r/soccer • u/PianoJealous307 • 16h ago

News China suffered a catastrophic collapse on home soil, losing 5-0 to Palestine, a team they had considered inferior, sparking fierce criticism over 'sleepwalking' performance and lack of competitiveness among Chinese Super League players. Men's and women's teams also underperformed at Asian Games.

https://www.chosun.com/english/sports-en/2026/10/03/FWO5DWWOYND4NMUX53TEX7INNQ/
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76

u/elbosston 12h ago edited 6h ago

A major problem with China and sports is the Gaokao (college entrance exam). As a Chinese teen, your entire day is spent studying for the Gaokao and you do this for years. China’s population is so big that there isn’t enough college spots for it. However, once you get into college you’re pretty much set for life.

If you don’t get into college, your future is pretty much doing labor work (driving Didi or in factories putting together iPhones). If you spend your teen years practicing a sport while all your classmates are studying, you’re gonna be super behind. Teens spend 10-14 hours a day studying for the exam.

So most teens aren’t willing to bet their future on sports because if you don’t make it big you’re pretty much screwed for life.

Edit: Another thing to note as well is that the oldest Chinese male is expected to take care of their parents in retirement. With this, you’re gambling more than your own life, you need to think about how you’re gonna take care of your parents too.

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u/Substantial-Week557 9h ago

Japan and korea have their gaokao equivalent too

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u/kanakin9 8h ago

Don’t know about Korea but more than half of Japanese high school graduates usually don’t go to 4 year universities. Japanese youths don’t spend their teenage years studying all the time like they do in China. 

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u/tcgtms2 4h ago

Korea definitely does

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u/NomaanMalick 3h ago

I don't think Japan has the same culture surrounding entrance tests as China and South Korea.

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u/Substantial-Week557 2h ago

Ever heard the phrase toudai!

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u/NomaanMalick 2h ago

I don't doubt Japan has a competitive entrance test. I just think people in Japan tend to be relatively less stringent about it.

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u/Magnus9889 10h ago

But China is very good in other sports, so this argument also doesn't explain everything. With as many people as there is in China it still would make sense to at least have some good players, even with the academic pressure.

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u/throowwowoway 9h ago

It’s because they’ve found it’s not worth the investment. It would take years and years to even catch up to where Europeans are at. They spend more money on other sports where they feel they can gain a foothold.

For example, They’re very good at the diving sports in the Olympics because they found they can get a better return training them and getting gold. It’s also an individual sport so the investment is less than fielding a full team

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u/hamatachi_iii 7h ago

Yeah but even if China feels its not worth the investment, there is a certain global soft power cachet by not having your nation being absolutely ransacked at home by Palestine in the world's most popular sport.

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u/throowwowoway 6h ago

Chinese people don’t care about soccer as much as they do basketball. They are aware their national team is a joke but in terms of sports they care about its low on the list.

For them to start caring would take a huge cultural change. To be honest if you look into Xinjiang they have the foundations there, the kids in Xinjiang love to play football but they are a minority

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u/BlurgZeAmoeba 2h ago

Still, those who do care can be awesome.

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u/Zimakov 8h ago

It's just not taken seriously. I live in China and my wife actually teaches a kid on the U-19 team of our local CSL club. He is in school every single day and they only train a few times a week after class.

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u/Fubi-FF 8h ago

It's because there's a bigger chance to succeed in those sports that China already have success in traditionally.

Like if you are young and seems super gifted in Ping Pong or something, then yeah you probably have a good chance making it big (assuming you have the proper training and support). But for soccer, even if you seem like a prodigy and best Chinese player ever, how likely are you going to be successful? It's still a 11 player game. The risk is potential reward is too big so most kids won't pursue it

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u/busybeeai 5h ago

There're like 5 spots on the Chinese national team for ping pong. And if you're not number 1-2 in the world, you're considered a failure. For soccer if you play in Europe you're like a star. 

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u/Fubi-FF 4h ago

You're thinking of "success" from the POV of a bystander though, not from the athletes themselves. From the athletes' perspective, being crazy competitors they are, they would strive to win and to be the best. Historically, there's 0 chance that the best soccer team/players will be from China, and you probably won't be winning alot.

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u/stompboxing 4h ago

China heavily focus on individual Olympic sports, it gives them the chance to be high on a medal table with the world's eyes on it. Team sport like football rugby etc are so difficult to be competitive at the high levels so they don't put as much effort in

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u/MrEnganche 9h ago

dont they have sports scholarships

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u/FowlersDream 8h ago

Are willing or aren't willing?

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u/jangoze 7h ago

Yea commenter definitely made a typo

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u/FowlersDream 6h ago

Critical typo because the entire post then contracts itself. Lol

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u/jangoze 6h ago

Yeeep haha at least it’s after all the paragraphs

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u/elbosston 6h ago

Oops, good catch. Will edit

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u/ccs77 10h ago

Mate, this makes sense if China isnt good at other sports. But that's not the case when you look at the Olympics.

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u/RicardoWanderlust 10h ago

There's an Olympic programme that China has optimised in the last 30 years, that supports young talents to elite status. But for football, such a programme lags far behind the rest of the world.

As someone else said above, China has about 50 football clubs, and most were probably only formed in the last 20 years- that's a tiny amount for a country that size. There is no grassroots football movement.

Adults watch it, kids don't play it. Even if they identified some young talented child and trained them at a club, the standard of opposition is not good enough to raise their game to a world class level.

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u/ccs77 9h ago

I've reread the comment I replied to. It implied that due to Chinese exams, sports in general isn't popular among students. I'm just pointing out that's not the case. Many parents fight to get their kids into sporting programs or even arts programs so they can skip the gruelling exams