the lack of offense during some games of the National Youth Team qualifiers, "Because we made too many mistakes, so we have to play in the usual
In the training, there is targeted reinforcement, and every kick must be passed carefully."

At the age of 24, Du Zhenyu became the core player of the Chinese Super League champion and the Chinese Footballer of the Year. Du Zhenyu’s club career has been recorded in the history of Changchun Yatai, but his experience of playing in the national football team has repeatedly failed to reach the desired height due to injuries.
"When I was playing football, the most regrettable thing was that I participated in the World Cup qualifiers twice." He said that he did not want to see this kind of regret repeated on the national youth players. "Playing for the country must be hard work.
No, but you must learn how to protect yourself while fighting hard."

Facing the strong opponents in Tashkent, Du Zhenyu said frankly that both Saudi Arabia and Japan are stronger than the national youth team, which is also the consensus of the coaching staff.
"But judging from the performance of several Asian teams in the World Cup, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran all have examples of defeating the strong with the weak. So we also have a chance to win in Uzbekistan."

On March 3, 2023, the National Youth Team will face their first opponent, the Japanese team, in Tashkent.
Du Zhenyu said that this Japanese team not only has rookies who are effective for Real Madrid, but also 10 players were sent to Qatar to serve as training partners for the Japanese national team during the World Cup.

In his opinion, the key to victory, and what the national youth team needs to strengthen most at present, lies in whether they can continue to strengthen their own characteristics during the preparation period.
Until it becomes a distinctive and eternal mark of the team.
"That is to say, the tighter the rhythm, the faster the transition, the harder the fight!"

In order to achieve the goal of strengthening their own characteristics, the coaching staff has repeatedly emphasized that excellent physical reserves and excellent running ability are crucial.
From the first day of the Chongqing training camp, several sessions of 8-minute running training will be arranged at the end of the daily technical and tactical training. Every 15 seconds, Du Zhenyu will shout the countdown to help the players control the training volume more accurately. "Now
The physical condition of the children at this stage is good, and some people must be prevented from running too fast and exercising too much."

Seeing that the new year is approaching, the National Youth League is destined to enter 2023 under the normal state of "training + military training".
They can play their own characteristics and create a new world."

(Luca)