Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

For Chinese football fans watching the 2026 FIFA World Cup from afar, the tournament offered more than a discussion about who lifted the winners' trophy. It has raised a more fundamental question: What separates countries that continue to improve from those that remain trapped in cycles of disappointment?

The answer may lie not in finding a better coach, discovering a few exceptional players or qualifying for one World Cup; it lies in whether a country has built a football ecosystem capable of producing talent generation after generation.

One of the most notable trends of this World Cup has been the shrinking gap between traditional football powers and emerging teams. The performances of nations such as Norway and Cape Verde show that football success is no longer reserved for countries with a long history of international achievement.

But their progress also reveals an important lesson: Breakthroughs are rarely sudden. Behind every surprise team is usually years of investment in youth development, coaching education, player pathways and football infrastructure.

For China, the lesson is particularly relevant. The biggest challenge is no longer simply returning to the World Cup. The more important question is whether Chinese football can establish a sustainable system that makes future success repeatable rather than accidental.

For years, Chinese football has searched for shortcuts. Different periods have brought different solutions such as importing foreign coaches, spending heavily on signing foreign players, introducing naturalized footballers or adjusting tactical approaches. Yet these attempts have repeatedly failed to address the deeper issue: the environment that produces players.

The players who represent a national team are ultimately the result of the football system behind them. If the foundation remains weak, changing the people at the top will only bring temporary changes.

Veteran football commentator Ma Dexing recently offered a similar reflection, arguing that the World Cup has shown that football success is no longer determined by individual players alone. The strongest teams rely on mature systems, stable youth development and habits developed from childhood. The 11 players on the field, he suggested, are only the final product of a much larger football environment.

This may be the biggest misunderstanding surrounding Chinese football: focusing too much on the national team while paying insufficient attention to the ecosystem behind it.

Veteran commentator Wang Dazhao noted that the 2026 World Cup has actually widened, rather than narrowed, the gap between China and the world's top football powerhouses. He pointed to teams such as World Cup finalists Spain and Argentina as examples of modern football's direction: faster, more organized and built on collective ability rather than individual brilliance.

In his view, China's previous approach of directly copying the world's most advanced football models overlooked a basic reality: Successful systems cannot simply be imported. Before learning from the strongest teams, China must first build the foundations that allow those ideas to take root.

That foundation starts with domestic football.

A healthy professional league is not only a platform for elite competition, but also a bridge connecting youth development with senior football. Without a competitive and well-managed domestic league, young players have limited opportunities to develop, and football cannot become a realistic career choice for children growing up in China.

The same applies to grassroots football. Football is different from many individual sports because it requires communities, teammates and a culture of participation. A country cannot produce generations of footballers without creating an environment where children play, compete and develop a connection with the sport from an early age.

There are signs that Chinese football has begun moving in this direction. The Asian Football Confederation recently awarded the Chinese Football Association three-star membership under its Elite Youth Scheme, recognizing progress in areas including youth development planning, coaching, talent identification and competition systems.

China's youth national teams have also shown encouraging improvement this year, as the Chinese national ­under-23 and under-17 national teams both finished their respective Asian Cup as the runners-up, with the latter qualifying for the FIFA U-17 World Cup at the end of this year. 

However, youth tournament results alone cannot define the success of football development. The real test is whether these young players can eventually become professional players capable of competing at higher levels.

The experience of stronger football nations shows that youth development is not about winning every youth competition; it is about creating a pathway that allows talent to grow.

The World Cup has once again demonstrated that football is ultimately a long-term project. Countries with smaller populations and less traditional football backgrounds have risen because they built systems that continuously produce players.

For China, the path forward may not be another shortcut to the World Cup, but a patient and consistent effort to build the foundations for that goal.

The most important question is not when China will return to football's biggest stage. It is whether, by the time that moment arrives, Chinese football will have finally built a system capable of staying there.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. life@globaltimes.com.cn