Fine China BEFORE
PALMER: FAR-EAST SUPERPOWER MEANS BUSINESS & WILL WIN WORLD CUP ENGLAND AGAIN
SHANGHAI-BASED STAR FIRES WARNING
So it gives him no pleasure to suggest that China have a better chance of winning the World Cup before the country he represented 18 times.
After spending the last three years coaching at the Wellington College in Shanghai, the former Three Lions midfielder realised that it was much more than political spin when Chinese president Xi Jinping unveiled an investment strategy geared towards making his nation a football superpower by 2050.
Palmer has little time for the mercenaries cashing in on the Chinese Super League boom that is earning Carlos Tevez £650,000-a-week – even though he counts the kids of stars like Oscar, Hulk and Demba Ba among his pupils.
But when Xi Jinping laid out a plan to get 50million adults and children playing the game inside the next three years the former West Brom, Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds, Southampton, Nottingham Forest and Coventry enforcer recognised that the seeds of a genuine football revolution are being sown.
Palmer said: “One thing I have come to learn during my time here is that when the Chinese say they are going to do something then they don’t stop until they’ve done it.
“It might take time and it will take money – a lot of money – but the approach to life over here is when you see an opportunity then you give it absolutely everything.
“There is a lot of pressure on kids to succeed, but the difference is that schools and colleges strive to ensure that the conditions for success are put in place.
“The belief is that if you are given the tools then you have no excuses. So when the Chinese started talking about winning the World Cup, I thought to myself ‘why not?’
“It isn’t easy to win a World Cup. But England have waited more than 50 years for a team capable of doing it again and as an Englishman who is now on the outside looking in, I am sad to say that our game is going backwards.
“China is going in the opposite direction. Once they get the infrastructure right then I have no doubt they will produce a football team that can compete with the very best.” Palmer moved to Shanghai after a spell coaching in Dubai, when his wife Lucy took up a teaching post at Wellington college. Alex Miladinovski, a swimmer who competed for Macedonia at two Olympic Games, is also on the staff. And former Australian Davis Cup coach Sean Karam heads up the tennis curriculum. “Would schools in the UK be forward-thinking enough to employ specialist athletes?” asked Palmer. “My missus has been a teacher for 16 or 17 years, and kids in the UK aren’t even allowed to kick a ball about in the playground anymore because of health and safety.
“Jumpers for goalposts, bruises, bumps and all the rest of it was how we learned to play.
“Football has become a game that you watch in England. In China, it’s a game you play.
“They made it compulsory to play football in schools last year and kids are encouraged to get their trainers on and play at every break time and lunch time. They are mad for it.
“There’s still a lot of talented players in England – in fact I think we are blessed at the moment – but we should be producing more. The problem is more coaches are moving abroad to earn decent money.
“It has happened in science, industry, medicine and teaching for years – and now it’s happening in sport.”
China beat South Korea 1-0 in a World Cup qualifier during the week, after paying Italian legend Marcello Lippi £50million to become their coach.
They still sit second-bottom of a sixnation group that includes Uzbekistan, Syria and Qatar.
“The Chinese people, they plan for the long-term,” added Palmer. “How long it will take? I don’t know. “But the resources they are willing to pump into the game make success
inevitable.”