Beijing — THE ADIDAS STORE on Wang Fu Jing Avenue, Beijing's main shopping venue, is a prime battlefield in one of the more intriguing global confrontations unfolding these days -- the struggle between international soccer and U.S. sports to win hearts and minds around the world.
"I prefer soccer," says Lu Giang, a student from Hunan University, eyeing $50 replica jerseys of the French national team.
"If [Michael] Jordan were still in the NBA, then it would be a tossup," she adds. She "adores" Ronaldinho and Thierry Henry, the Brazilian and French stars who recently squared off when their club teams -- Barcelona and London's Arsenal -- met in the European Champions League final. Like millions of others across Asia, she stayed up all night to watch that match and is looking forward to the 2006 World Cup, which starts Friday.
But basketball has its hard-core Chinese fans too. Zhang Yong, a government accountant, is a big Houston Rockets fan, thanks to China's top celebrity, Yao Ming. Zhang has been watching NBA games for years on Chinese state TV. FIFA, soccer's governing body, desperately needs to develop a Yao-like Chinese star who could thrive on a team like Barcelona. Unfortunately for FIFA, China's national team is so mediocre that it didn't qualify for the World Cup (which is essentially a monthlong tournament for 32 finalists that have survived earlier regional rounds).
Mark Fischer, vice president of the National Basketball Assn. for China, claims that basketball is China's most popular sport. As evidence, he points to figures released by China's own Sports Ministry: More people play basketball in China than there are people -- people, period -- in the U.S. The game was introduced to China by American missionaries and even thrived during the Cultural Revolution. The NBA is now seen in China as a hip, personality-filled offshoot of U.S. culture. "The game is a good fit for where Chinese society is headed," Fischer says, "because it's all about expressing individualism within a team setting."
According to independent marketing surveys cited by Fischer, 33% of the Chinese population are "avid" World Cup fans and 30% are "avid" NBA fans. But among those ages 15 to 24, the NBA counts more avid fans by a similarly narrow margin. As Fischer points out, it isn't even a fair contest because the NBA is a regular sports league and the World Cup brings together national all-star teams only once every four years.
