China's football academy: World's biggest football school in pictures
The photos show boys gurning as they do chin-ups at the school
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
While China’s national football team may not have qualified for the 2014 Fifa World Cup, or any tournament before or since 2002, the country's ambition to become the next footballing powerhouse is in no way dampened.
A fascinating new photoset has offered an insight into the Guangzhou Evergrande International Football School in the southern province of Guangdong – a sprawling 167-acre sporting campus where its owner hopes to train a generation of formidable young Chinese athletes.
Property tycoon Xi Jiayin is believed to have spent around £115 million on the institution, which is considered to be the largest football academy in the world, where 2,400 students train across 50 pitches.
Having perhaps identified that the school may need some outside help, a squad of Spanish coaches train the children as part of a deal with Real Madrid.
“[World Cup glory] is our dream. This is what we are working towards,” Fernando Sanchez Cipitria, a former Spain international who is now the technical director of the Evergrande, told the Telegraph.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments