China is investing in young soccer players for a bigger goal. (Photo : Getty Images)
China’s plans on becoming a “soccer powerhouse” become more evident as schools in the mainland offer more training programs and authorities vow to build more training centers to hone the youth’s talent in the sport.
In a report from the South China Morning Post, China Football Association deputy chairman Wang Dengfeng revealed these plans on Tuesday after Beijing announced the country's working blueprint that would help them have 50 million soccer players by the year 2020.
Posing as the head of sports education policy at the Ministry of Education, Wang said that the plan is aiming to make President Xi Jinping's big soccer dream for Chinese athletes a reality.
President Xi's Fondness of Soccer
"The Chinese sports industry is developing. The Chinese government, including the sports and education ministries, support football more and are paying attention to youth development," the New York Times quoted Chinese national team coach Gao Hongbo as saying in March. "If we continue like this, China will become very strong."
Apparently, this was because of Xi's fondness of the sport which, according to another report from the SCMP, began when he was still a child.
Xi's long-term ambition for "the beautiful game" began when he was in middle school due to the influence of the communist revolutionary and his late father, Xi Zhongxun.
"Xi Jinping, who was born in 1953, played football while at school in the 1950s and '60s and played alongside many second-generation communist revolutionaries, including the grandson of Marshal Zhu De, who was vice chairman of China," the outlet explained, adding that Xi's love for soccer may have also been influenced by past Chinese leaders who were also fond of the game.
Economic and Political Implications
Though there is no question about Xi's love for the sport, there appears to be more to it than what meets the eye.
According to Time, soccer is a means to an end, explaining that there are "broad economic and political implications" of what Beijing is doing for the sport.
Apparently, China wishes to become a "world football superpower" by the year 2050 by having a minimum of 70,000 pitches in place and 20,000 soccer training centers by 2020 in a bid to boost its FIFA ranking.
According to Time, the move was sparked by the sudden revelation of Xi's love for soccer, which also spurred a lot of unprecedented investments in the Chinese Super League.
"For the Chinese government, soccer prowess has become paramount to the nation's resurgence on the world stage--and will hopefully distract China's teeming population from a looming economic downturn," the outlet explained, adding that the blueprint for soccer development is the country's way of assuring that the investments made to their soccer league is not for naught.
