Full localization + health model, Dalian InBev Chongchao's "two-line password"

Reporter Liu Xiangyu reports On November 3, in the final match of the 2024 season, Dalian InBev played Shanghai Jiading at home. In this battle for the overtake, Dalian InBev took the lead in opening the situation by Kalanga in the 15th minute, and the situation was very good, but in the 60th minute of the game, Jiading equalized the score, and the suspense rose again. It wasn't until a moment before the 90th minute that InBev swooped down in front of the goal with the teenager Zhu Pengyu and completed the stunner. Under the watchful eyes of more than 60,000 fans at the scene, Dalian InBev successfully surpassed, and Dalian football returned to the stage of China's top professional league.

Wang Kui, an investor at Dalian InBev, said: "The whole year was like this 90-minute game: a perfect start, and there were problems in the middle, but we survived and finally completed the stunner. At that moment, all the excitement, unwillingness, enthusiasm and anticipation were released on the face of this man in his forties, "like a dream." He said.

This dream started at the beginning of the year. Tongshun Construction and Development Group took over Dalian Zhixing, and Wang Kui stepped into the professional football stage from the amateur football circle. This year, he laughed at himself from a "layman" to now "just graduated from primary school", which is still far from it. But it is this "primary school student" who has done many things that the old rivers and lakes have not done, and Dalian InBev has become a phenomenal team in the Chinese football circle in 2024.

At the beginning of the year, no one would put Dalian InBev in the topic of supertaking. At that time, Dalian football was experiencing the darkest moment, Dalian people were relegated from the Chinese Super League, and finally disbanded, and the thoughts of Dalian fans were gone. Dalian Zhixing had just successfully won the first prize, but there was a problem with the original investor, and the team was eventually auctioned. Who is the new boss Wang Kui? What kind of company is Tongshun? These are all people and things that are too far away from the football circle, but this is how with a question mark in the head, Dalian InBev is on the road.

The reason why they are called InBev is taken from the English "young boy", from the club level, they are indeed the "hairy boys" of Chinese football. In addition to a few old Chinese Super League players who have returned to their hometowns, like Jin Pengxiang, Lv Peng, Yan Xiangchuang, and a group of small, Dalian 05 and around this group of players, including Zhu Pengyu, Mao Weijie, Qu Geping and the loaned He Xiaoqiang, the old and the small, the middle is completely broken, no matter how you look at it, it is not competitive.

Head coach Li Guoxu is also a "newcomer" in the Chinese League. Although he has played with Dalian Albin before and also coached at the U19 national youth, he is an assistant coach. He briefly led Dalian Beyond as a head coach, but it was not successful. As a coach, Li Guoxu's real maturity period began the year before, he took the predecessor of Dalian InBev from the championship to the middle B, and then from the second to the middle B, and for two consecutive years to fight monsters and upgrades, Li Guoxu has passed the test.

As a native of Dalian, Li Guoxu has a strong Dalian football imprint, a fully localized team, Dalian coaches lead the Dalian team, and the new investors and coaching staff have established full trust, all of which allowed InBev to complete the transition and stabilize in the shortest time at the beginning of the year. However, the goal of InBev in the new season is very clear, and the first year of the Chinese League is relegation, which is a reasonable judgment on the team's personnel composition and overall investment.

Although the conditions are limited, the good thing is that Li Guoxu can let it go. He wants to get back some of the shadows of Dalian football back then, he knows what kind of football Dalian people should and is suitable to play, and then combines the cutting-edge things he has learned to create a new Dalian football system. The players are all from Dalian, and after the club is stable, the Chinese League is a test field.

In March, the tournament began. What people didn't expect was that in the four games in March, Dalian InBev won four consecutive games, but at this time they were not too taken seriously. In the first seven rounds, InBev won six and drew one, including victories over Suzhou Dongwu, Guangxi Pingguo and Liaoning Ironman. The perfect start of the league made the hearts of InBev people excited, and a goal that they didn't dare to think of came out. After the halfway point, InBev never fell out of the top three, and the team carefully weighed it and decided to overtake.

"Looking back, maybe the first year was a little too fast, after all, there is still a lack of some accumulation and preparation, normally speaking, it is okay to rush up in two or three years." Wang Kui said, but the time and the situation have come, there is no reason not to rush.

InBev has experienced two low periods this year, one is the large-scale conflict that broke out after the home match with Guangzhou, and many main players were suspended. If you change to another team, you basically can't slow down, but InBev immediately defeated Jiangxi 3-0 away, and the tenacity of Dalian players was reflected; There was a period of five consecutive wins, and then four rounds of winlessness, which overshadowed the overtaking. At the critical moment, Li Guoxu, an upgraded professional household, stabilized the situation. Nine points from five games saved the hope of overtaking until the final round.

In the final game, Barracuda Bay had an attendance of 60,951, the highest number of third-level professional leagues in China in the whole year. Despite the uproar at the scene, Li Guoxu "didn't hear" any sound throughout the game, and it wasn't until the final whistle that his ears finally "opened". Wang Kui in the stands shook his fist excitedly, and many old Dalian fans burst into tears, and they sent text messages to friends in other parts of the country, "rushing up".

A civilian team, a new army in the Chinese League, a club operating at a small cost, has completed a miraculous leap. Dalian InBev's 2024 season was a success at the competitive level, and it also provided a model for everyone at the club operation level.

Li Guoxu's tactical system has been fully tested. He regained Dalian's fast, direct, pressing style of football, and bit the bite in key matches. InBev does not rely on foreign aid, local veterans make the best use of it, more young players have also been given opportunities, Dalian football people have the same spirit in their blood, and the heritage of Dalian football has made this team change its life.

There is a good tactical system, and it is necessary to stabilize the locker room to be effective, Li Guoxu and the coaching staff have worked hard. In the locker room of the InBev base, there is a blackboard with the "Mrs. Niu" list and the "Britney" list, and the names of the people on the list are changed regularly. When the team fluctuates and the pressure of external public opinion comes, Li Guoxu uses this way to relieve the pressure on the players and himself, and the "praised" and "hacked" are automatically on the list, and he does "psychological massage" in a relaxed way. The young have the hard work, and the veterans also have to fight.

Zhao Mingjian transferred to InBev in the middle of the period, and when his state was up and down, Li Guoxu found him for in-depth communication, and the veteran said that every next game would be played as the last game of his career. In the later games, Zhao Mingjian played an important role. When everyone is twisted together and moving towards the same goal, the rest falls into place.

On issues such as team skills and tactics, personnel arrangements, Wang Kui and Li Guoxu had exchanges, but never intervened. Wang Kui himself also plays football, he loves and understands football, but professional things are handed over to professional people, this is the principle. A team's performance is fundamental, and the business is also concerned by investors. Dalian InBev not only did not lose money in a year, but also made money, and this healthy business model is very rare in Chinese professional clubs.

The total investment of Dalian InBev is about 30 million yuan throughout the year, and the annual income exceeds 30 million, which includes several aspects: subsidies from the government and super awards, which solve a large part of the problem; In addition, peripheral products and advertising sponsorship also have a certain amount of income; Most of the rest comes from the box office. This year's Barracuda Bay gave birth to a phenomenal ball market.

The Barracuda Bay Professional Football Stadium was opened last year, and Dalian people played four Super League games in Barracuda Bay, with an average attendance of more than 30,000 people per game. Dalian InBev, a team in the Chinese League, has created the highest attendance. On March 24, InBev played Guangxi Pingguo for the first time, when the stands were partially open and the attendance was less than 30,000; At the end of March, the second home game against Heilongjiang was held, and the number of open floors in the stands was even larger, with more than 35,000 people entering the stadium. Later, after the active coordination between the club's investors and the municipal government, Barracuda Bay fully opened the stands, and the attendance rate never fell below 40,000. Dalian InBev played 14 matches in Barracuda Bay throughout the year, five of which exceeded 50,000 people, and the last game had an attendance of more than 60,000 people, setting a record for the year in China's third-level professional league.

In Dalian, InBev's tickets have become a scarce commodity, Barracuda Bay has become a check-in place for outsiders who travel to Dalian, and the match day has become a "festival", which has also led to the development of local cultural tourism in Dalian.

Why is the Chinese League A game so attractive, Dalian InBev Club summed up the three most important reasons: the first is the results, the consecutive wins at the beginning of the season let the fans return to the stadium, and after setting the goal of surpassing, the fans also have hope; The second is the style of play, Dalian's style of play is more ornamental, the pace of conversion is fast, and it is loved by fans; Third, the whole club, from investors to managers and players, has no sense of distance from the fans, and more fans are willing to come to the stadium to support their team.

In the final analysis, Dalian has a deep football heritage and football culture, and the home momentum created by fans in Barracuda Bay is also one of the key factors for Dalian InBev to surpass this year.

However, the Chinese Super League is different from the Chinese Super League, and InBev needs to improve in all aspects in order to gain a foothold in the Chinese Super League. Wang Kui, Li Guoxu and others have been very busy recently. InBev will make big moves in recruitment, looking for players suitable for the Chinese Super League, filling in foreign aid, and even improving the quality of turf, all of which are on the agenda. For the next Chinese Super League season, InBev has a budget of 150 million, and next year the Chinese Super League will reproduce the famous scene of Barracuda Bay singing "Salala".