China’s men’s soccer team has qualified for the World Cup just once, despite millions in investment and a personal push from President Xi Jinping to turn the nation into a footballing powerhouse.

On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, host Oanh Ha speaks with Eric Zhu of Bloomberg Economics and Mark Dreyer, sports writer and author of Sporting Superpower, about why the country’s top-down engineering approach fails to capture the grassroots magic of the game and how academic pressure continues to push many young players off the field.

We have a special Bloomberg subscription offer for podcast listeners at Bloomberg.com/podcastoffer.

Hosted by Oanh Ha; Produced by Yang Yang and Naomi Ng; Edited by Patrick Hirsch, Julia Weaver; Fact-checking by Julia Press; Engineering by Taka Yasuzawa Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer.

China&rsquo;s men&rsquo;s soccer team has qualified for the World Cup just once, despite millions in investment and a personal push from President Xi Jinping to turn the nation into a footballing powerhouse.
On today&rsquo;s Big Take Asia podcast, host Oanh Ha speaks with Eric Zhu of Bloomberg Economics and Mark Dreyer, sports writer and author of Sporting Superpower, about why the country&rsquo;s top-down engineering approach fails to capture the grassroots magic of the game and how academic pressure continues to push many young players off the field.
We have a special Bloomberg subscription offer for podcast listeners at <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/subscriptions/podcasts">Bloomberg.com/podcastoffer.</a>
Hosted by Oanh Ha; Produced by Yang Yang and Naomi Ng; Edited by Patrick Hirsch, Julia Weaver; Fact-checking by Julia Press; Engineering by Taka Yasuzawa Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer.

The Big Take from Bloomberg News brings you inside what’s shaping the world's economies with the smartest and most informed business reporters around the world. The context you need on the stories that can move markets. Every afternoon.

The Big Take from Bloomberg News brings you inside what’s shaping the world's economies with the smartest and most informed business reporters around the world. The context you need on the stories that can move markets. Every afternoon.

Big Take

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

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/bc7e697f-79c7-41e6-a2a3-b48701510895/transcript