Photo: Sina Weibo

China's U17 men's national football team has secured qualification for the FIFA U-17 World Cup to be held in Qatar this year after advancing to the quarterfinals of the AFC U-17 Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2026. 

It marks the return of a Chinese men's football team to a global tournament for the first time since 2005.

China booked its place in the last eight after defeating Qatar 2-0 on Tuesday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to finish among the top two teams in its group. 

This also guaranteed the team one of Asia's qualification berths for the FIFA U-17 World Cup, which was expanded to 48 teams last year.

Winger He Sifan scored the opening goal for China in the 13th minute. The Chinese youth team, which carries high hopes for the revival of Chinese football, had suffered two consecutive defeats to Indonesia and Japan prior to the game against Qatar in the group. 

Substitute Zhang Bolin scored the second goal in the 70th minute to seal the win for China. The Chinese team had to secure a two-goal win to secure a berth for automatic qualification, while also needing Japan beat Indonesia. 

The U17 World Cup is scheduled to be held in Qatar from November 20 to December 14, 2026. Under the new format, Asia is allocated nine spots, including the host Qatar. 

Even though the game ended in the early hours of Wednesday Beijing time, the Chinese team's progress at the AFC U-17 Asian Cup has been closely followed, partly due to renewed hopes for the development of Chinese youth football, after decades of underachievement by the senior national teams. 

The 2026 edition of the FIFA U-17 World Cup will be the second consecutive tournament staged in Qatar and the second under FIFA's expanded annual format, which increased the number of participating teams from 24 to 48.