China To Become a Football Nation?

For those of you that don’t already know, the world’s biggest football academy in the world is in China, and not just anywhere in China, but less than 80 kilometers from Guangzhou. I’m talking about Evergrande International Football school, located in Qingyuan.

The football team Guangzhou Evergrande should already be familiar to both the local Chinese, and our school’s football lovers, being the only Chinese football club to ever participate in the FIFA Club World Cup, and the only Chinese football club to win the closer, AFC Champions league twice. Moreover, the team represents the city we all live in, and their home stadium (Tianhe Sports Stadium) is easily accessible for most AISG students.

The football school owned by the Evergrande Group is in fact the world’s largest, according to the Guinness World Records. Evergrande Football School’s “state-of-the-art” facilities includes over 47 football pitches, and 359,000 m² of total area. The school also has a partnership with Real Madrid C.F., resulting in over 2 dozen Spanish coaches working in the complex.

The school has attracted around 2,400 students from around China, each paying up to 60,000 RMB to receive top tier football education. Some of them will be the future of China’s football team, while others aim higher, playing for European giants like Real Madrid.

The President of the Guinness World Records Greater China visited and congratulated the school, which is meant to bring glory to Chinese football. The Principal of the football academy thanked Guinness World Records in a speech, saying “I hope all the students who study in Evergrande football school will study hard and train hard, in order to gain an excellent future and make more contribution to the Chinese football Industry.”

This school reflects, and indeed will further China’s recent efforts in raising the level it is played at. While football is a very widely played sport in China, the Chinese standard has remained low these past few years. President Xi Jinping, a football fan himself, hopes that China will one day win the World Cup, something China has had a hard time qualifying for, let alone hosting.

With the new national focus on football however, it does not seem unlikely that China will become a major football force within 2 or 3 generations.