SPORT / SOCCER
Calling Ronaldo's Saudi switch a 'symbol of Chinese decline' reveals Reuters' media bias
Published: Jan 30, 2023 11:13 PM
Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United reacts during the Premier League match between Brentford FC and Manchester United at Brentford Community Stadium in Brentford, the UK on August 13, 2022. Photo: VCG

Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United reacts during the Premier League match between Brentford FC and Manchester United at Brentford Community Stadium in Brentford, the UK on August 13, 2022. Photo: VCG


Some Western media outlets have once again demonstrated their bias toward China and their willingness to show China's "decline" or "incompetence" with whatever is at hand, no matter how irrelevant it is to China.

In a recent report, Reuters called football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo's choice to join a Saudi club "another symbol of Chinese decline."

The Portuguese joined Saudi Arabia's Al Nassr in late December 2022 on a 2.5-year contract reportedly worth more than 200 million euros ($210 million), which makes the football star the highest-paid athlete on the planet. But Reuters said "in an alternate world the five-time Ballon d'Or winner may well have been destined for a move further east." 

The Reuters report said Ronaldo "was connected time and again" with a move to the Chinese Super League (CSL) in recent years. It claimed then big-spender, the CLS club Tianjin Quanjian, was a possible destination for Ronaldo in 2018 after the forward's agent was pictured with the Chinese club's owner. 

"Five years later, however, much has changed," Reuters wrote, as the Tianjin side has become one of a series of clubs that have dissolved due to financial or legal issues. 

"The downturn in Chinese football has spared few," when "Chinese football's luster has all but disappeared," the report wrote.

It is true that Chinese football has been struggling with its own problems, but it is simply ridiculous and groundless to connect it with where Ronaldo chose to play.

In 2018, when CSL clubs were spending big on foreign star players, the then Real Madrid superstar was linked with several Chinese teams, but the team manager of the Tianjin club later confirmed the possibility of signing Ronaldo was "pure hype by foreign media." Other rumors that connected Ronaldo with a move to a Shanghai club were from The Sun newspaper in Britain, which turned out to be groundless too.  

How can you prove Chinese football's "decline" with fake news? Time and again, it is proved that some Western media would miss not chance to badmouth anything Chinese for their own benefits. 

Over the last decade, Chinese football has frequently made global headlines with expensive signings from major European leagues, with star players like Brazil's Oscar and Hulk, and Argentina's Carlos Tevez. Some of the sport's top coaches like World Cup-winning Marcello Lippi and Luiz Felipe Scolari have also plied their trade in the CSL.

Despite the spotlight, throwing money around didn't bring much success to Chinese football. In 2017, the Chinese Football Association announced new policies to bring down soaring, irrational transfer spending, especially on foreign players, to support the development of local young talent. 

Without high salaries, foreign stars have gradually chosen to shy away from playing in China and it looks Chinese football is losing its luster, just as Reuters said, but in fact this will actually benefit the healthy and steady development of the sport in the country over the long term.

The author is an editor of the Global Times life@globaltimes.com.cn