Originating from a lifelong learning heart, behind Xu Genbao's frequent satellite launches, observations: from learning from Manchester United, Barcelona to Manchester City | Genbao | Xu Genbao

On June 5th, the second "Shanghai Genbao Cup" National Youth Football Invitational was held at the Genbao Football Base on Chongming Island in Mingjin. Multiple national sports teams from Shanghai, Hubei, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang participated in a "big training". As the head of the football base, Xu Genbao's new identity now is as the head coach of the Shanghai U20 men's football team at the 2025 Greater Bay Area National Games.

Due to the fact that the Shanghai 2005-2006 age group National Games team has just set up its flag, and is currently preparing for the first Student Youth Games and the Greater Bay Area National Games, time is tight and the task is heavy. Xu Genbao admitted, "We need to follow the thinking of Manchester City head coach Guardiola in the English Premier League."

Proud words often speak without lies

Manchester City is currently the most popular team in the world, having won the Premier League and FA Cup, and will also compete for the Champions League this week, just one step away from the treble feat. At this moment, Xu Genbao emphasized that he was closely following Guardiola, which easily made people feel like he was "throwing satellites" - after all, the weak Chinese football team is too far away from the world's top league Premier League and another space team Manchester City.

Xu Genbao loves to speak boldly, but rarely lies. Firstly, only those familiar with Genbao can understand the profound meaning behind "following Guardiola's train of thought". Genbao said that learning from Guardiola is actually not giving himself a way out, he must complete the hard task of striving for the championship.

The Shanghai National Games team led by Xu Genbao is not very strong and currently ranks fifth and sixth in the country. It is very difficult to win the championship at the 2025 National Games. Knowing that there are tigers in the mountains, Xu Genbao leans towards a tiger mountain journey - Xu Genbao proposed learning from Manchester City and Guardiola, which belong to the goal orientation of enterprise management - he clearly said, "Since I have taken on the National Games, I want to win gold!"

What exactly does it rely on to win gold? Genbao's statement is: "To seek results from management, to seek results from training. To win gold, to produce talent, and to have style, these three are interconnected."

Secondly, Genbao said, "Follow Guardiola's train of thought," demonstrating that this veteran is always alive and learning, persisting in the path of lifelong learning. Why "follow Guardiola's train of thought", Xu Genbao is just envious of others holding up golden championship trophies and giving himself some beautiful psychological suggestions?

In my opinion, it's not that simple. "Follow Guardiola's approach because his football philosophy is very modern and clear. He can win championships anywhere, from Barcelona to Bayern Munich and Manchester City," Xu Genbao told reporters. Now, he and his coaching staff watch Manchester City's game videos every night, and they are more focused on using tactics and techniques. "Snatching and passing is a style that our base always adheres to. This national team has a short formation time, and there will be a competition task for the Youth League in June. In terms of overall attack and defense, we will first learn some holistic and targeted counterattacks. In this regard, Guardiola requires 7 seconds of pressure from frontcourt steals." The style of play is very suitable for us

Learning the root technology is king

In 2000, Xu Genbao devoted himself to building a football base on Chongming Island. Now, he has been dedicated to sharpening his sword for 23 years and has trained a large number of national football players such as Wu Lei and Zhu Chenjie. During his time teaching one army after another, Xu Genbao's learning direction seemed to be constantly adjusting. At the beginning, Xu Genbao's goal was to "create Manchester United in China". At that time, Manchester United was thriving under Ferguson's rule, not only because they had a soft spot in winning the championship, but also because a group of young people emerged to take over.

You can never expect to win anything with a group of young players! But Ferguson risked everything in 1995 to win the league championship with this group of young players, and the young people of Red Devils Class 92 dominated the remaining years of the English Premier League in the 1990s. Xu Genbao's goal in building Manchester United in China is not only to learn from the championship experience of successful players, but also to learn from the development model of Manchester United club veterans and new recruits.

Behind the slogan of building Manchester United in China is Xu Genbao's ten-year development model of the club: a meritorious coach, leading a young defender who has played together since childhood, constantly pursuing his dream of winning the championship. Reality has also proven that after the team won consecutive championships in China League Two, China League One, and Chinese Super League, Manchester United's goal has already been achieved.

In terms of technical and tactical style, Xu Genbao used to emphasize more on "Barcelona's playing style". "After watching Spain win the 2008 European Championship, I realized that for the team, Barcelona's playing style is more suitable for us." Xu Genbao said at the time, "The players of Shanghai Dongya team are average in body, similar to the Spanish team, they are relatively small." Every time the TV station records a Barcelona match, I ask them to study it. Barcelona's midfield core style playing style has become our main tactic in the game. "

Before and after the 2009 National Games, Xu Genbao believed that Shanghai and Guangdong, two technically advanced teams, would be the hope for the future of Chinese football. "With their feet in place, they will travel the world. The development trend of world football is to follow the path of technology. Now Guangdong and Shanghai both follow this path, including the national team coached by Gao Hongbo. This is the right path. I am pleased to see this change in Chinese football." Obviously, Xu Genbao's current approach to learning from Manchester City ultimately boils down to the concept of "technology is king".

Dare to challenge and stand at the forefront

Whether it's the past of "building Manchester United in China" or "learning from Barcelona", or the current "following Guardiola's train of thought", all of these are Xu Genbao's personality traits and life imprints of being good at learning and daring to challenge. In 1993, Shenhua became the first professional football club in the country, and Xu Genbao took the lead as the first head coach of Shenhua. After the team finished third in 1994, he directly announced in early 1995: "If you can't finish the top three, you'll be fired.".

When serving as an assistant to Schlapner, Xu Genbao learned that there were many famous German coaches who founded their own youth training clubs. He did not "go in one ear and out the other", but directly operated bravely to eat crabs. In 1995, Shanghai Football Association, Shanghai Cable TV Station, and Xu Genbao jointly established "02 Club" with the goal of cultivating football talents for the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan. Talents such as Dewey, Yu Tao, Sun Ji, and Sun Xiang emerged, allowing Xu Genbao to accumulate youth training experience and lay the groundwork for a major battle in Chongming Island in the future.

After winning the championship in 1995, Xu Genbao's autobiography was published, he went south to Guangzhou Songri in 1997, went north to Dalian Wanda in 1998, established a website named after himself in 2000, and participated in the "Dance Forest Conference" with graceful dance movements, sparking heated discussions... Throughout his journey, Xu Genbao has always bravely stood at the forefront of social reform, almost stepping on every step forward in every era.

Xu Genbao's disciple Liu Jun once said, "The biggest characteristic of Xu Guidao is his ability to learn and keep up with the times. In fact, successful head coaches are all very strong. What is a profession? A profession is to establish a standardized standard like him. In 1994, he started to compete for opportunities and, to put it bluntly, laid a 10-year foundation for our generation of Shenhua. There is a saying that goes, 'Yao Ming's height, Liu Xiang's speed, Genbao's strength...' It's really like that."

While constantly learning advanced European football concepts, will Xu Genbao forget why he started? This concern is unnecessary. In the conference room of the Genbao base, there is a large "overall attack and defense training system" tactical board hanging on it, which not only has the basic tactics and personal characteristics of positional skills honed, but also has the training concepts and detailed requirements of snatching, forcing, encircling, defending, receiving, and transferring attacks. Xu Genbao said, "This is the crystallization of my coaching career's continuous learning and summarization, and these insights are always open to young coaches who love to learn..."