I think people are underestimating the gargantuan time and resouces that are needed to be a world class footballing nation nowadays. It's equivalent to catching up in the semi conductor industry. Why? The elite football nations has literally a hundred years head start, have massive leagues in term of knowledge or tactical base and training methods and facilities. European football is like the Warring States (or Spring and Autumn) period of Chinese history. Huuuge amount of talent, money and most importantly, the most leading edge of tactical thinking and refinement is coursing through it, under the most intense of competition.
Just look at the succesful Asian nations, like Japan or Korea. The Europeans look at them the same way ancient Chinese look at Korea and Japan, yes, good learners, but are to be crushed when faced in competition.
Just like the discussions in Soft Power, this is a fools errand. Make China the mightiest and wealthiest nation on earth, then we can choose which sport entertainment we want to excel in, or better yet create a better sport, where we make the rules, and others can aspire to join our sports.
In the mean time, it's not like China has zero to look forward to in sports. We have the Olympics, and I may add that can be considered as a "team event" too, when considered as a whole.