The history of the Chinese men's football team in the World Cup can be traced back to 1958, when they participated in the World Cup qualifiers in Sweden but failed to qualify for the finals. Since then, the Chinese men's football team has participated in the World Cup qualifiers many times, but it was not until 2002 that it successfully qualified for the World Cup finals for the first time.
The 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan was the first time in the history of the Chinese men's football team to participate in the World Cup finals, and they were in the same group as Brazil, Costa Rica and Turkey in the group stage. Although the Chinese men's football team failed to win in the group stage, they still set a number of records in the history of Chinese football, such as the first appearance in the World Cup, the first time to score in the World Cup, and so on.
In addition to the 2002 World Cup, the Chinese men's football team also participated in the 2006 and 2010 World Cup qualifiers, but failed to qualify for the finals. In the 2018 World Cup qualifiers in Russia, the Chinese men's football team ranked fifth in the top 12 of the Asian qualifiers and missed the World Cup finals.
In general, the Chinese men's football team has only participated in the finals once in the history of the World Cup, that is, the 2002 South Korea-Japan World Cup. Despite their disappointing performance at that World Cup, this historic breakthrough still had a profound impact on the development of Chinese football. In the future, we expect the Chinese men's football team to achieve better results on the World Cup stage, win glory for the country, and bring more joy and pride to fans.