Naturalizzazione o assimilazione? Quando in nazionale giocano gli “ex stranieri”

The realization of China’s football dream falls within the theoretical framework of soft power enhancement and relies in practice on the effectiveness of the cultural industry’s development strategy. This paper adopts this perspective in order to introduce one of the most recent attempts put forward by the Chinese authorities to accelerate the reform and development of football and improve the performance of the Chinese national team: the naturalization of foreign players and their successive call-up to Team China.