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Why are China and India not better at soccer?
Posted on 7/9/26 at 9:32 am
Posted on 7/9/26 at 9:32 am
All this talk about the demographics of US athletes got me to thinking.
The two largest populations in the world by far are China and India. The US is #3, and both of those countries have populations 3 times larger than ours. Their talent pool is surely deep simply based on the law of averages and the normal distribution.
And yet, China is ranked #91, and India #138, in the current FIFA world rankings.
I know cricket is huge in India. Other than that, what other professional sports do their best athletes aspire to?
The two largest populations in the world by far are China and India. The US is #3, and both of those countries have populations 3 times larger than ours. Their talent pool is surely deep simply based on the law of averages and the normal distribution.
And yet, China is ranked #91, and India #138, in the current FIFA world rankings.
I know cricket is huge in India. Other than that, what other professional sports do their best athletes aspire to?
21
Posted on 7/9/26 at 9:38 am to Stinger_1066
The only Asian countries that excel at soccer are western oriented (pun intended), so South Korea and Japan.
India sucks at all sports outside of Cricket. That's all the play I assume.
Seems like the only big sport China does is basketball.
India sucks at all sports outside of Cricket. That's all the play I assume.
Seems like the only big sport China does is basketball.
Posted on 7/9/26 at 9:42 am to Stinger_1066
They aren’t very athletic cultures
Posted on 7/9/26 at 9:56 am to Stinger_1066
India likes cricket sort of how we like football over here
Posted on 7/9/26 at 10:36 am to Stinger_1066
China focuses on very niche Olympic sports. Not knowing a ton about the country but India just doesn't seem to have the financial backing for any sport outside of cricket. Nor do they seem very athletic as a people. Sports science , nutrition, training, etc I'm sure are extremely well behind the times
Posted on 7/9/26 at 11:31 am to Stinger_1066
How many chiseled athletic Indian males have you come across?
Posted on 7/9/26 at 12:22 pm to Stinger_1066
The better question imo is why does Mexico constantly bow out in the round of 16? That's been their ceiling 8 of the last 9 tournaments.
They have every bit the soccer culture of euro & conmebol teams. They also have a top 10 league & 130 million people. What's the deal??
They have every bit the soccer culture of euro & conmebol teams. They also have a top 10 league & 130 million people. What's the deal??
Posted on 7/9/26 at 12:34 pm to Bigdawgb
Argentina and Brazil in non WC years and the US has caught up to them to a lesser extent.
They've always been the #3 team in the Americas
They've always been the #3 team in the Americas
Posted on 7/9/26 at 12:35 pm to Stinger_1066
Chinese and Indians are not a particularly athletically gifted ethnicity.
Posted on 7/9/26 at 1:14 pm to Bigdawgb
Mexico and the US play a far different brand of soccer than Brazil and Argentina. Brazil and Argentina play a more European style of physical play than other Central American nations. Hiring a European coach isn’t going to magically ingrain an inferior US squad into France or Spain regardless of how many foreign coaches the USMNT hires and fires.
Posted on 7/9/26 at 1:42 pm to Stinger_1066
In India if you come from a family with any resources you aren't going to play sports.
You are going to focus on school.
You are going to focus on school.
Posted on 7/9/26 at 2:23 pm to Rip Torner
quote:
Brazil and Argentina play a more European style of physical play than other Central American nations.
This is what I'm trying to drill down. One of the big complaints about team USA is that soccer isn't our #1 and that we'll never be able to compete with other nations where it is #1. That isn't the case in Mexico.
Why is it that Belgium & (11 million) Morocco (37 million) have surpassed Mexico? Heck, they have 2-3x the people of France & Argentina too.
It's clearly not population & it's clearly not passion for the sport holding Mexico back. It's one thing to say they don't the guys to play superior euro tactics, but why is Mexico failing to develop capable players?? I feel like answering that would help the US instead of acting like the answer is to magically make soccer our most popular sport.
This post was edited on 7/9/26 at 2:28 pm
Posted on 7/9/26 at 3:00 pm to Big4SALTbro
quote:
They aren’t very athletic cultures
But that doesn't explain it.
If you understand statistics and normal distribution (bell curve), there are going to be people who fall into the far right end of the bell curve, above 3 standard deviations from the mean.
So surely countries like Inda and China should have well more top-quality athletes than a country like Belgium that has only 12 million inhabitants compared to their 1.2 billion inhabitants each.
Posted on 7/9/26 at 3:13 pm to Bigdawgb
quote:
This is what I'm trying to drill down. One of the big complaints about team USA is that soccer isn't our #1 and that we'll never be able to compete with other nations where it is #1. That isn't the case in Mexico.
Why is it that Belgium & (11 million) Morocco (37 million) have surpassed Mexico? Heck, they have 2-3x the people of France & Argentina too.
It's clearly not population & it's clearly not passion for the sport holding Mexico back. It's one thing to say they don't the guys to play superior euro tactics, but why is Mexico failing to develop capable players?? I feel like answering that would help the US instead of acting like the answer is to magically make soccer our most popular sport.
Great points and questions.
Mexico has less than half the population of the US, but their primary sport is soccer, so they should dominate us if all of our best athletes are playing other sports.
The largest countries by population in the Western hemisphere are:
US - 350 million
Brasil - 215 million
Mexico - 133 million
Colombia - 54 million
Argentina - 46 million
Posted on 7/9/26 at 3:53 pm to Stinger_1066
It's not a hot take to say that Indians are collectively the shittiest athletes in the world. They have 3 gold medals since 1960.
Posted on 7/9/26 at 3:57 pm to Stinger_1066
There is literally no investment in soccer in India. It’s not on the radar.
They are fantastic at cricket and that’s what they focus on
They are fantastic at cricket and that’s what they focus on
Posted on 7/9/26 at 3:58 pm to Stinger_1066
Communism and socialism. Look at Russia and Cuba.
Posted on 7/9/26 at 3:58 pm to SUB
Do Indian poors play cricket?
Posted on 7/9/26 at 3:59 pm to dgnx6
In other words, they’re really good at taking SATs because they practice that a lot. That’s like a sport for them.
Posted on 7/9/26 at 3:59 pm to redstick13
How many chiseled soccer players are there?
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