Rangers have unveiled an exciting Far East set of soccer schools in the Chinese city of Shanghai.
Announcing the news on the club’s official Twitter account, Rangers proudly showed off the club’s badge with the school’s attendees.
And should Rangers manage to set up in the country regularly, we could soon be snapping up some of the Asian giant’s best players.
In the picture you can clearly see club legend and ambassador Mark Hateley. The move is also significant in a networking sense in that it could help provide Rangers with a foothold in the nation.
China’s President Xi Jinping expressed plans to how the sport was organised in the country, expressing his dream in 2011 for China to qualify, host and win a World Cup. Part of this involved real investment into young players.
If you couple this with the investment in the Chinese Super League, and general Chinese investment in football worldwide, it’s an exciting time for the market there.
And it’s very smart for Rangers to be developing relationships in the Far East like this.
Whilst this is only a set of soccer schools, the hope should be to provide them on a regular basis and strike up relationships. Not only will it build a network within the emerging football power, but we could get some superb talent off the back of it.
And it’s not the first time Rangers have been in Asia recently either. A young Gers side narrowly missed out on glory at the Hong Kong Soccer Sevens in mid-May.
