Reporter Chen Yong reports On May 11, the results of the Chinese women's football team coach selection were announced. Australian Milicic was appointed as the Chinese women's football team coach. Two days ago, the Chinese Football Association also released the notice of the 2003 age group national team coach selection. The 2003 age group national team will play in the 2026 U23 Asian Cup and Nagoya Asian Games. The last competition task of the national team of that age group was the 2023 U20 Asian Cup, Head coach Antonio led the 03 national youth to the finals and qualified in the group.
At present, the situation of the national teams at all levels of the Chinese men's football team is as follows: the national football team is going to play in the last two group matches of the last 36 finals in June, and the match against Thailand on June 6 is a life and death battle. Only winning can ensure the initiative to advance to the last 18 finals; The national teams that have finished their competition tasks are the national team at the age of 1999 (the last Asian Games team), the national team at the age of 2001 (the last U23 national team/Olympic team) and the national team at the age of 2006 (the last junior national team).
The national team that has completed or basically completed the formation of the team: the national team at the age of 2005 (the national youth team), coach Jurjevich, will play in the 2025 U20 Asian Cup, and will start the intensive training at the end of May; The coach of the national team (junior national team) in the age group of 2008, Kenichi Umura, will play in the 2025 U17 Asian Cup, just finished his trip to Europe; The coach of the 2009 age group national team (the next national youth team), Min Fukushima, will play in the 2026 U17 Asian Cup, just finished his trip to Japan.
The national team that needs to be formed in the short term is naturally the national team at the age of 2003 (U21 national team), with the goal of 2026 U23 Asian Cup and Asian Games. The national team or national training team that needs to be gradually formed later is the national team at the age of 2007 (the next national youth team/U23 national team/Olympic team), and the national team in 2010 (the next national youth team), The target is the 2027 U20 Asian Cup and U17 Asian Cup.
The previous coach of the 2003 age group was Antonio, who led the team to the finals in the 2022 U20 Asian Cup qualifiers, while the 2001 age group was once excluded from the finals of the U20 Asian Cup. In the 2023 U20 Asian Cup, Antonio led the team to qualify in the group, and after the 1995 age group of the National Youth Team, he again qualified in the group after 9 years. Earlier, Antonio led the 2004 age group national team (junior national team) to enter the U17 Asian Cup finals in 2019, and also entered the finals again six years after the 1998 age group national junior national team.
At present, the direction of U21 national team coach selection is basically determined to be the foreign coach, which is also the current direction of national teams at all levels of men and women, and Antonio is likely to become one of the goals of the coach selection. The reconstituted 2003 age national team has a wider selection range, and players of 2005 age and even 2006 age will be included in it. However, the 2005 age national team has official competition tasks this year and next. It will play in the U20 Asian Cup qualifier in September this year, and will play in the U20 Asian Cup next year if it is promoted to the finals, I am afraid that the recruitment of its players will be after the end of the competition task of the 2005 National Youth League.
