Interview: Klinsmann encourages Chinese football to count on its resources

BERLIN, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Former German national coach Jurgen Klinsmann has encouraged Chinese football to count on its huge resources.

"You don't always need outside advice, what you need is time," the 57-year-old told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The former striker said he witnessed great enthusiasm for football and met many people having valuable knowledge in China.

The 1990 World champion said a convincing and pushed-through plan of how to educate young talents and coaches is inevitable. He called coaches' education a major issue in China.

To develop football is not only to look at the short-term picture but to be patient in following the set-up strategy, he noted.

Klinsmann sees a "lot of positive things happening in talent development" in China, "but to see results for everyone visible it might take ten to 15 years."

A lot of foreign coaches and players have poured in over the past years, without showing a great effect on the national team so far. A short-term view is mostly accompanied by a negative perspective.

"Money helps, no doubt, but only when the development is left to football experienced people knowing about the infrastructure and sense-making options," Klinsmann said.

The German believes talent development and coaches education are the key to turning things around.

Guidelines for youngsters and their coaches need to be set up making it possible for everyone to follow.

Klinsmann predicted that over the upcoming years more players from China and Asia will find their way to European clubs.

The German Bundesliga over the past decades has been the league with most Asian players, he added.

"From my perspective, football is becoming more and more popular in China," the 1996 European champion said.

Klinsmann said the 50 plus one rule, securing the majority shares to club members, has led to stability and safety for the German clubs.

He called the English Premier League an example but mentioned the danger of dependency on only one investor.

"Things can change within a day. We see that at Chelsea and we saw this at other European clubs," Klinsmann said.

The former U.S. national coach praised the Bundesliga as a role model in times of the pandemic "as it was the first league to re-start" after setting up a closed-loop system.

"Many leagues followed and many sports followed that," he added.

Getting closer to the World Cup kickoff, the German fans get more and more excited, he said.

"When you have won the thing four times, you always expect to do it again," Klinsmann said.