Searching for the Chinese Cruyff

Budding young soccer players take a breather during a September training session at Guangzhou R&F Football Academy in Meizhou, Guangdong province. [Photo provided to chinadaily]

Ajax, the Amsterdam giant which has produced so many Dutch masters, takes talent factory to Guangdong, AFP reports.

MEIZHOU, Guangdong province - "You let Glasgow score, what were you thinking?" plays a video, as a class of budding Chinese soccer players stare at a large screen, their backs ramrod straight and arms folded neatly on their desks.

This is the daily lesson in soccer English at the youth academy of Chinese Super League (CSL) side Guangzhou R&F.

Among these 11-year-old boys could be a Chinese Johan Cruyff.

That may sound unlikely, but Dutch giant Ajax has teamed up with R&F and together vowed to build the best soccer academy in China.

R&F is not even the most famous soccer club in its own city - that is seven-time CSL champion Guangzhou Evergrande.

But under coach Dragan Stojkovic, a legendary playmaker for the former Yugoslavia who won the Champions League with Marseille, R&F wants to play "the most beautiful soccer in China".

And while real-estate developer R&F has the deep pockets to shell out on expensive foreign players, it wants to focus on youth, in line with Chinese government policy.

That is where Ajax - renowned for developing the likes of Cruyff, Marco van Basten, Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Kluivert and many others - comes in.