East Meets West｜Sergi Torrents: How to connect East and West through football?

Written by Zhongxin News Agency reporter Guo Chaokai

Football is one of the bridges connecting China and the West. In recent years, football exchanges between the two countries have become increasingly close. With its rich football culture, ample friendly matches, and favorable climate, Spain has become a preferred destination for many Chinese Super League clubs for winter training.

Since the establishment of La Liga's office in Beijing in 2014, Sergi Torrents, Executive Director of La Liga Greater China, has been based in China, witnessing first-hand the communication and cooperation between the two countries in the field of football.

Sergi Torrents is the Executive Director of La Liga Greater China and Chief Executive Officer of SFCM. He has over 18 years of experience in the sports industry in China, having been Managing Director and Partner of the sports marketing agency Grupo-11. Under his management, the agency was involved in the rights management of a number of La Liga and Chinese Super League clubs, including FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Villarreal and Beijing Guoan. In 2005, the agency became the first Spanish company to invest in a Chinese football club and become its shareholder. He was also responsible for the development and marketing of the Eurobasket and FIA Formula Electric Championships in China.

Spain is a traditional football powerhouse and La Liga is one of the top five leagues in Europe. What advice does La Liga have for nurturing good Chinese footballers? Is La Liga paying attention to any promising Chinese players? As this year marks the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Spain, what plans does La Liga have for promoting sports and cultural exchanges between the two countries? Sergi Torrents recently sat down for an interview with East meets West to share his perspectives on the interaction between Chinese and Western football.

La Liga has a massive fan base in China. To accommodate Chinese fans, La Liga has changed the match start time to around 14:00pm local time. Apart from this, what other efforts has La Liga made in recent years to improve the viewing experience of Chinese fans?

La Liga is responsible for organising the Spanish professional football league, which comprises 20 La Liga clubs and 22 La Liga B clubs. China and the United States are the two most important overseas markets for La Liga. As part of La Liga's internationalisation strategy, it first opened an office in Beijing, China in 2014, followed by a new office in Shanghai in the 2016/2017 season. To better serve Chinese fans, La Liga, together with Mediapro, established a joint venture company responsible for commercialization in China.

In the early stages, La Liga matches were mostly held in the evening local time, which required Asian fans, including Chinese fans, to stay up late to watch the games. In order to cater for more Asian fans, especially Chinese fans, La Liga announced, in the summer of 2014, that starting from the 2014/2015 season, the earliest start time for some La Liga matches would be moved to 14:00pm local time.

Each season, La Liga plays 38 rounds of matches. La Liga selects four matches out of every ten and adjusts their kick-off times to ensure that Asian fans, including Chinese audiences, can watch the games live on television. La Liga plays 38 rounds of matches each season. On top of this, La Liga will also ensure that Chinese fans are able to watch the strongest teams such as Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid at relatively friendly times.

Madrid, Spain, 22/23 La Liga, Round 25, Real Madrid v Espanyol. Credit: Visual China.

In recent years, there has been a lot of cooperation between La Liga and China in terms of youth development, player and coach training in Chinese football. Could you provide more details about these collaborations?

In the past nine years, La Liga has signed a number of strategic cooperation agreements with the Chinese Ministry of Education, the Kunming Municipal Government, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) and the Chinese Super League (CSL), with the core aim of promoting the development of “grassroots football” and the professionalisation of local leagues.

Since the cooperation with the Chinese Ministry of Education in 2015, La Liga has adopted a dual approach of training both coaches and players to support the growth of Chinese football. Firstly, at the coaching level, La Liga has sent over 300 coaches to China. These coaches not only assist the national school football authorities in conducting tests in schools and selecting young football talent, but also provide training sessions and public demonstration training for local football coaches.

Secondly, La Liga has continued to help the growth of elite footballers in China. 2019 saw La Liga host the La Liga Hope Cup tournament in China, with 12 Chinese and Western U16 age-group teams and 400 footballers and coaches participating. These include six La Liga club teams, including Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, Alaves, Espanyol and Valencia, and six Chinese football club teams, including Beijing Guoan, Hebei Huaxiahui, Beijing Renhe, Shanghai SIPG, Changchun Yatai and Evergrande Spanish Football Academy. Although the La Liga Hope Cup tournament was interrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is expected to resume as the situation improves.

The opening ceremony of the 2019 La Liga Hope Cup. Credit: La Liga.

La Liga is one of the top five leagues in Europe, and Spain is a traditional football powerhouse. What suggestions do you have for cultivating outstanding Chinese football players?

While each country has different backgrounds and circumstances in football development, continuous investment in youth training is particularly crucial, especially in increasing international match experience for U-series players, allowing them to compete against players of the same age from other countries. Although the results will not be immediate, persistence will pay off. La Liga has worked with the Chinese Football Association to help players of different age groups from the Chinese national football team to train and play in Spain. These athletes have now achieved good results.

Another important aspect is the emphasis on the construction of domestic football leagues. Generally, the better the league, the better the performance of the national team. China should strive to create a better and stronger local football league.

All in all, a country's football development must be planned and thought through from a long-term perspective. It is essential to establish a sound talent selection system within China, and at the same time, the national level and local institutions should continue to invest more resources to send players abroad and absorb the essence of foreign professional football systems, which is the key to the future success of China's national football team.

The 2018-2019 China U15 men's football team train in Madrid, Spain. Credit: La Liga

With the departure of Lei Wu to FC Espanyol, there are no Chinese men's football player in La Liga for the time being. Is La Liga interested in any Chinese players with potential? Do you think there are any Chinese players who have the potential to play in La Liga at the moment?

Lei Wu is an example of a Chinese footballer who has stayed abroad, having played for 3 and a half seasons with Espanyol and I believe some Chinese players are ready to play in La Liga.

However, I think that at this stage, Chinese players going abroad does not necessarily have to be solely focused on joining the top five European leagues. A more practical approach would be to first land in lower-level leagues as a "steppingstone" and then attempt to enter the top five leagues. In this regard, Japan and South Korea have had successful cases where their players gained valuable experience by joining various European leagues, leading to good performances on the international stage. Chinese players can also follow this path.

La Liga has been continuously tracking and analysing the situation of local Chinese players, providing scouting reports on Chinese players in the U21, U23 and even older age groups for La Liga clubs, to assist them in bringing talented athletes in. In fact, not only La Liga, but also other leagues have similar strategies and intentions.

Following Wu Lei, RCD Espanyol has officially announced the signing of another young Chinese player, Tan Kaiyuan, who plays for the Espanyol B team. Additionally, another club is currently searching for and analyzing potential Chinese players in this age group.

Presentation of the 2019 La Liga Hope Cup. Credit: La Liga

This year marks the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Spain. Football has always been one of the bridges and links between the people of the two countries. What other plans does La Liga have in promoting sports and cultural exchanges between the two countries in the future?

Football is the common language of fans all over the world, and the passion it conveys binds the fans of China and Spain together. In the wave of exchanges and cooperation between the two countries, football plays an irreplaceable role.

La Liga is a founding member of the China-Spain Business Advisory Council. Established in 2018, the organisation involves key enterprises from both China and Spain, and aims to be a platform for deepening bilateral economic and trade cooperation ties. During his visit to China, Spanish Prime Minister Alexis Sánchez met with representatives of 15 Spanish companies in Beijing, China, and La Liga was invited to participate in the meeting.

La Liga President Javier Tebas exchanges gifts with Jian Zhang, then Executive Vice-President and Secretary General of the Chinese Football Association, at the opening ceremony of the 2019 Chinese Super League. Credit: La Liga.

This year, on the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, La Liga plans to focus on three areas of work. Firstly, to participate in the official events organised by the Spanish Embassy in China; secondly, to plan a tour of China by La Liga legends this summer, and thirdly, to plan the relaunch of the second edition of the La Liga Hope Cup in Kunming this August, as a way of promoting football exchanges between the two countries.