RADIO CHOICE

PRESIDENT XI JINPING, a big football fan, is determined that China will become a leading nation in the world of international soccer. The sort of money that China has in the past poured into Olympic sports is now being used to train young players and build facilities across this vast country. CROSSING CONTINENTS (RADIO 4, 11AM) joins Celia Hatton in Gansu Province, where ‘left-behind children’, whose parents have gone to the cities in search of work, are training hard and dreaming of World Cup glory.

A SERIES of murders carried out over two decades have something in common. After each killing, a snowman is found near the scene of the crime. Jo Nesbo, the Norwegian crime writer, joins James Naughtie in BOOKCLUB (RADIO 4, 3.30PM) to

talk about The Snowman, which features the fictional Oslo-based detective Harry Hole. Jo (pictured) explains how he came to create Harry during a flight from Norway to Australia, and talks about his dark take on Scandi-Noir fiction.

n THE musician Tom McKinney presents THE ESSAY: THE MIGRANTS (RADIO 3, 10.45PM), talking about his obsession with bird-watching. Tonight. he tells us how this hobby has brought him into contact with people from all sorts of backgrounds and led to strong and enduring friendships.