New soccer textbook teaches Wuxi students to dribble like Messi

Wuxi high school teachers take part in a football course on Aug 27. [Photo / wxrb.com]

According to Yang Kai, executive deputy director of Wuxi campus football office, the textbooks teach football tactics to different age groups using step-by-step illustrations.

The campus football office is a government body set up to help integrate soccer training into the school curriculum in Wuxi, which has been a key reform pushed by China's central government in recent years to help China develop a cohort of young soccer stars capable of challenging for the World Cup.

The football office created the new textbooks to solve the problem of schools using different soccer coaching methods, which has led to wide variations in the quality of teaching at different institutions.

The new curriculum is just the latest project Wuxi has launched to develop grassroots soccer.