By / Zhang Guoli of China Independent Automotive Network
This time, we really have to praise BYD.
It's not that polite kind of praise, nor is it the standard rhetoric written by media after a company sponsors a poster, such as "taking responsibility" and "being accountable". To be honest, everyone is tired of reading such drafts, the writers are tired, and the readers are tired.
This time is different.
A group of Chinese children born in 2014 won 7 matches in 7 games in Italy, scoring 21 goals and conceding only 2. In the final, facing the Everton Youth Team of the Premier League's old club, it was 1-1 in regular time, and 5-4 in the penalty shootout, and they held onto the championship trophy.
Do you think this matters a lot?
If this happened with the adult national team, it might have caused a stir long ago. But unfortunately, this is a group of children around 12 years old. They haven't reached the voice change period yet, haven't truly walked into the cruel door of professional football, but they have already fought for a breath of air for Chinese football first.
In the lens, the children rushed towards the goalkeeper, hugged in a group, shouting until their faces turned red. Someone on the stands waved a national flag, some parents covered their faces crying, some just stood there smiling, eyes getting wet as they smiled.
This scene is more real than many hot-blooded videos at many car launch events.
Behind these children stands BYD.
This is the place I feel most worth writing about.
Many companies doing sports marketing like to take the safe route. Find stars, sponsor tournaments, shoot big films, shout slogans, finally landing on a sentence "supporting sports power". The process is familiar, risk is low, and it is easy to be forgotten.
BYD didn't choose the easiest road this time.
It invested in youth training, children, a field where commercial return is not visible in the short term, and even might bring controversy. Chinese football is already a public opinion minefield, whoever touches it gets scolded. If you win, people say you are riding the hype; if you lose, people say you are messing around wildly. Supporting the adult team might get you scolded, supporting the youth team isn't necessarily better off either.
But BYD still stepped down.
From winning the title in Thailand to claiming the championship in Italy, it wasn't just printing a Logo on the jersey, nor sending a Weibo post to ride the hotspot and leave. It truly gave resources, attention, and trust to these children.
The most rare thing about this isn't money.
Of course, money is important. Youth training without money, nothing can be talked about. Air tickets, accommodation, competition registration, equipment, overseas exchange, team support, which one is not solved by love alone. Dong Lu said the Chinese Football Juniors have invested 58 million yuan over the years, Series A 5 million, Series B 9 million, the remaining 44 million supported by traffic, sponsorship, and paid live streaming. This number might not be scary in professional football, but in youth football, it is already very heavy.
But what BYD truly contributed was not just the sponsorship fee.
It gave this project a sense of certainty.
What do children playing football fear most? Not the bitterness, not the tiredness, or even not losing games. What they fear most is uncertainty.
Is there a game today? Is there training tomorrow? Can we go abroad? Can parents still hold on? Can the project continue? These questions, each one can slowly grind away a child's football dream.
BYD's appearance at least lets these children know: someone sees them, someone is willing to support them, someone is willing to send them to a bigger stage.
This is precious.
China's youth training has been shouting for so many years, what it lacks most is not slogans. We are too good at shouting, "Starting from the toddlers" this phrase has been shouted for decades, the throat is hoarse. What is truly lacked is high-quality matches, international vision, stable investment, and opportunities for children to truly go out.
No matter how lively you kick domestically, if you don't collide with peers from Europe, you will never know what the real rhythm is. How they press, how they turn, how they position, how they handle the ball in physical contact, these are not things you can learn by watching videos.
Chinese Football Juniors went to Italy this time, won against Everton, Florence, Braga, this experience, the value to children far exceeds a trophy.
Trophies will be put in the cabinet, but that body memory after playing against world strong teams will remain on the children.
This is where BYD did the most valuable thing.
It didn't just give the children a "Good luck", it gave them real opportunities to play on the field.
As an automotive industry editor, I actually know clearly, BYD's strongest place in recent years, is not just sales, nor just technology, but it increasingly understands how to tell the story of "Chinese brands going global".
In the past, when Chinese cars went overseas, many people didn't believe it. Thought Chinese brands can only fight price wars, thought new energy is just a gimmick, thought independent brands are very hard to truly walk into the global market.
But BYD in recent years, step by step pushed back the doubts.
From Blade Battery to DM Hybrid; from Dynasty, Ocean, to Denza, Fang Cheng Bao, Yangwang; from domestic market all the way to hit the overseas market, BYD is no longer the Chinese car company that needs to explain itself repeatedly in the past. It now represents the industrial height of Chinese new energy, and also represents the confidence of Chinese manufacturing going up.
So the fact that it supports the Football Juniors is particularly interesting.
A Chinese automotive brand that was once questioned, underestimated, and ridiculed is supporting a group of Chinese football youths who are also questioned, controversial, and not trusted by many people.
This is no coincidence.
This is the same temperament.
Others say you can't do it, don't rush to argue first, just get the results out first.
Others say you are not high-end enough, don't rush to explain first, go to the world stage first.
Others laugh you can't walk far, you just walk step by step to show him.
BYD did this way back then. Now, this group of football Juniors is also doing this way.
Of course, I don't want to write this article as mindless praise.
BYD deserves praise, but this thing cannot be deified. Chinese Football Juniors won the U12 championship, it's very spirited, very uplifting, but it is not the proof that Chinese football turned over. Winning at 12 doesn't mean winning at 17; winning the championship now doesn't mean professional players will definitely come out in the future. The most cruel place of youth training is exactly behind.
Puberty development, injuries, psychological pressure, academic choices, professional channels, these hurdles are getting harder one by one. Children surrounded by flowers today might face missing out, substitutes, transformation, or even leaving football in a few years.
So, truly responsible support is not accompanying them to win once, but accompanying them to walk for a long time.
This is also why I hope BYD will continue to do this.
Don't just stop at a championship poster.
Don't just stop at a hot search.
Even more don't just treat this as a beautiful brand marketing.
If BYD can make youth training support a long-term project, such as continuing to support overseas competitions, professional coach exchanges, sports rehabilitation, psychological counseling, data training, youth football public welfare plans, then it is not just a simple sponsor, but truly giving a remedial lesson to Chinese football.
The commercial value of this thing might not be seen in the short term.
But the brand value will be deep.
Consumers nowadays, especially young consumers, have already not eaten empty slogans easily. If you say you have social responsibility, they will ask: What did you actually do? If you say you support Chinese sports, they will ask: Who did you actually support? If you say you are proud of Chinese brands, they will ask: Did you land this pride on specific people?
BYD gave a specific answer this time.
It supported not an abstract concept, but a group of children.
Not a PPT, but a match after match.
Not a sentence "Going global", but really sending the children to the Italy stage.
This is more powerful than many ads.
Because it is real.
And reality is the most scarce communication resource now.
I even think, BYD's smartest place this time, is that it didn't steal the show.
Championship belongs to children. Applause belongs to children. The lens should go to children first. BYD stands behind, doing the person who lifts them up.
This attitude is actually higher level.
Chinese enterprises in the past doing public welfare, doing sports sponsorship, often tend to use force too hard, wanting to stick the brand name in every corner. But this time, what truly makes people remember BYD is not how big the Logo is, but after children won the championship, people will naturally think: Oh, originally behind is BYD supporting.
This is good brand communication.
No shouting, but has weight.
Sun Jihai's quote "Youth training is still a circus", argued fiercely online. To be honest, controversy won't completely disappear because of one championship. Minor protection, commercialization boundaries, live streaming authorization, training system, these problems should continue to be discussed.
But one point must be clear: Cannot because a project has controversy, negate the value of enterprise support for youth training. Cannot because dislike Dong Lu, ignore children's efforts, ignore BYD's investment.
The most terrible place of Chinese football is not too much criticism, but too few people doing things.
Too many spectators, too few builders.
Too much scolding, too little long-term investment.
Mouths all say valuing youth training, when really paying money, giving resources, shouldering risk, many people fell silent again.
So this time, BYD deserves applause.
It didn't stand on the shore pointing out how children should swim, but handed a lifebuoy. It didn't just say "we care about youth growth", but turned care into air tickets, schedules, confrontation, trophies and smiles on children's faces.
This is what Chinese enterprises should look like.
Car manufacturers must certainly build good cars. Technology must be hard, products must be strong, sales must be fought out. But a truly mature Chinese automotive brand should not only talk parameters, range, price. It should also have a deeper relationship with this society.
BYD did it this time.
It makes people see, a Chinese new energy top enterprise, not only can compete in the global market with transnational giants, but also willing to invest resources into Chinese youths, into those places that have no result yet but determine the future.
Is this thing small?
From a commercial point of view, maybe not big. Won't because Football Juniors win the championship, BYD tomorrow sell dozens of thousands of more cars.
But from the brand spirit point of view, this thing is not small.
Because it makes the name BYD, and a group of Chinese children running, fighting, scoring, winning the championship on the Europe stage link together.
This link is more warm than cold sales posters.
Chinese football's future, won't because a U12 championship trophy immediately change. We can't be that innocent.
But if more and more enterprises like BYD, willing to cast eyes on youth training, willing to cast resources on children, willing to take a step first when there is no certain return, then Chinese football at least won't always only leave sighs.
This time, children won.
BYD also won.
Not winning on traffic, not winning on hot search, but winning that it did a right thing, and did it sufficiently specific.
Chinese football needs this kind of specificity.
Chinese brands also need this kind of specificity.
Chinese youths, even more need this kind of specificity.
So at the end of this article, I don't want to beat around the bush.
BYD's wave this time, indeed beautiful.
It is not only building cars, it gave Chinese football youths a road to the world.
