Xi Jinping Loves Soccer. Why Is China’s Team So Bad?

**Oanh Ha** (0:03)
Bloomberg Audio Studios.

**Eric Zhu** (0:05)
Podcasts, radio, news.

**Oanh Ha** (0:15)
The final stage is still being set, but even before the confetti rains down on this weekend's 2026 FIFA World Cup Champions, one thing is certain, this tournament has been unforgettable. And no, I'm not talking about deficienting.
2026 marked the first time that the games were split across three host nations, the first time in nearly 20 years that the field expanded to allow additional teams, and the first time that nine Asian Football Confederation members made the cut. And while all teams from Asia have since been eliminated, their presence in the tournament was more than a statistical milestone. It was electric for fans. History in the making.
In 2002, just four teams from Asia made it to the World Cup. Today, that number has more than doubled. Supercharged, of course, by FIFA's decision to expand the field to 48 teams. But even with that expansion, there's one glaring absence from the pitch. China.

**Mark Dreyer** (1:26)
China defeated.

**Eric Zhu** (1:28)
Every four years, Chinese football fans ask the exact same question. Where's team China in soccer? China's got 1.4 billion people.

**Oanh Ha** (1:35)
Y'all couldn't find 11 people that kick a ball?
Since the first World Cup in 1930, China's men's team has qualified just once in 2002 It's a staggering drought. And it comes even as Beijing has poured millions, if not billions, into growing the game, one that holds a special place in the heart of its leader.

**Eric Zhu** (1:57)
I used to play football here, but that was over 50 years ago. The pitches were all dirt back then.

**Oanh Ha** (2:04)
That was Chinese President Xi Jinping during a visit to his former school in Beijing in 2016 Xi rarely speaks publicly about his personal life, but over the years, he's made no secret of his love for football and his hopes for its future in China.

**Mark Dreyer** (2:20)
Xi Jinping's three wishes for Chinese football go back to 2011, the year before he became the president.

**Oanh Ha** (2:26)
Mark Dreyer is a veteran sportswriter who splits his time between Beijing and the UK.

**Mark Dreyer** (2:31)
And they were to qualify for the World Cup, to host the World Cup and to win the World Cup.

**Oanh Ha** (2:36)
But more than a decade later, none of those goals has been achieved. That's despite China making football a national priority in 2015 The struggle has become so visible that even Xi himself has acknowledged it. Here, he's speaking to Thailand's prime minister in 2023, after China's men's team beat Thailand in a World Cup qualifier.
Oh, really? China won?

**Eric Zhu** (3:03)
I think that was mostly a fluke. I'm not too confident in the national team's level.

**Oanh Ha** (3:09)
Over the years, China has invested heavily to become a sporting powerhouse. At the Olympics, it regularly tops the medal tables, which makes its struggle on the pitch all the more striking.

**Mark Dreyer** (3:21)
There's nothing really that compares to the lack of success that China has had there. And I think for the people, it is embarrassing because there are a lot of football fans in China.

**Eric Zhu** (3:31)
During China's booming year, the past three decades, economy is rising so fast that it's every opportunity outside football.

**Oanh Ha** (3:38)
Eric Zhu covers China's economy for Bloomberg Economics. He says China's football woes are tied to people wanting to cash in on the country's economic boom, rather than dream big about becoming a pro athlete.

**Eric Zhu** (3:52)
As long as you have a good education, it's very easy to make money.

**Oanh Ha** (3:56)
But Eric says this isn't just about individual choices. The bigger question is why a country that's excelled through planning, investment, and state support hasn't been able to apply the same formula to football.

**Eric Zhu** (4:10)
You have seen China has made huge success in everything, mostly everything from infrastructure, high-speed train, to robotics, to AI. On the sports, at least they have made great success in Olympic games. So it looked like China model is so successful in everywhere. So it's a top-down engineering approach, but it doesn't work for football.

**Oanh Ha** (4:41)
This is The Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm Oanh Ha. Every week, we take you inside some of the world's biggest and most powerful economies and the markets, tycoons and businesses that drive this ever-shifting region. Today in the show, why China struggles to crack the formula for football, and what that reveals about the limits of state power in a game that thrives on grassroots participation.
In the world of Olympic sports, China has perfected a science, identifying talent early, controlling variables, and refining performance over years. It's a top-down system that's produced generations of champions in diving, gymnastics, and weightlifting. But sports writer Mark Dreyer says, when it comes to football, that state-engineered top-down formula has fallen flat.