Russo-neri
Starting Eleven
Football is gaining traction in the US and China both. And if you think that when these two peoples put their minds to something,they won't become great at it, you're in for a rude awakening.
It's all about creating a cultural basis for it. If they do that, they uave the manpower and the money to overtake anyone.
NFL is still king in US, but it's ratings in the US are already dropping. There was an interesting article written a few years ago that predicts the NFL will be bankrupt 50 years from now. The "what if" scenario predicts there will be waves of lawsuits against high schools related to devastating football injuries. Local school systems will stop their football programs to avoid liability. Meanwhile, parents will shift their sons' interest away from American football and the alternative is "soccer" as both sports are played during fall, thus cutting into the NFL talent pool and making the NFL a compromised product.
And there's precedent in the US. In the early 20th century, baseball, boxing and horse racing were kings. The NFL and NBA supplanted their popularity. Tastes in the US evolve faster than the rest of the world.
It won't happen overnight, but the "soccer" will continue to grow, both in popularity and in pool of talent.