Qingdao's Red Lions F.C. are a team based in the city that are attempting to capture the spirit of football in China. Not only to improve the image of the competition across the country and raise the profile of Chinese football but also to encourage younger people to keep fit with this long-time mainstay of the international sports scene. Football in China although a popular spectator sport has not yet seen the shift to success domestically. Something many home-grown teams such as the Red Lions are seeking to change with newer, better training and tactics.
As part of this effort and since their promotion to the Chinese professional leagues in 2018, the Red Lions have been moving to bring in talented foreign individuals from experienced footballing nations. Rather than simply trading team members back and forth they want to help spread the educational effects these visitors will have to keep the team on top and going strong for years to come.
One of these individuals is Mr Hector Buraglia, a football coach and sports trainer from Spain with both various qualifications in Sports Science and officially licensed by UEFA. WAVES recently got the chance to interview him about his experiences with football and how he's going to help out the team in the coming months.
WAVEs: "Can you tell our WAVES readers about your football career? "
Hector: "Since I was a kid, I played football in my home town football team. I also used to go every weekend to see my local team, sometimes I used to go with my friends and sometimes I used to go with my father and my brother. Football was part of our daily routine. I practiced football, I watched football on TV and I went at the weekend to the stadium to see my local team.
Because I liked football and I played well, I had the chance to move to another team at the age of 16. It was a semi-professional team and we played at a very good level. It was a very good experience for me. I made new friends, I learned new ways of training football and I travel around Spain.
I still played football while I was at the Uni. Actually, football helped me a lot when I was in the Uni. It helped me to make new friends, to break the ice, to relax when I was stressed, etc. My willingness to learn more about football what was bring me to have an exchange program in Portugal. Football led me to end up going around the world (Portugal, Brazil, the UK and China). I have been in places where I would never think I would be, and this is because of football."
WAVEs: "What are the key points for the youth football players to obtain?"
Hector: "There are a few points.
- Commitment - Work Hard. They have to do their best every day.
- Respect to themselves, teammates and coaches, to parents who make an effort to bring them to train.
- Team Spirit, what they do has an impact on the team. Good and bad things.
- Have fun while training, enjoy their time while training.
- They have to act smart.
- Football skills. We want to empower them, so they can make their own decisions."
WAVEs: "What changes can Red Lion football youth training bring to teenagers?"
Hector: "The positive thing about a big club, and being part of it, is the consistency, the knowledge, the resources and the stability.
In addition, it is also nice for the community feeling to be a QRL member, for players that live in the area and can meet and unite in the same club, they support the same club, they share ideas about the club and they grow as part of a big family like QRL is.
We also have our International players' development plan that gives talented players the opportunity to have an international experience. They can go, train and play football while they learn another language, another culture and improve their personal and football skills.
Our target is to create professional players for the 1st team, but they even if they don't reach a professional football level. QRL guarantee that our youth players are fully ready for the adults' life.
We also teach them healthy habits, they make new friends and we make sure that we not only teach them football but we also educate them in core values.
QRL is a guider and facilitator for young people. We are educators and we improve players’ personal and footballing skills."
We here at WAVES wish Hector and the Qingdao Red Lions luck with their efforts to bring football to the forefront. If you're interested in looking at signing your child up or finding out more about QRL we've included the necessary contact information below. Hopefully, in the coming months and years, more parents will see the value in the team-building, fitness and enterprising spirit of group sports such as football. And who knows? Maybe one of the young people dribbling on the pitch today could be dribbling intern
Contact: 0532 8093-1366 for more info
WAVES' PARTNERS
WAVES的合作伙伴
