By Mark Baber
June 24 – Ahead of Friday’s quarter final against the USA, China’s women’s team, known as the ‘Steel Roses’, have been awarded a record bonus for their accomplishments in the tournament to date, in line with China’s president, Xi Jinping’s plan to revitalise football in the “sleeping giant” of world football.
Each of the players who helped China escape from a difficult Group A will receive a bonus of around one million yuan ($160,000), a massive filip for players who generally earn 3,000 yuan ($485) a month.
According to Yu Hongchen, vice president of the Chinese Football Association: “The World Cup bonus will be the highest ever in women’s national team history.”
The bonuses are reportedly designed to increase the popularity of the sport among women in China where the national team has historically been amongst the strongest teams, although it failed to qualify for the 2011 World Cup.
China’s thorny defence will be hoping to keep the USA out on Friday, in the first high level meeting between the sides since the 1999 World Cup final when the USA won on penalties.
Despite China’s success in the tournament so far, even a unlikely victory against the USA will leave a lot of work to be done to plant the seeds for future generations of players, given that less than 7,000 girls above the age of 12 are registered to play soccer in China.
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