Recently, an exclusive report by Spanish newspaper Abecedarian revealed an in-depth analysis written by an academic from the University of Alicante in Valencia, exploring the deeper reasons for the country's men's soccer team's repeated setbacks at the international level. In the paper, Jennifer Pedro de Blas, a sports studies expert at the University of Alicante, points out that, unlike in Western societies, parents in our country generally place a higher value on academics, ignoring the importance of combining academics with sports. This notion, however, is common in the Western world. De Blas further elaborates, "In my country, the younger generation is convinced of the opinion of the family, and therefore the professionalization of soccer is not valued." She contrasts our culture with that of the West, pointing out that the normative principles ingrained in our culture, which emphasize learning through repetition and improvement, are beneficial for the development of individual athletic skills, but not optimal for the development of the personal talents and improvisational skills required of soccer players. The paper also mentions another key factor - the language barrier. According to de Blas, the language issue is a major challenge for foreign coaches because it hinders the accurate communication of the message and because in the translation process, the message is always inevitably affected by the translator's personal point of view. To arrive at his conclusions, de Blas not only combined his own experiences as a former world women's futsal player at the University of Alicante, but also interviewed Spanish and Chinese professionals working in Asia, as well as a range of world-class professionals in the soccer world, totaling 115 people. The paper, published by the Spanish media, not only reveals the current state of soccer youth training in the country, but also provides valuable insights for primary and secondary schools across the country. It emphasizes that schools should combine sports and education so that children can make their own choices as they grow up. For children with talent, professional guidance should be provided to help them embark on a professional path and become outstanding athletes. And for those children who are not talented but love soccer, they should be encouraged to continue to participate in amateur soccer activities to expand the size of the soccer population.
