A World We Dare to Imagine Part 3: Goal for Goal

Organization Name: Goal for Goal

Do you remember the last time China competed in the World Cup? Can you name a famous Chinese soccer star? With population of 1.4 billion, China's economic ascent has been incredible over the years, but China has never made a name for itself in soccer. Although soccer is a universal sport, numerous Chinese children cannot receive a basic training due to a lack of infrastructure. However, Xi Jin Ping, the current Chinese president, declared long-term plans to make China "a confident power" in soccer. The plans include making soccer one of the options in the high-school entrance examination's sports test in 2016. Also, three campus school training centers and 200 schools, with an emphasis in soccer training, will be set up in Beijing by next year.

This is where Goal for Goal comes in play. With Xi's seemingly unlimited national support, China has all the necessary ingredients for a strong team, including a nationwide love for the sport and just a sheer amount of untapped talent hidden all over the nation. Goal for Goal will partner with the government to recruit domestic and foreign soccer experts, senior coaches, and retired players to develop soccer education. China, at a national level, can fund fundamentals of the game such as training centers and soccer fields, but hiring high-quality coaches and educators will be quite difficult without help of a team of talented recruiters. 

From the government funding, the team will initially establish itself through hiring professional recruiters. Then, the system will run by hiring renowned coaches and educators to spread out in the nation and provide valuable training to Chinese students. Just having a great infrastructure will not be enough to close the gap between China and rest of the world. The quality of training that these students receive has to match that of the world. Some may say that such professionals will not come to China. However, China's national endeavor to excel in soccer is already changing the global landscape of soccer. As well as paying tens of millions of dollars for foreign players, Chinese team owners have spent hundreds of millions of dollars buying into European clubs, hoping to tap their coaching and marketing expertise. China is easily the untapped market with the most potential.

Goal for Goal is unique because it is an organization that will partner with the nation with a mission to establish a flow of Chinese top players eventually capable of winning national titles in a near future. Salaries for these professional coaches and Goal for Goal team will be paid by the government and once Goal for Goal starts to generate top-talent players in China, it will take a commission fee from the nation as well. Once the system proves to be successful, it will also generate revenue through marketing and ads.

AMDP should consider Goal for Goal because it fulfills the triple bottom line. This organization is for people who want to follow their passion in soccer in such an education-focused nation. It also solves an unequal access to opportunities to become great sports players in the nation. Lastly, once the team can garner traction in many cities in China, its ability to expand overseas and potential to generate marketing and ads revenue will sustain the organization's financials.

With the government and Goal for Goal's collaboration, there can be another Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo in China. Let's temporarily forget about results, competition, training and creating stars. Instead, let's focus on fun and broad, genuine participation. Then the results will follow.