Guangzhou Evergrande visits Austria Wien

A special guest of honor was greeted by FK Austria Wien during the pre-opening of the Generali-Arena on Saturday. Fabio Cannavaro, world champion with Italy and World Player 2006, made his way to ‘Wien Favoriten’ to take a look at our ultra-modern Generali-Arena, which will be officially opened with a friendly game against Borussia Dortmund on July 13^th.

The 45-year-old Italian, former captain and record-holder of ‘Squadra Azzurra’, has been training the Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande since 2017. The club from the 14-million metropolis of Guangzhou in southern China has been the series champion since 2011 (seven championship titles in a row). Since the beginning of the week, the Chinese, including the former RB Salzburg striker Alan, are on their training camp around Vienna.

Guangzhou Evergrande training with the Violets

The Asian Champions League winner will have their daily training sessions at FK Austria Wien. This is what Austria Wien CEO Markus Kraetschmer and Cannavaro, head coach of the Asian Champions League winner, agreed to on Saturday evening after a detailed stadium tour.

After the Women's 2020 UEFA Champions League final, the international match against Sweden 2018 and the 2018-2022 ÖFB Cup Final, the interest of the most successful Chinese football club is the fourth honor in a short amount of time.

"We are pleased and honored that the reputation of the Generali Arena is spreading so quickly and we are receiving so much positive feedback," says Kraetschmer, who has been surprised by Evergrande's interest.

"I guided Fabio through the stadium and our academy and informed him of the state of preparations for our game against Borussia, when he suddenly asked me if he could train here with his team next week. Since our A-team is on their training camp as well, we are happy to comply with this extraordinary request."

Largest football school worldwide in Guangzhou

Particularly interesting: the Chinese champion Guangzhou Evergrande runs a flagship project itself. The junior academy is the world's largest football school and sets new international standards in terms of infrastructure. Around 2500 young talents train on 300 hectares of land on a total of 54 football pitches. These rough diamonds are mostly trained by former youth coaches from Real Madrid, who have taken on the training of the rookies.

Football is now a top priority in China. In March 2015, the State Council of the PRC presented the new football funding program. The goal is to make football more attractive and to attract more young talents. The 50-point plan, which is personally supported by Chinese President Xi Jinping, includes the Chinese national team, the professional football league and professional and local clubs. By 2025, the number of football fields will continue to increase massively. 50,000 Chinese schools are to offer targeted football training. They would also like to host the Football World Cup 2030 in China.

"In the course of our activities around the topic of internationalization, the visit of the Chinese series champion is an opportunity to present ourselves as a great host and interested partner and to prove once more that our motto 'Violet is more!' is also lived spontaneously and flexibly," concludes Kraetschmer!

Lieber Austria-Fan!

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