「经济学人」谈中国足球：长远目标
Long term goal
A Chinese football club seeks to be the new Barcelona
Local pride, local talent, and no chants in Mandarin
IN A modest stadium built into a hillside at Yuexiu Park in Guangzhou, around 10,000 fans were supporting their club on a recent evening by waving blue flags, beating drums and shouting encouragement to their team in the local Cantonese tongue. The club, Guangzhou R&F[富力地产], plays second fiddle[1] in this huge southern city to its more illustrious[2] crosstown rival, Evergrande[恒大地产], which has many more fans and a much larger stadium. But the owners of R&F (it stands for “rich and force”, the meaning of the two Chinese characters that form the name of its sponsor, a property company) think they know how to turn the club into a winner. In a country where officials are often suspicious of regionalism, club bosses are trying to appeal to the pride of Cantonese speakers.
[1]play second fiddle：to be less important or in a weaker position than someone else 居于次要地位
I'm not prepared to play second fiddle to Christina any more - I'm looking for another job!
我再也不愿意给克里斯蒂娜当副手了——我要另找一份工作！
[2]illustrious：famous, well respected, and admired 著名的；卓越的
She comes from an illustrious political family that includes two former Cabinet ministers.
她出身政治世家，家中曾出过两位内阁大臣。
Football in China is in a sorry state[3]. The country has qualified only once for the World Cup, in 2002, when it was quickly knocked out[4] without scoring a goal. The main national league has been plagued by corruption, match-fixing[假球] scandals and a middling standard of play. But China's leader, Xi Jinping, has a dream. In 2011, a year before he came to power, he said he wanted China to win the World Cup. As president he has turned that idea into a sporting priority.
[3]sorry sight, state, tale, etc.：a bad condition or situation 悲惨的景象／糟糕的状况／糟糕的事情
[4]knock out：to defeat a person or a team in a competition so that they can no longer take part in it （在竞赛中）淘汰（某人或某队）
The champion was unexpectedly knocked out (of the tournament) in the first round.
冠军在比赛的第一轮中被意外淘汰出局。
Many Chinese clubs have responded by buying foreign talent. They have not always got what they paid for. Early this year Carlos Tevez, a star Argentine striker[5], left Shanghai Shenhua. He was reportedly paid tens of millions of dollars, but arrived out of shape[6], scored only four goals and sometimes did not even bother to run during matches. Guangzhou R&F is trying a different approach. “We don't want to rely on foreign players,” says Nicky Wong, the club's vice-chairman (though Sven-Goran Eriksson, a Swedish former manager of the England team, was head coach in 2013-14 and the current manager is Dragan Stojkovic, a Serb[塞尔维亚人]). Instead, it is investing in academies for young players in Guangzhou and other parts of Guangdong province, of which the city is the capital.
[5]striker：a player in a game such as football whose main purpose is to try to score goals rather than to prevent the opposing team from scoring （足球比赛等中的）前锋
[6]out of shape：not physically healthy enough for difficult exercise because you have not been involved in physical activities 指的是身体不佳，竞技状态不佳
Mr Wong cites the example of Japanese clubs, which 20 years ago started a similar effort to end their reliance on foreign players and cultivate local talent. Mr Wong also points to Barcelona[巴塞罗那]. At the peak of its success earlier this decade, he notes, the Spanish club had a high proportion of local players and played a philanthropic[7] role in the local community. “Our long-term plan is to develop that kind of local bond with our fans,” he says. More than one-third of R&F's current squad[8] are from Guangdong. That is higher than the proportion of home-province players in most other clubs in the Chinese league, says Mr Wong.
[7]philanthropic [.fɪlən'θrɒpɪk]
helping poor people, especially by giving them money 慈善的；乐善好施的（尤指通过捐款帮助穷人）
[8]squad：a team in sports from which the players for a match are chosen 运动队
Cantonese, a language rooted in Guangdong, is a help. Mr Wong says it is used for most of the club's business. Fans like to know that many of the players can understand their chants, unlike those foreigners or people from other parts of China. But the comparison with Barcelona might give pause to football officials in Beijing. Regional pride in Catalonia[加泰隆尼亚], of which Barcelona is the capital, led to a referendum on independence.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline "Long-term goal"