爱上超模

China's World Cup hopes begin with children taking the field. What's next?_我的网站

蒲公英

一 | 示意图。（图：iStock）本地诈骗手法层出不穷，近来有水果批发商接到假冒学校老师的骗徒，以校内举办慈善活动为由订购水果礼篮且要求加急处理，批发商起初不疑有他，在联络不上骗徒后致电校方才发现差点落入圈套。

Young student athletes compete during the Shijingshan District Primary and Secondary School Football League in Beijing on May 28, 2026. Photo: Li Hao/GTOn youth soccer pitches across China this World Cup summer, one match often seemed to give way immediately to the next. Coaches shifted cones, parents raised phones behind the fence, and children in numbered bibs warmed up along the touchline while the previous teams were still packing away their gear.
It was a busy school break. The national finals of the 2025-26 youth campus soccer league, rounds of the fifth China Youth Football League, city and provincial campus competitions, private club cups and overseas invitationals filled the calendar. Some children played close to home; others spent part of their summer travelling with teammates from one tournament to another.
The sixth 2034 Cup was among the most visible. Its 39 regional qualifiers drew 882 teams and 12,604 players, with 128 teams reaching the finals in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province. Teams from other countries also took part, adding an international element to a tournament aimed at primary-school players, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
Does this crowded calendar by itself signal a turnaround for Chinese soccer? China's men last reached the World Cup in 2002. But the summer offered a view of a playing base being built from below and raised a harder question: Can the enthusiasm survive the return to school, unequal access to training and the growing costs borne by families?
From the first touch
In China's youth soccer system, coach Zhao Xinxin works at its broadest and most fundamental level - introducing young children to the game.
He coaches an introductory group of about 15 three-year-olds, three interest classes of 15 to 20 children aged five to 10, and four advanced groups of roughly 10 players aged five to 14. He has worked with more than 100 children over the years.
Starting younger is one of the clearest changes Zhao has observed in recent years. Soccer is appearing not only in schools and social clubs but also in some kindergartens. Most parents initially want an after-school activity that gets their kid moving.
Only when a player begins to stand out do questions about more advanced training and a possible route forward arise.
That route now has several layers. A child in a commercial club can move from introductory and interest classes to advanced teams. A school player may be selected for district and city teams, then enter national campus competitions; professional academies, sports schools and social clubs provide other pathways.
China began promoting campus soccer on a national scale in 2015, when six government departments issued guidelines calling for soccer to be incorporated into school education through designated soccer schools, regular competitions, teacher training and improved facilities, according to the Ministry of Education.
The program has continued to expand while shifting its focus from increasing participation to improving the quality of teaching, training and competition. In 2025, another 4,928 schools were recognized as national youth campus soccer schools, according to the ministry.
The result is more soccer on the calendar. Zhao told the Global Times that youth matches take place somewhere in Beijing almost every week, especially during school holidays. His club's advanced teams play weekend fixtures with referees and standings, as well as regional competitions and finals.
Tournaments such as the 2034 Cup give this broad base a visible target. Soccer commentator and youth-project organizer Dong Lu launched the event in 2021 after repeatedly seeing Chinese social media celebrate Japan's high-school soccer tournament. Its name looks toward the 2034 World Cup, when the first group of participants will be about 25.
Earlier this summer, a team selected through Dong's youth soccer project offered another source of encouragement. The Chinese Football Boy U12 team won all seven matches at the Sigismondi International Youth Cup in Italy, becoming the first Asian team to claim the championship.
Yet Dong cautioned against reading too much into a single championship. Strong players, he said, must emerge from a much broader soccer culture. "Players come from the people around us, from the soil and culture in which they grow," he told the Global Times.
Who can keep playing?
A coach walks his young players to the pitch for a soccer tournament in Beijing. Photo: Li Hao/GT

A coach walks his young players to the pitch for a soccer tournament in Beijing. Photo: Li Hao/GTYet the larger test begins after the tournament. Dong acknowledged that most 2034 Cup participants will not become professional players. For many, reaching the finals in Suzhou may serve as a "soccer graduation ceremony" at the end of primary school. The question is whether graduation from primary school must also mean graduation from soccer.
For Zhao, the first major break comes at 12. Children may train throughout primary school, then stop after entering middle school as homework, examinations and family expectations take over - a pattern he calls "retiring at 12."
Campus soccer should be the main way to keep the player pool broad, he said, because school is where nearly every child spends most of the day. More schools now provide soccer classes and in-class competitions, but implementation varies.
Zhao recalled a class tournament in which a child was injured. After a parent complained, the remaining matches were cancelled. Safety concerns are understandable, he said, but cancelling competition altogether removes opportunities from every child.
For families, this is also the stage when soccer stops being a simple extracurricular activity. If a child has shown unusual ability, parents must decide whether to seek stronger teams, change schools, accept more travel and training, or keep soccer only as an interest. The decision depends not only on talent and the child's wishes, but also on educational expectations and how much time and money the household can commit.
The contrast with Europe lies partly in continuity. Zhao cited his nephew in Hungary, who trained at a Barcelona-affiliated academy between the ages of six and eight before being selected by a local club at nine.
Once children join organized training there, he said, they are registered at relatively low cost, and their movement between clubs is recorded in the soccer association's system - closer to transferring schools than simply leaving one commercial course for another.
Dong made a broader comparison. Japan's national team increasingly draws on players who have further developed further in European leagues, while China still relies mainly on its domestic league to prepare future internationals.
In his view, the two systems operate like production lines with different competitive standards. Young Chinese players therefore need more high-level matches, whether foreign teams come to China, Chinese teams travel abroad or selected players enter overseas leagues.
But overseas training cannot substitute for a domestic system, nor is it open to every family. Zhao said it requires ability, physical readiness, money and the capacity to adapt to a different language, diet and daily life. Some parents send a child abroad; others move with them, reorganizing work and family life around soccer without knowing whether the child will ever turn professional.
For now, the most telling test may come not in 2034, but this coming September, when a child enters a new grade and decides whether there is still time in the week for soccer.
。水果批发商蓝小姐接受《8视界新闻网》访问时说，她在上个月底下午接到自称来自华中初级学院“张老师”的电话指，学校将在隔天办一场为老人举行的慈善活动，要订购50个每份价值50元的水果礼篮，还指定礼篮内需要搭配龙珠果。“我当时亲自接听公司电话，对方要求隔天早上8点就需要拿到货。我当天很忙，一直到晚上8点多，对方指定的龙珠果碰巧没有货。”主动联系学校查询才发现被骗她说，心想学校老师应该很早上班，她在清晨6点多就联络对方，但却一直联络不上。这时，她便上网搜索学校的电话号码，一联络才发现，原来诈骗分子已经不是第一次利用学校的名义订购水果礼篮。“校方说，对方会在早上9点打回给你说自己刚上班。果然，我在9点多就接到对方的电话。

二 | ”她说，自从那时候，她一直不断接到听起来像同一个男子、但使用不同WhatsApp号码打来的电话，最后一次是在本周一。“我每个星期都接到有十通来电，累计下来至今已经有50通。最后一次接对方电话的时候，对方听到我的声音还很开心，我告诉对方已经知道是诈骗、会把对话过程录制下来报警后，对方直接挂断电话，之后也没有再打来。”行骗手法：要求受害者向假冒供应商订购缺货的水果幸好蓝小姐机警未受骗！不然，她就有可能掉入骗徒的圈套。

三 | 她指出，根据学校的说法，诈骗分子会故意指定礼篮内需要的一种水果，这种水果若缺货，这时骗子就会提供一个所谓的供应商，并要求受害者跟假冒的供应商订货，从而骗取财务。此外，她也想起，诈骗分子一开始还要求将订购礼篮的款项转入她的个人户头，所幸她当时坚持要对方把款项转入公司户头。“对方也指定只跟老板通电话。”差点落入骗局一整天想作呕她说，知道自己差一点上当后，回想起与骗徒的通话过程，一整天都想作呕。

四 | “对方的声音听起来很斯文，口音像中国人，过程中说华语、但会听英语。

五 | 我不明白这么斯文的人为什么要诈骗。”她之后也使用防诈骗手机应用程序ScamShield查找诈骗分子使用的号码，结果显示这些号码是诈骗电话。她说，作为生意人，公司电话在网络上公开是难免的，虽说这次没有面对财务上的亏损，但希望自己的经历能成为其他人的警惕，在接到类似电话时，必须再三确认避免坠入诈骗分子的圈套。