Mao Jianqing: The lag of Chinese football is not a personal problem of playersOn December 11, 2023, former national team player Mao Jianqing expressed his views on Chinese football, and he believes that the reason why Chinese football is lagging behind is not because of the personal reasons of the players, but because of the lag in all aspects, especially in terms of cultural inheritance, there is a huge gap with the advanced regions of football. Recently, someone and Mao Jianqing had a discussion on the Internet about the lag of Chinese football.
Mao Jianqing said that the players themselves are not not not working hard, but the overall environment is lagging behind. He pointed out that despite the great efforts of Chinese players, there is a gap between Chinese football and advanced regions in terms of history, inheritance, and investment, and this vicious circle has led to our failure at the starting line. Mao Jianqing objectively pointed out that football culture and inheritance are indeed the advantages of European football powers.
For example, Manchester United, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Barcelona and other giant teams have a very deep heritage, both in terms of history and scale, far surpassing Chinese teams. He believes that Chinese football is basically incomparable with other countries, and once compared, it will lose badly. Mao Jianqing also pointed out that the changes in football culture and inheritance are very rapid. Japan and South Korea, which used to lag far behind the European powerhouses, are no longer afraid of them, and the change seems to be due to more than just a change in culture and heritage.
According to Mao Jianqing's point of view, there are also areas abroad where football is insufficient, but their football development is advancing by leaps and bounds. He gave an example of how a few decades ago, foreign football was not much stronger than China, and it would suffer setbacks when participating in the World Cup. In the 1998 World Cup, foreign teams were even defeated by strong teams such as Mexico and the Netherlands. However, in recent years, foreign teams have been able to beat strong teams such as Spain at the World Cup.
Mao Jianqing believes that in recent years, the gap between Chinese football and neighboring countries Japan and South Korea has become wider and wider. Not only is there a gap in the world rankings, but even the number of foreign players is like a huge gap between bronze and **. Chinese player Son Heung-min has become a key player at Tottenham, Kim Min-jae has a strong position at Bayern, and Chinese players such as Kenhiro Tomiyasu and Hisashi have also played for European giants. The football world in our country is clearly at a disadvantage compared to other countries.
In today's top five leagues, players from our country are rarely able to enter the top teams, and even in the main squad of the average team, it is rare to see players from our country. This gap is obvious compared to the level of development of football in Japan and South Korea.