Jürgen Van der Velde (42) is a former professional football player and got capped for the Belgium national U-21 teams in his early days. Seeing his own football career often being interrupted by severe injuries, he did witness the rise of currents Belgians golden generation who climbed to the top of the FIFA World Ranking. Reporting matches from Moscow at the World Cup 2018 for some leading media, he saw the Belgian Red Devils finishing 3rd. Having a strong passion for sports, technology, and languages the former player originally been educated as an engineer; e.g. he followed academic education in Software Engineering, eCommerce, Interactive Multimedia & Artificial Intelligence at the OU the Netherlands whilst holding a BA Sc. in Electronic Engineering besides of his BA Sc. in Teaching. In 2003 the Belgian decided to start Chinese Mandarin language studies at the Catholic University of Leuven and made an impression with his dedication and progress. The self-made entrepreneur gained more than +10 years of experience with cross-industry and cross-cultural business dealings. Van der Velde`s hometown is  Brussels but traveled the world and lived in China’s capital Beijing for years. Able to speak fluent Mandarin and mastering a total of 6 languages he is often considered to be a genuine poly-got. Between 2015 and 2017 he applied his cross-cultural knowledge a step further and took up professional roles as a football ambassador or adviser for European clubs in Asia. The UEFA certified instructor has been mainly inspired by Belgian, Dutch and French football gurus. He has been highly appreciated throughout China’s football landscape, in particular for encouraging a progressive football mindset and the efficient use of new training methodologies applied with a touch of yin and yang. Also, he graduated Summa Cum Laude in Football Business at the Johan Cruyff Institute with an historic grade in 2018 and awarded an MBA in Coaching and Mentoring in the UK to further complete an impressive academic curriculum. Van der Velde has expertise with international brand management and outlining sport marketing strategies as well as a positive track record in designing & commercializing innovative sports products, holding a series of worldwide patented sports equipment. He is a guest lecturer at the International Football Business Institute (VUB University) and the Zhejiang University and helps out the promising company PROSOCCERDATA as a business development representative which is a top digital solution that increases the quality of player development and talent detection used by the Royal Belgian Football Federation and the Japanese J-League. In 2020 he took up a role as a Director of Football and International Partnerships for the city of Foshan.