China's Olympic soccer manager Miroslav Blazevic insists the nation has enough talented players and coaches to win international honours at next year's London Olympic Games.
And the 74-year-old Croat believes the Olympics are more important than the World Cup. 'Chinese players are more talented than people believe, and the Chinese coaches are not as impotent as people think,' Blazevic said ahead of this weekend's Olympic qualifying warm-ups against local clubs in Shanghai.
His upbeat assessment flies in the face of the men's Olympic team's dire performance at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, and the national team's group-stage knockout last month at the Asian Cup in Qatar.
'There are many gifted youngsters in this Olympic team,' said Blazevic, who took over the squad from Sun Wei.
He told the China Daily the young generation was the future of Chinese soccer - and he believes his work is just as important as that of the national coach Gao Hongbo.
'Olympic soccer is more important than the World Cup. The young players in the Olympic team are passionate and energetic. They are not big stars, but they will play at the Olympic Games with very clear minds,' he said.