English Premier League coaches to help kick-off China’s plans to boost youngsters’ soccer standards

Shanghai’s most promising young soccer players may soon receive training from English Premier League coaches from clubs including Manchester City, Liverpool, and Tottenham Hotspur as part of a new initiative to boost standards in the sport.

A number of coaches from leading English clubs have shown interest in helping to train players, and will be offered “reasonable salary requirements”, the Shanghai news portal Thepaper.cn reported.

Some Premier League coaches, including Liverpool’s Darren Bowman, attended last Friday’s graduation ceremony of the mainland’s first class of business administration students, who took a soccer capital management course at Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s business school.

The call by President Xi Jinping - a keen soccer fan - for China to boost soccer training among teenagers has led Shanghai to set up citywide soccer leagues involving 280 teams from elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities.

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Regular matches will be played during normal school terms, while summer competitions and international invitational matches will also take place.