Can a school help China qualify for the World Cup?

[Trajan]

That China is dreadful at football is no secret. It currently languishes in 103rd place in the Fifa World Rankings, just below Equatorial Guinea.

The Evergrande Football School is meant to change all that.

The school's turrets and towers rise above the surrounding countryside like a Transylvanian Castle. The courtyards and galleries give the feel of an English public school and the facilities - an Olympic-size swimming pool, tennis courts and 42 full-sized football pitches - would be the envy of many of them.

In the 2,300-place boarding school, pupils attend normal academic lessons but get their football - at least an hour a day - from a team of Real Madrid-trained coaches.

The whole thing was built in less than a year at a cost of almost $200m (£117m), the brainchild of the billionaire owner of one of China's biggest football clubs, Guangzhou Evergrande.

But the school claims high-level political support too.

"Chinese President Xi Jinping has three wishes," the school's headmaster, Liu Jiangnan told me. "To qualify for, to host and to win the World Cup."

But

Firstly, the rampant building boom of the past few decades has left very few surviving fields and open spaces.

The education system is another challenge - the intense pressure on children to study long hours for exams leaves little room for extra-curricular activity.

For that reason, the few that do play youth team football have often given up by the age of 14.

Then there's the Communist Party's suffocating prohibition on any social organisation outside of its control which makes the setting up of local sports clubs a difficult task.

And lastly, if all the above are not enough to kill off an outdoor sporting culture, then the choking country-wide pollution should do the trick.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-28259011

 

[DStyles]

What if they did this here in America?

 

[beejus]

What if they did this here in America?

They do have this though. It's called IMG Academy in Florida.

Some of the players to go through this school.

Freddy Adu, Michael Bradley, Kyle Beckerman, DeMarcus Beasley, Landon Donovan, Eddie Johnson, Oguchi Onyewu, Aron Johansson, and others who have been on the National team at one time or another.

 

[concise]

They already made it in 2002. They can wait a little longer.

 

[jerniebert]

The Chinese are crazy enough and have enough money to make this work. They'll probably win a world cup before the USA.

 

[concise]

The Chinese are crazy enough and have enough money to make this work. They'll probably win a world cup before the USA.

They can't even win an Asian Cup yet.

 

[jerniebert]

They can't even win an Asian Cup yet.

Doesnt change the fact how crazy they are and what they would be willing to do to be the best at something. these fukkers would cut your nuts off if it made you a champion. They have no morals or ethics in china.

 

[concise]

Doesnt change the fact how crazy they are and what they would be willing to do to be the best at something. these fukkers would cut your nuts off if it made you a champion. They have no morals or ethics in china.

ok, like they're the only ones like that.

Facts remain that they haven't even won a regional title and they can't even qualify for the tournament on a regular basis.

 

[jerniebert]

ok, like they're the only ones like that.

Facts remain that they haven't even won a regional title and they can't even qualify for the tournament on a regular basis.

Never said they were the only ones like but of the people like that they have the most money. I could care less about who is good at soccer or what they have done so you can save your soccer nerd stats for somebody who cares. Money and crazy with desire to be good at something is usually a combination that works. Lets not get it mixed up. Soccer is boring to me. This is more about the chinese and there crazy ways. but you do you.

 

[concise]

Never said they were the only ones like but of the people like that they have the most money. I could care less about who is good at soccer or what they have done so you can save your soccer nerd stats for somebody who cares. Money and crazy with desire to be good at something is usually a combination that works. Lets not get it mixed up. Soccer is boring to me. This is more about the chinese and there crazy ways. but you do you.

They aren't even the first ones to come up with the concept.

You don't even care for soccer, so you obviously don't know what it takes to be good at it.

 

[unit321]

It's a piece of the puzzle.
When it comes to the national team, they need to hire a good coach if they want to be contenders.

 

[jerniebert]

They aren't even the first ones to come up wih the concept.
You don't even care for soccer, so you obviously don't know what it takes to be good at it.

No way they are not the first. You dont say. Thanks for clearing that up ole wise one. And i Dont have to know about soccer to know like with anything in life if you throw enough money and crazy drive at it you can be good.

 

[Hammer]

how the fukk can't you find 20 amazing players out of 1.3 billion people

 

[spencerforhire]

Watch dem karate kick them soccer balls and take over within the next few years.

 

[concise]

No way they are not the first. You dont say. Thanks for clearing that up ole wise one. And i Dont have to know about soccer to know like with anything in life if you throw enough money and crazy drive at it you can be good.

Sure.