Li Tie, manager of China's men's national football team, this week took a remote interview with CCTV5 and answered questions that interested Chinese fans.
On January 5, Li officially took over as the national team manager. Since then, he has arranged two training camps for his players.
"Strength training was an important part of our work. Our players did a lot of intense exercises and tests … based on their stats, we presented players higher requirements in the sessions," said Li.
"For example, we tested players' body fat percentage (BFP) on March 6. Many of them surpassed 10 percent and some even reached 11+percent. Then on April 4, we tested them again and the highest number was only 9.9 percent. Most were around nine. Zhang Linpeng had the lowest of 8.1 percent."
On March 21, the Chinese Football Association (CFA), confirmed that the country's ace striker Wu Lei who plays for La Liga's RCD Espanyol was infected with the new coronavirus. Li kept in touch with Wu and actually visited him before the 2019-20 La Liga season was suspended because of the pandemic.
"According to what we know, Wu Lei is basically healthy and recovered. He has been doing simply training sessions at home. I hope all of us can stay healthy."
Since he served as manager, Li has kept stressing that he would only recruit players who are the most eager to play for China.
"One recruiting stand f mine that will never change is that I want players who have a sense of national honor. They must be willing to play for our country unconditionally and share teamwork spirit. My players must observe discipline, never back off in front any difficulties and invest 100 percent of their efforts into every game."
In order to improve the national team's strength, the CFA began to naturalize players in February. Many wonder what roles Li, as the team manager, will give these players.
"First, there's no doubt that adding naturalized players to the squad will help improve our national team. Personally, I want to see more of them in my team, if, of course, they want to play for China and do their best on the field. The national team will always welcome naturalized players with open arms."
On March 23, FIFA suggested all football associations cancel the game scheduled for June. That means the two 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification AFC second-round games against the Maldives and Guam are very likely to be postponed. That will give China more time to prepare but will also extend the team's no-game period to a year.
"So far we have learnt that the two qualification games will happen in October and November. Our plan is to first assemble players for a training camp in May and hold two to three internal practice games. If the CSL restarts after that, we will hold another two training camps in August and September. In September, we hope that we can play a true warm-up game."
"Both FIFA and the AFC have been altering their plans based on the latest development of the COVID-19 pandemic. No matter what changes or difficulties are thrown in front of us, my players will spare no effort in all the games. Entering the third round of the World Cup qualifications is our first goal."
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