Guangzhou Evergrande Academy pupils. (Photo : Getty Images)
Chinese Super League powerhouse Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao FC had reportedly hired 24 trainers and coaches from La Liga giant Real Madrid CF to help facilitate the club's youth academy in China as part of the team and country's aim to become a world superpower in football soonest.
The Sun reported that the Guangzhou Evergrande Academy, considered as the biggest youth football school in the world, "rely on their partnership with the Real Madrid Foundation to give their young talents the same training as the likes of Raul, Iker Casillas and Juan Mata - all graduates of Madrid's academy".
The report continued that China's national football team is currently below par of the world's best, even inferior to some of its Asian rivals, because of its "lack of street football", according to one of its Spanish trainers, Javier Moreiras.
"They need, what we call in Spain 'football of the streets'. In China no kids play on the streets, like they do in Spain, France, Italy and England," said Moreiras. "They must start with these kids. Maybe in 15, 20 years, maybe they have a chance to go to a World Cup, only to go to it."
"To win a World Cup, that's another world," he added.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, a passionate football fan, said to have "ordered the sport to be added to the national curriculum in schools, and as an option in the national university entrance exam this year," as per Sky News.
It is a nationwide move initiated by no less than the country's president himself "to try to revitalize the sport at the grassroots" as it is allegedly President Xi's dream for China to one day win the World Cup.
He Xingjie, a 14-year-old student of the Academy, is considered as one of the school's best pupils and is under scholarship from the Evergrande group. He said that he hopes to be a national team player someday and that he also wishes to play for world-class La Liga clubs such as FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Guangzhou Evergrande, currently managed by World Cup-winning head coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, has been one of the most successful teams in Asia in the past few years. The team had won five straight CSL titles and two AFC Champions League trophies in the last three years.
