Opinion | Why China’s youth football guru says turning country into a powerhouse begins with the parents
Tom Byer is tasked with implementing a total sea-change in the way the country of over a billion people perceives and coaches the sport
As the Chinese Super League transfer window closed on Friday, many wondered, again, how funnelling kajillions to assorted foreign mercenaries will improve Chinese football in the long term.
The closest thing to a coherent strategy, it appears, is the China Schools Football project, launched in 2009 with the aim of making every kid familiar with the game. One of its key figures is Tom Byer, an American ex-pro credited as transforming youth development in Japan; “Tom San” is a celebrity there because of football training TV shows and mangas in which he appeared.
“I have a very different approach to football development – whereas the traditional thought is ‘We need more coaches, it’s all about the elites,’ nothing could be further from the truth: it’s really about trying to develop more of a football culture,” says Byer, whose official title is Head Technical Advisor for the Chinese School Football Programme Office and Official CSF Grassroots Ambassador. He also works with CSL team Beijing Guo’an and is an “ambassador” for Volkswagen China and Adidas China’s efforts to promote youth football.
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“If you look at the 209 countries in Fifa only eight have won a World Cup,” adds the New Yorker, who moved to Japan in 1985 to play for Hitachi FC. “Try to figure out what’s happening in those countries and why are they developing players at a ridiculous rate and most countries don’t, to me it zeroes down to not so much the coaching is better, but the culture is conducive to developing players.”
Byer shows me a Powerpoint deck he says he has presented to many of the world’s top FAs and clubs. His philosophy boils down to this: as soon as a kid can walk give them a small ball and encourage them never to let it leave their feet. Video evidence of Byer’s own two boys’ skill – he has been practising what he preaches since the first was born about 10 years – seems to support his theory.
