Xi Jinping, a lifelong soccer fan, hoped to marshal China’s collective spirit behind “the beautiful game.” In reality, he welcomed a fleet of vultures to feast on it.
President Xi Jinping and Chancellor Angela Merkel watch German and Chinese children playing soccer in a 2017 visit to Berlin. Credit: Ronald Wittek - Pool/Getty Images
In October of 2015, Chinese media announced Xi Jinping’s first selfie. China’s leader looked uncharacteristically jolly posing alongside the soccer star Sergio Aguero and then-British Prime Minister David Cameron, with Aguero snapping the trio’s photo. It quickly went viral. Argentine striker Aguero became an overnight sensation and his team, Manchester City, scooped up a sizable Chinese fanbase.
“Every person in the world asks me about the selfie,” Aguero later said.
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