Soccer boom in China: something is missing

GUANGZHOU-Kin Chai is from a small village that did not even have a soccer team in his childhood in 1990s. 20 years after this China experiences the midst of a national soccer boom, trying to realize President Xi Jinping’s dream to host the World Cup one day. Now they invest billions of dollars to do this.

Our partners: 777Spinslot is a reliable gaming platform that always upgrades its offered games to get better results and to bring customers the highest quality no deposits slots to work with.

This year, Chinese clubs have become almost the most active in the transfer market. They purchased a couple of foreign stars. Having strengthened the compositions with quality legionnaires, they are hoping that local players will catch up to their level. China also has plans for the development of youth football. The country's leadership has set a specific goal: to open 50,000 football schools and academies by 2025.

Nevertheless, something is missing and even money can do nothing. What is it? A love for playing soccer! Experts consider this a very important factor in creation elite performers.

Kin Chai together with a small group now work to inspire that enthusiasm in Chinese children. A not-for-profit organization Dreams Come True tries to create a national network of after-school soccer programs. Their aim is to encourage children’s passion for the sport. As the chairman Zhou Weihao explained, their goal is to keep children active. If they reveal some talent, they offer some more training then.

This approach differs from Guangzhou Evergrande’s, the current Asian and Chinese champions. "Real Madrid" and "Guangzhou Evergrande" entered into an agreement, and Madrid are now sharing its training methods with the Chinese. "Milan" is to send 350 coaches in 200 schools where more than 2,000 students train for hours every day.

But Mark Dreyer, a sports analyst in Beijing, states: "The methods that China has used to great effect to become dominant in other sports can not be transferred to football. Simply forcing kids to play against their will not solve anything," he said.

After Chinese leaders proclaimed the priority of sport, business tycoons acknowledged that they are trying to gain political favor with their soccer investments.

Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin acquired 20% stake in Spain’s Atletico last year and in March signed a sponsorship deal with FIFA.

China’s soccer skills are far below other indicators of national power. According to FIFA’s rank, it is the 81st, they played in the World Cup only in 2002 and now should have enough luck to qualify for the 2018 tournament in Russia.

By 2020, 20 thousand schools across the country will have professional coaches. It is expected that by 2025 this figure will reach 50 thousand. The first goal of China is to get a strong national team that could compete with the leading Asian teams. The leaders of the country want the local team to become one of the giants by 2050.

However, experts express doubts because of Chinese cultural issue comprising a high-pressure university entrance exam, which will make it difficult to grow a mass youth soccer craze. But maybe, Dreams Come True will succeed to realize the “Chinese dream” of becoming a global soccer leader?