Some 1,500 of its students, both male and female, have signed up for its new soccer programme, centred on a pristine green Astroturf football pitch where dozens of children play simultaneous five-a-side-games.Ī concrete viewing stand is under construction to accommodate future spectators, with cement mixers churning and a crane swinging girders above the children as they practised. The vast Tagou martial arts school, a few miles from the cradle of Chinese kungfu, the Shaolin Temple in Henan province, has 35,000 fee-paying boarders, who live in spartan conditions and are put through a rigorous training regime. China's national team is struggling: the world's most populous country ranks a lowly 84th according to FIFA and the latest setback to its fading hopes of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia was a 0-0 home draw this week with Qatar - which has only around 300,000 citizens.īut China is investing hugely in football training and has vowed to have 50 million school-age players by 2020, as the ruling Communist party eyes "football superpower" status by 2050.
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