China Stumbles in Pursuit of Xi Jinping's Soccer Goals

HONG KONG—For years, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has pushed to transform his nation into a soccer powerhouse. That quest has become an own-goal, exposing the limits of his top-down control. China remains a perennial underachiever in the beautiful game some eight years into Mr. Xi's soccer overhaul. Its men's national team still languishes in the middle tier of international rankings, below the likes of Iceland, Iraq and Panama. Some top professional teams have slashed players' wages or collapsed after they and their corporate owners lost revenues amid pandemic disruptions and a property-market slump.