China: Football's (still) sleeping giant

[freemexy]

China: Football's (still) sleeping giant
When asked why the most populous country on earth isn't a footballing powerhouse, Marcello Lippi took a deep breath and looked critically at the gathered journalists.To get more china football team, you can visit shine news official website.
"The most important thing is to invest in youth," said the Italian coach, who has been in charge of the Chinese national team since 2016. "We've made a lot of progress but we still need reliable structures to find talent more quickly and reach the top."
The 17th edition of the Asian Cup, the final of which takes place on February 1 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is an important staging post for Chinese football. Four years ago in 2015, President Xi Jinping declared China's aim of becoming a major power in the planet's most popular sport by 2050. If the country's performances in the Gulf this year are anything to go by, the foundations are there – but the next steps in its footballing development remain unclear.
After an unspectacular group stage, the Chinese beat Thailand 2-1 in the last-16 in Al Ain on Sunday to reach the quarterfinals, where they will face Iran. But much more important than the results on the pitch are developments off it; the development of a footballing culture in which young fans become passionate players and good players become superstars.

China is not the first nation to try to challenge Europe's footballing hegemony. In the 1970s, the United States recruited the likes of Pele and Franz Beckenbauer to help boost the profile of "soccer" stateside, while Japan launched its J-League in 1992. Since the turn of the millennium, Russia has also tried to breathe life into post-Soviet football with the help of international icons, as have Gulf States such as Qatar and the UAE. China initially took a similar approach but quickly recognized that such massive investment isn't necessarily sustainable.
The transfer fees that Chinese clubs pumped into the market "made even the most successful clubs in the world look comparatively penniless," writes Felix Lill, a long-term observer of football in the Far East, in the German broadsheet Die Zeit. From Carlos Tevez to Alex Teixeira to Axel Witsel, huge names have been tempted eastwards with annual salaries in excess of €20 million ($22.7 million). Lippi, Italy's 2006 World Cup-winning coach, is the highest-paid coach in the world, while a Chinese club allegedly offered Cristiano Ronaldo €100 million, according to the Portuguese star's agent.
But with progress remaining slow, there's been a change of strategy.
"Clubs are now only allowed to have four foreign players in their squads and three on the pitch," explains Ai Ting Ting, a reporter for state television station CCTV. There must also always be at least one Chinese player under the age of 23.
The aim is to encourage fans to identify with stars in their local teams rather than supporting Liverpool, Bayern Munich or Barcelona, to boost the attractiveness of the Chinese Super League for sponsors, and most importantly, to improve the quality of the national team.