2022.06.14
Ten-year journey finally realized, the revival trio of AJ Auxerre (III)

[Prospect]

Carry forward the past and forge ahead, and help Chinese football + create a city business card!

After ten years of ups and downs and hardworking, AJ Auxerre finally returned to the Ligue 1 and returned to the top platform where the club has shined countless times. This upgrade is the best reward for the club’s adherence to football laws and youth training traditions, intensive cultivation and continuous investment. Back to the familiar stage is just the beginning, and a new chapter that belongs to AJ Auxerre is gaining momentum. On the occasion of this upgrade, we will take stock of the club’s revival and nirvana in recent years. This club with 116 years histories will move forward to new glory! This article will look forward to the grand blueprint of the club. Whether it is the promotion of tradition, the continuous hand in hand with Chinese football or the building of a humanistic brand, our future is full of potential!

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At the beginning of the partnership with AJ Auxerre in 2016, ORG Group promised two major visions for the future: Leading AJ Auxerre back to Ligue 1, to ensure financial health, and to regain its former glory; another major goal is to help Chinese football and create a platform for Chinese coaches, players and practitioners to improve themselves. Over the years, our original intentions and goals are guiding us to overcome difficulties and move forward fearlessly, helping the club to continuously deepen the connection with the city on the basis of consolidating traditions, and at the same time unswervingly promoting the development of Chinese football.

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Deeply cultivate the tradition of youth training and consolidate the foundation of the club

 

Paying attention to youth training has always been a golden sign of AJ Auxerre, and it is also an inseparable tradition of the history of the club. Looking back on a century of team history, this city of 40,000 people has walked out of a star with a great reputation in football: Cantona, Diomede, Mex, Cisse, Sagna and etc. These names cover different periods, different positions, and different honors, which are enough to reflect the club’s high level of youth training.

AJ Auxerre has a “diantang (palace hall)”-level youth training system and a complete youth training network. Club youth training academy has won the best youth training center in France 8 times, and has directly trained more than 200 professional players in the past 40 years. In the history of the Gambedra Cup, known as the “Youth French Cup”, AJ Auxerre dazzled the entire French football with 7 championships and 2 runners-up; In the national leagues of different levels such as U19 to U15, AJ Auxerre has all the experience of winning championships at all levels. In terms of youth talent training, AJ Auxerre is well-known overseas, providing a benchmark and a model for many teams.

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For AJ Auxerre, putting the development of young players in the first place and building a club culture through youth training is an unchanging creed. The youth training center provides the reserve team and echelons at all levels with complete facilities and a coaching team with excellent professional quality, as well as management, education and logistical support. While ensuring high-quality training, the club also pays special attention to the learning of the cultural knowledge of young players, and has established a complete network of educational partners. Personalized education services are organized according to the characteristics of the team members, which are well received.

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Each season, players from our youth training enter the first team. Mercier, Jolly, DePersin, Sinayoko and Sylvester, Ben Fregui are the excellent players of the youth training academy in recent years. They have been selected for the first-team competition list many times and have experience on the stage. Among them, Sinayoko was selected for the Mali adult national team and competed in the intercontinental competition. The talents who came out of the youth academy a few years ago have proven themselves on a bigger stage. Allai won the Eredivisie with Ajax this season, and Ndika won the Europa League on behalf of Frankfurt!

Although AJ Auxerre has undergone certain changes in its organizational structure in recent years, its adherence to the youth training tradition has remained unchanged. The club vigorously promotes the construction of youth training facilities, building a new dormitory building in 2016 and renovating the youth training academy in 2018.

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Help Chinese football and deepening multi-level cooperation

 

From the moment of cooperation with China, AJ Auxerre has used its own high-quality resources to start a series of cooperation with Chinese football, covering top-level exchanges, talent exchanges, system construction and other aspects, with rich and diverse content.

Before 2019 French Women’s World Cup, AJ Auxerre provided the Chinese women’s football team with a full range of guarantees from training bases to hotel accommodation and transportation in advance, which greatly ensured that Chinese women’s football could prepare for the game with peace of mind in a foreign country.

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The most intersections between AJ Auxerre and Chinese football are still the club’s proud youth training. In 2019, the club and Shanghai Jinshan prepared to build the AJ Auxerre China Youth Training Base, and dispatched youth coaches with outstanding ability and strong sense of responsibility to teach in China. By bringing youth coaches to China, AJ Auxerre not only provides opportunities for Chinese youth coaches to learn and communicate at close range, but allows young Chinese players to get in touch with advanced youth training concepts from a young age.

During the coaching time in China, coaches of AJ Auxerre strictly demanded the young players with professional team standards and helped them develop good habits from an early age. The training plan, technical and tactical requirements of the Chinese elite team are unified with the AJ Auxerre echelon, which is also the tradition of the club’s echelon at all levels, ensuring that children can maximize their potential under the AJ Auxerre youth training system. The Jinshan AJ Auxerre elite team has reached the semi-finals of various invitational tournaments for many times, and won the runner-up in the 2021 Shanghai Youth Elite Series, setting the best record in the history of the Jinshan Men’s Football Team in this competition. During the epidemic, the coaches organized the team to watch the first-team league collectively, which further planted the seeds of dreams in players’ hearts and gained a deeper understanding of the brand value and philosophy of AJ Auxerre.

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Before the epidemic, the AJ Auxerre youth team came to China every year to participate in the “Jinshan Cup” International Youth Invitational Tournament and achieved good results. During the periods in China, walking into a Chinese campus and getting in touch with Chinese culture is a “compulsory course” for the club’s echelon. A series of exchange activities have further shortened the distance between Chinese and French youth football.

AJ Auxerre focuses on global layout and has nearly 30 satellite teams worldwide, Chinese football has always been one of the most important partners of the club. Eyes on the future, AJ Auxerre will continue to unswervingly support Chinese football. In addition to player-coach exchanges, coaching training and high-level cooperation, AJ Auxerre will provide Chinese football managers with opportunities to study in France in the future, and will continue to improve the construction of the China Youth Academy to enhance the brand value of AJ Auxerre constantly glowing in China.

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Bravely take social responsibility and create a city business card

 

While consolidating the club’s traditions and strengthening its relationship with Chinese football, the new AJ Auxerre focuses on the development of club culture and the connection between cities and fans, actively fulfills social responsibilities, and strives to make the club a shining city card in the local area.

As a close link with the club, AJ Auxerre has always attached great importance to the construction of fan culture. In recent years, with the recovery of the record and the launch of a number of fan activities, the distance between local fans and the club has been further narrowed. The Abe Deschamps Stadium has always been at the forefront of Ligue 2, and it was full at the end of the season. Before each game, the giant TIFO in the stand of die-hard fans is always a unique sight. And before the team goes to the critical game to participate in many key battles in the league, the club will carefully prepare buses for fans to create a more customer atmosphere for fans to provide greater convenience. Before the final battle with Saint-Etienne, 12 buses transported the fans to the away stadium, and they witnessed the happy moment of the team’s re-promotion.

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The club also actively fulfills its social responsibilities, regularly organizes players of all ages to get close to the society and participate in public welfare activities, integrating football with citizenship and school education, which is also the club’s long-standing tradition of educating people. The senior management of the club also cooperated closely with various departments of the local city to achieve mutual assistance and win-win results, further expanding their influence.

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Back then, I watched the peaches and plums drinking fine wine in the spring breeze. Later, the rivers and lakes were down and down. It has been ten years since we parted. I often listen to the autumn rain and miss you in front of the lonely lamp. Standing at a new starting point and looking forward to the future, we are full of confidence and have a bright future! AJ Auxerre will build on the past and forge ahead, and strive to consolidate the achievements of youth training, help Chinese football, and build the club’s characteristic brand on the road ahead.