Young players exercise in the fitness center at Luneng Brazil Sports Center in Porto Feliz, Brazil, March 25, 2015. As a milestone of China's Shandong Luneng Football Club's youth training project, Luneng Brazil Sports Center opend in mid-July of 2014. The 160,000-square-meter sports center, located about 100 kilometers outside Brazil's largest city Sao Paulo, has five standard pitches and two futsal fields. It can accommodate 190 people and includes player apartments, a restaurant, gym, physical therapy room, activity room, meeting room and swimming pool. As the Brazilian base, the Luneng Brazil Sports Center is not only for the youth of Luneng football club, but also for domestic and international club teams and national teams at all levels. The best players aged between 14 and 17 will be selected from Luneng Football School and come to Brazil to learn football techniques and participate in the Brazilian youth league. In order to be rooted in the atmosphere of Brazilian football, Luneng worked out a newly-designed training plan. Chinese players will join the Brazilian players of the same age to train and compete together. They live in the same dormitory, eat in the same canteen, help each others so that they can learn from each others. (Xinhua/Xu Zijian) |