049: The loss of young talent in German football

Tong Yi's heart skipped a beat and he immediately asked, "What's the problem?"

Horne immediately said, "You may not know that David only turned 17 years old in June this year. According to the regulations of German professional football, young players must be 18 years old or older before they can represent professional teams in professional leagues. Now even though we are If he is loaned to you, he will not be able to represent your team in the Bundesliga."

Araba's face darkened, and his eyes instantly lost their light.

Tong Yi frowned slightly and looked at Araba carefully.

This is indeed the case. The German Professional League and the German Football Association do have such a rule that young players under the age of 18 cannot participate in professional leagues on behalf of professional teams. This is said to protect young players. Because they are afraid that young players will suddenly enter the high-intensity and high-confrontation professional league before their bodies are fully developed, and they will be prone to physical problems and injuries.

And judging from past experience, injuries to young players are generally serious and difficult to recover from, and some may even be unable to continue playing professional football and have no choice but to change careers. This is also the reason why they feel that there are more young geniuses in football.

To be honest, in Tong Yi's view, the starting point of the German Professional League and the German Football Association is good, but this policy is a bit unrealistic and hinders the development of German football and German professional football.

Because this is likely to cause the loss of young talented players.

In fact, it is no longer "possible", but has become a reality.

After all, other top leagues in Europe do not set restrictions on the appearance of young players, but Germany does. For example, a young talent trained in the German youth training is 16 years old this year. He cannot play professionally in Germany. But if he moves to England, France, Italy and Spain, he can play in the top leagues. In order to get the opportunity to play in the top league, these talented teenagers will definitely choose to go to other countries. And they will still go to other national leagues at an extremely low price, or even on a free transfer, because they only signed a youth contract with the German home team and do not have a professional contract.

In 1999, at the age of 16, Walz left the Schalke youth team and moved to Arsenal. In 2005, Ziller, also 16 years old, moved to Manchester United from Cologne. In 2009, 17-year-old Mustafi left the Hamburg youth academy and joined Everton.

And in Tong Yi's later generations' memory, 16-year-old Gnabry will also leave Stuttgart and transfer to Arsenal two years later, and these players will all be top players who have been selected for the German national team in the future. Coupled with those outstanding young players who are not top-notch, I don’t know how many talents have been lost in German professional football in the past ten or twenty years.

Most of these players who left are aged sixteen or seventeen, which is the time when they enter the first team from the youth team, but they cannot enter the first team in Germany.

Tong Yi frowned and said, "This rule is simply

If professional football is reversed, if this continues, German football will lose more and more young talents, which is extremely detrimental to the development of German football. "

Huo Nei and others all shrugged, looking helpless.

Of course, Niedermeier even felt that Tong Yi was a bit dangerous and sensational.

Niedermeier immediately said, "Are you being a bit alarmist? The loss of young players does exist, but does it have much to do with the age limit of the professional league? Those players who left are all players who cannot compete with children in the internal competition. They just left and found another way out. Even if we lose some outstanding young players, it doesn’t matter, because our German professional football youth training system is very complete, and we can train more outstanding young players and play one or two games. It doesn’t matter.”

Tong Yi shook his head slightly, secretly thinking that this person is so short-sighted.

Perhaps the Germans and Niedermeier have roughly the same idea, so they don't pay much attention to this situation.

In this regard, Tong Yi had no intention of persuading Niedermeier. Because of this, time will prove everything.

At this stage, the Germans really have no need to worry.

Because at this stage, the players in their national youth teams at all levels are almost all players from the youth training of local German clubs. Just like the Munich 1860 youth training, many players have entered the German youth teams at all levels. In their view, the best players still stay in the country.

However, Tong Yi knew very well.

In a few years, Germany's national youth teams at all levels will usher in huge changes.

In a few years, there will be more and more outstanding young players from foreign clubs in the German youth national teams at all levels, and they will even account for half or more. Only then will they truly realize the seriousness of this problem.

In the memory of Tong Yi's later generations, it should be nine years later in 2018 when the Germans realized this problem and solved it with their left hand.

That summer, a transfer shocked the Germans.

The 16-year-old Unterhaching striker Adeyemi was bought out by Red Bull Salzburg for 3.5 million euros.

Before the transfer, the mixed-race forward born in Munich had just received the Fritz Walter Award, awarded by the German Football Association to represent the best player of this age group.

At that time, many clubs in Germany were interested in him, including Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich. However, due to the age limit of German professional football, he was unable to complete registration in German professional football and was unable to participate.

He joined the German Professional League, so he chose Red Bull Salzburg.

Not long after joining the team, he was loaned to the Austrian second division team Levering.

In Levering's second season, the 17-year-old scored 8 goals and 7 assists in 13 games, making him a top player. In 2020, at the age of 18, he was selected for the German national team.

There are many, many players like him. Among the Austrian second-tier players like Levering, there are three young German players born after 2000. This is not to mention looking at the whole of Austria and the whole of Europe.

Moreover, according to Tong Yi’s understanding, Austria and Turkey later became the choices of most young German players aged 16 or 17, because here they can gain experience in professional football matches more quickly than if they stayed at home. More opportunities for growth and more experience. This allows them to surpass more of their peers who stay in the country. Therefore, the main players of Germany's national youth teams at all levels will soon be occupied by these young Germans living abroad with professional league experience.

It was precisely because of Adeyemi's incident that Unterhachen's chairman Schwab stood up and called upon the German Professional League and the German Football Association to lift the age limit for young players to play German professional football, so that young talents in Germany can be preserved. . Otherwise, as more and more young people leave, they may choose to represent Austria, Turkey and other European countries in the international arena. In that case, it will be a huge blow to German football.

Later, represented by Borussia Dortmund's talented star Mukoko, a group of fifteen-year-old young talents emerged in German football. This led to the German Professional League and the German Football Association to make changes. This year I received the reform at the age of seventeen.

This problem is actually still very serious now, but Tong Yi is not like that guy who wakes up alone when everyone is drunk. This kind of shock is too tiring.

He did not argue with Niedermeier and said, "Maybe! Of course, the issue we want to discuss now is not this, but David's matter."

Horne immediately said, "Yes, this problem is what we urgently need to solve now. Do you have a solution?"

Tong Yi pondered for a moment, thought about it carefully, and then said, "I remember that the current record holder for the youngest player appearance in German professional football is Dortmund's Nouri Shaheen!"

Rene and Nellinger looked at each other and were shocked. They didn't expect it.

Nellinger immediately said "Yes!"

Tong Yi continued, "When he represented Dortmund's first team, he seemed to be 16 years old. He was not 17 years old, right? Is that right? Did I remember correctly?"

Horne immediately turned to look at Nellinger, his eyes full of questions.

Tong Yi was very speechless, and Huo Nei's acting skills were too bad. He obviously knew about this, yet he pretended not to know and asked Nellinger.

Very speechless!

Nellinger also pretended to ponder for a moment, and then said, "You remember correctly. Shaheen played for Dortmund for the first time in the German Professional League at the age of 16, to be precise, 16 years and 355 days."

Hearing this, the corners of Tong Yi's mouth raised slightly. Didn't he find a way?

In fact, Tong Yi had found a way before he got here.

Because, in Tong Yi's later memories, Alaba represented Bayern Munich's second team in the German Bundesliga this season and made his professional league debut. This Bundesliga 3 is also part of the German professional football system and belongs to the professional football league. Before 2018, players under the age of 18 were not allowed to play in the German Bundesliga 3.

Alaba's situation in representing Bayern Munich's second team in the Bundesliga 3 this season is actually similar to Shaheen's situation.

Because there is an exception to the age limit for young players to play in professional leagues in the German Professional League and the German Football Association, that is, young players who belong to the A-level youth teams of the German Football Association can participate when they are 17 or older in the season. German professional league.

Shaheen belongs to this category, and Araba also belongs to this category.

In fact, apart from Shaheen, there are still some players under the age of 18 who have played in the German Professional Football League before, such as Ogo in 2004, Castro in 2005, Vrancic in 2007, Hartman and Lauter in 2008, etc., they were all 17 years old at the time.

Now Alaba also belongs to the German Football Association's A-level youth team. He was 17 years and 255 days old when he played for Bayern Munich's second team this season.

Therefore, Tong Yi doesn't have to worry about this at all.

Since Bayern Munich has already planned to let Alaba play in the German Bundesliga this season, they naturally know this. The reason why they asked this was probably to test Tong Yi to see if he was really interested in Araba.

Now it seems that he is really interested. Honne, Nellinger and others have dispelled their doubts. They believe that Tong Yi will really train Alaba well.

Rene looked at Nellinger and nodded, and then said to Tong Yi, "Okay, we, Tong Yi, will loan Alaba to you, but we still have to discuss the specific details."

Tong Yi nodded very happily, and was very excited in his heart. He finally got Araba.