Special correspondent Zuo Ruiyuxi reports Following the midfielder Cheng Jin, another iconic product of Zhejiang FC youth training, 21-year-old central defender Liu Haofan, was selected by national team coach Ivan into the national football list for the top 18. After the news was announced, the Zhejiang Greentown team, which was preparing for the game in Yuxi, was very excited, and Liu Haofan also felt "very surprised, very happy, and very excited", because "every player wants to contribute to the national team".

In an interview, the young man estimated that this selection had something to do with the absence of Zhu Chenjie, the main central defender of the national football team, due to injury, "After all, we are playing in the same position, and then the coaching staff of the national team may think that I am not so anxious to deal with the ball and is calmer." "Of course, I can't compare to him right now, in terms of game experience or leadership qualities. ”

In the lineup of Zhejiang Greentown, Liu Haofan, who is 1.85 meters tall and weighs 78 kilograms, is a young but mature, calm and overall view of the backbone. Since debuting in the top flight in 2022, the appearance rate and number of starts have increased every season. After three years of baptism, coupled with hard work during the winter training period, he has gained the trust of the new head coach Caneda, and has now started the first two rounds of his fourth Chinese Super League season.

At the press conference before the second round of the Chinese Super League, Liu Haofan said that the unexpected surprise of being selected for the national football team gave him greater confidence and motivation, and he would implement the meaning of the head coach to the letter. After three days of preparation on the plateau, his physical reserves and competitive state have "reached 100%".

In the night game on the second day, Liu Haofan's main responsibility was to closely defend Yunnan Yukun's biggest firepower point - the strong foreign aid Pedro Enrique. In the many one-on-one battles between the two, the young players of Zhejiang Greentown did not back down, and even had the upper hand overall, thus effectively controlling the opponents fighting at home with the whole team.

Kaneda told "Football" that Liu Haofan not only has excellent physical conditions and technical level, but his attitude towards training and enthusiasm for the game made him decide to give him direct help in training and give him the opportunity to play in the game, "guiding him to continue to grow." ”

Liu Haofan's growth path benefited from the careful polishing of Zhejiang FC youth training. At the age of 10, he left his hometown Wuhan for Hangzhou, and after more than ten years of tempering, he experienced the progression from the football school to the echelon, from the first team to the national team, until he was reborn.

Before the age of 10, this Wuhan child played football under the banner of the Hubei Football Association and received enlightenment training. "Later, I saw that Greentown's youth training was better, and then I chose to come here and have been following step by step." In his childhood memories, the atmosphere of the team here was good and the training methods helped him. Specifically, everyone at the base likes to talk about football, regardless of the age group. "This will make you like football very much when you are a child in football school, and you will often watch games and talk about football." After two years in the football school, Liu Haofan was promoted to the echelon, and head coach Liang Guang took them for a year, and before being promoted to the first team, head coach Tang Hui took over the formation transition time in the middle years, "The biggest help for me is Coach Tang, he taught us how to be a person in life, and he is very strict in training." ”

In the 2022 season, in the 22nd round of the Chinese Super League, in the 3-0 away defeat of Wuhan Yangtze River, Liu Haofan came on as a substitute in stoppage time and made his Chinese Super League debut when he was not yet 19 years old. "There was no suspense in the game at that time, the playing time was too short, but fortunately my team-mate gave me a kick and I finally touched the ball once." He said that the happier thing that day was that the whole family sat in the stands, took leave in advance, and went home as soon as the game was over.

Once this door was opened, the next world became more and more open, and within a few rounds, he completed his first start in the Chinese Super League.

In the 2023 season, Liu Haofan experienced an unforgettable battle, which is still fresh in his memory to this day. In the 22nd round of away games against Shanghai Port, Zhejiang led 1-0 at the beginning, because at the end of the first half, he pushed the opponent's striker Wu Lei, and was awarded a penalty to equalize the score, and had to start from the beginning in the second half. Unexpectedly, the opponent scored two goals in the second half, 1-3. 'It was a terrible feeling at the time, and it was the penalty I gave that that caused it. He said, "I would like to thank my teammates and big brothers for coming from behind and scoring three goals in a row, which not only allowed us to win away from home, but also made my mental quality stronger. ”

Also that season, Liu Haofan played 9 times and the team won 9 times. After the league officially announced this data, his teammates called him "Super League Koi". Jokes aside, he knows that this kind of thing is purely coincidental, "If the team can win, it will definitely not be me who can win, it is the result of everyone's hard work." ”

When Liu Haofan was 16 years old, the club had fully introduced Japanese youth training and launched an all-round exchange with his Japanese counterparts. This means that all team members have the opportunity to go to Japan for training. In Japan, the Imabari Club, which is responsible for receiving batches of Greentown players, is the Imabari Club founded by Takeshi Okada, the head coach who left Zhejiang Greentown. "Although we didn't study for a long time, only one month, almost everyone had something to gain."

Every morning, the coach takes the players to write a training diary of the previous day to discuss the content of the training, and they will seriously discuss what they have done well and what they have not done well, and they will learn some Japanese every day.

At that time, Imabari Club was newly established and had the nature of a youth club. Liu Haofan: They mainly play against local high school and college teams. Playing against the college team, he felt that there was a big gap, "Those college students are very professional and capable. Although they are worse than our big brothers in the first team, their ability is completely different from the domestic college team, and the technique is very solid. He said that the domestic college players he had seen at that time were usually different from professional players at a glance. Playing against Japanese high school teams, I feel like I still have an advantage, at least not falling behind. ”

In addition to knowing and experiencing the characteristics of Japanese youth training with your own eyes. Another gain I have gained in Japan is that I am aware of the lack of professional awareness. "I found that before the opponent trained, the players warmed up, stretched, and did some small core strength. At that time, we didn't have that habit as a team, and it was very cold, so we didn't warm up much and we didn't have much to play and we couldn't move. After returning to China, we also began to do a little strength and stretching before the start of training without the arrangement of the coach, so that we could enter the training state faster. ”

Although the time spent in Japan for training was short, I realized that Japanese players are more motivated to play football even if they are students, and they have a deeper understanding of the sport of football and the word "professional".

With the development of Zhejiang professional clubs in recent years, the Japanese youth training syllabus has been fully implemented, Japanese coaches have been introduced in batches, and the exchanges between Zhejiang club management, coaches, players and Japanese football have become more frequent and in-depth. The short-term training in Japan that Liu Haofan will never forget has been upgraded to a more effective and solid youth training system. In time, the players produced by Zhejiang FC Youth Academy will be more expected.

In September last year, with the care and help of the club, Liu Haofan had a heart operation. After checking all the heart problems, the preliminary diagnosis was not very good, and he was very worried about what to do if he couldn't play football in the future, and he was very depressed. In the end, the doctor gave a diagnosis of supraventricular tachycardia, which is not serious and will not affect his future sports career, so he was completely relieved.

After the operation, Liu Haofan suddenly became more talkative. "Maybe I have been holding it for a long time, but after the operation, I got rid of the psychological burden." He said that for a period of time before the operation, when it came to competition training, he would be a little intimidated, worried that there would be problems with too much exercise, but now he has no worries at all.

After the surgery, he regained his true colors as a "big heart" player on the court. He said that he never had stage fright when he participated in competitions, "Maybe it's been like this since I was a child, I'm calmer, no matter who I meet, I'm definitely not afraid of them, and I will do my best when I meet anyone." ”

In Hangzhou, Liu Haofan has spent 11 spring and autumn seasons and has never thought of leaving. From entering the football school at the age of 10 to being on the team at the age of 19, only the second year after he came, because the football school at that age had not yet formed a team, in order to play more games and exercise himself, he once went to find other teams to try for a while, but soon came back, "Later, I never had any other ideas." ”

Even now, he just wants to use all his abilities here. "I haven't done that yet, and I haven't fully demonstrated what I've been capable of." Of course, he feels that he also has a lot of shortcomings, "What needs to be improved in particular is that he should be more domineering on the field, and his response with his teammates also needs to be strengthened." ”

From a football school player to a Chinese Super League defender, for more than ten years, his favorite place in Hangzhou is West Lake, where he can go for a walk or drink some coffee if he has nothing to do. At only 21 years old, he seems to have a plan to live and work here, even if he is selected by the national football team, he will not waver. "Being able to be liked by the national team this time is definitely because the coaching staff thinks I have a certain ability. I will do my best to compete, and if I can't, I will go back to Hangzhou and train harder. ”