2025 China Football Year-End Review: National Teams Continue to Struggle in a Downturn

Written by Han Bing In 2025, China’s men’s and women’s national teams at all levels kept struggling through a low phase. During the first half, the U17, U20, senior men’s, and beach soccer national teams were knocked out from the U17 Asian Cup, U20 Asian Cup, World Cup qualifiers final 18, and Beach Soccer Asian Cup, failing to qualify for their respective global competitions. The only consolation was the promising performance of a young squad led by Wang Yudong at the U20 Asian Cup, which gave some hope to observers.

Performance improved slightly in the second half: in August, the U20 women’s team and in September, the U22 men’s team both advanced from qualifiers to the 2026 U20 Women’s Asian Cup and U23 Men’s Asian Cup respectively. In October, the U17 women’s team reached the knockout stage of the U17 Women’s World Cup for the first time, and in November, the U17 men’s team qualified for the 2026 U17 Asian Cup with their best-ever qualifying record. However, other teams still showed disappointing results.

The year kicked off with the U20 Asian Cup held in Shenzhen in February. Starting January 13, the U20 men’s team played seven warm-up matches. They won their group opener 2-1 against Qatar and followed with a 5-2 victory over Kyrgyzstan to secure early qualification. This marked the first time in 15 years since the 2010 U19 AFC Championship that the U20 team achieved two group wins and advanced. Unfortunately, they lost 0-1 on penalties to eventual runner-up Saudi Arabia in the quarterfinals, missing out on the U20 World Cup again. This was the closest any Chinese national team came to a breakthrough in 2025.

In March, at the Beach Soccer Asian Cup, the national team lost 3-5 to Saudi Arabia and 1-4 to Japan in the group stage, failing to advance. This result tied their worst historical finish (12th place) and marked the 12th consecutive failure to qualify for the Beach Soccer World Cup.

In April, at the U17 Asian Cup, the U17 men’s team suffered four consecutive warm-up losses and then lost 1-2 in the group stage to both Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan, who later reached the final, exiting a round early. The U17 men’s team has now failed to advance past the group stage for 17 years and missed the U17 World Cup for 18 consecutive years.

However, during the Montaigu Tournament in April, the U16 men’s team drew with France and won 1-0 against Cameroon to finish fourth; meanwhile, the U16 women’s team (Shenzhen 2028) narrowly lost 0-1 to Japan’s U16 squad to claim second place. Both teams achieved their best-ever results in this competition for their respective age and gender categories.

The biggest setback for China’s national teams in 2025 was the senior men’s team being eliminated in the final 18 of World Cup qualifiers. After consecutive wins over Indonesia and Bahrain in 2024 raised hopes for the playoffs, the team suffered three straight defeats in 2025: losses to Saudi Arabia and Australia in March, and a critical 0-1 away defeat to Indonesia in June, leading to early elimination. Despite Asia’s World Cup slots increasing from 4.5 to 8.5, China failed to even secure a playoff spot. Since the 1998 qualifiers, the men’s team has reached the final Asian group stage four times, with this year’s 14th place marking their lowest ever ranking.

In the first half of the year, all levels of national teams competed in four different tournaments but failed to reach any final stages. The only highlights were the performances of the U16 men’s and women’s teams at the Montaigu Tournament, and the promising displays by newcomers like Wang Yudong, Kuai Jiwen, Yimulan, and Liu Chengyu at the U20 Asian Cup, which gave fans some hope.

The second half began with the East Asian Cup in July. Under interim coach Jurjevic, the men’s team lost consecutively to non-first-choice South Korea and Japan squads, managing only a 1-0 win over Hong Kong to claim third place. The women’s team, coached by Milisic, performed somewhat better but only managed draws against similarly weakened Korean and Japanese teams, and defeated Chinese Taipei 4-2 to finish runners-up. Afterwards, the men’s head coach position was left vacant, and from September to November, no warm-up matches were scheduled during three international windows. This resulted in an unprecedented over eight-month gap without an A-level match until March next year — the longest such hiatus in 36 years outside of pandemic disruptions.

Starting in August, good news arrived. Early August saw the U20 women’s team win all three matches in the Asian qualifiers, advancing to the 2026 U20 Women’s Asian Cup with a +21 goal difference. In early September, the U23 men’s team qualified for next year’s U23 Asian Cup with two wins and a draw in their qualifiers. In October, at the Morocco U17 Women’s World Cup, the U17 women’s team coached by Wang Hongliang won 5-0 against Norway and 4-0 versus Ecuador in the group stage, advancing as the second-placed team. They set the largest single-match victory in the team’s history at the U17 Women’s World Cup and reached the knockout stage for the first time. Although they lost 0-3 in the round of 16 to eventual third-place Brazil, this was the best result among all Chinese age-group national teams this year.

At the end of November, the U17 men’s team achieved a perfect 5-0 record in the U17 Asian Cup qualifiers with a 42-0 goal difference, marking the best qualifying performance in team history and securing a strong berth for the 2026 U17 Asian Cup. In May next year, if they advance from the group, they can qualify for the U17 World Cup. Additionally, at the November Panda Cup, the U23 men’s team, despite missing key players, defeated South Korea 2-0 and drew 0-0 with Uzbekistan, showing some bright spots.

Regarding disappointments, at the end of September, the futsal national team suffered a heavy 2-7 home defeat to Vietnam in the Futsal Asian Cup qualifiers, finishing only third in their group and missing next year’s Asian Cup. The biggest letdown in the second half of the year came from the women’s team, who were crushed 0-8 by England in London at the end of November. This loss tied the worst defeat in women’s team history and cast doubt over their prospects for the Women’s Asian Cup in March next year.

The final match for China’s national teams in 2025 was on December 30, when the U22 men’s team played a friendly against Kyrgyzstan in Dubai. Led by newcomers like Wang Yudong who inspired fans at the start of the year’s U20 Asian Cup, the team carries hope heading into the U23 Asian Cup early next year.