Nansha Football Journey: Pushing Open the Door to World Football in the Heart of the Bay Area

Written by Nan Nan On June 11, 2026, the Paris Saint-Germain Academy (Greater Bay Area) and the Greater Bay Area Cultural and Sports Center signed a six-year cooperation agreement, marking the first time a top-tier Ligue 1 youth development system has entered mainland China. The Academy views this partnership as immensely important. Naturally, this collaboration with the reigning Champions League back-to-back champions and a powerhouse in European football holds special significance for Guangzhou's Nansha district. "This cooperation is a major milestone for youth sports development in Nansha," said Ouyang Jianhua, a member of the Standing Committee of the Nansha District Committee of Guangzhou and head of the Publicity Department. According to the agreement, a six-week PSG Academy professional-level summer camp will be the first phase of the partnership, followed by comprehensive efforts to advance diverse youth training programs.

From the opening ceremony and inaugural match of the Guangdong Super League in 2025, to the second leg of the Guangdong-Hong Kong Cup in 2026, and now the establishment of the Paris Saint-Germain Academy (Greater Bay Area), Nansha football has opened a door to the world, adding another vital channel on the path of top-tier international exchange.

Founded in 2005, the Paris Saint-Germain Academy is a football academy for boys and girls aged 4 to 18, aiming to impart the club's training system based on excellence, respect, and passion for football. All training sessions are conducted by certified coaches following the club's official curriculum. Over more than two decades, the Academy has established training centers in 21 countries, with over 178 locations. Currently, the Academy has approximately 1,000 certified coaches and more than 50,000 students worldwide. Rabiot, a key midfielder for the 2026 World Cup French team, began his career at the Paris Saint-Germain Academy.

With such a globally top-tier youth academy, its expansion is like a strategic game of chess, where each move is a deliberate choice. Within the global network of the Paris Saint-Germain Academy, why has Nansha become the first cooperation base in mainland China?

The answer is not hard to find. In June 2022, a State Council document granted Nansha the strategic positioning of "rooted in the Bay Area, synergizing with Hong Kong and Macao, and facing the world," explicitly supporting Nansha in actively hosting large-scale cultural and sports exchange events. The completion and handover of the Greater Bay Area Cultural and Sports Center have provided Nansha with a stadium that can hold 60,000 people and a training ground of nearly 8,000 square meters. Such facilities are rare across the entire Greater Bay Area. Simply put, Nansha did not passively wait for international resources; it already had the hard power to connect. Similarly, what the Paris Saint-Germain Academy needs is not just a piece of land and a few hundred kids playing football, but a new but already operational football system—and Nansha happens to have that.

Eleven days after signing the agreement in Hong Kong, the Paris Saint-Germain Academy (Greater Bay Area) and the Greater Bay Area Cultural and Sports Center jointly signed another cooperation agreement with the Nansha Yingdong Education and Training Center. Starting from Nansha, the initiative provides international, systematic youth football training and comprehensive quality education for different age groups. In French culture, they call this project a "school without walls," meaning that football training is no longer confined to the pitch but is integrated into daily life and educational scenarios.

Within half a month, two agreements were signed, and Nansha was the protagonist in both—a concrete example of sports internationalization taking root in Nansha. When the new director of the Paris Saint-Germain Academy (Greater Bay Area), Ngoti, personally guided training sessions for four age groups from U10 to U17, children in Nansha experienced hands-on coaching from someone who had actually played in Paris, right at their doorstep.

In addition to Ngoti, the youth training director promoted by the Paris Saint-Germain Academy (Greater Bay Area), former Brazilian women's national team player Priscila Mela also joined the academy's coaching team in the Greater Bay Area in mid-June. With a French football legend and a former Brazilian women's national team player, the Academy has injected fresh energy into Nansha's youth football development through a sincerely assembled coaching staff. Of course, behind the arrival of this top European youth system in Nansha, we must recognize that Paris chose this location not because of the Greater Bay Area Cultural and Sports Center, but because of Nansha's vibrant and dynamic football atmosphere and its proactive attitude toward engaging with top-tier international opportunities. From another perspective, Nansha's long-standing commitment to international exchange has played a crucial role.

The youth training summer camp held by the Paris Saint-Germain Academy (Greater Bay Area) in June this year had its accommodation, facilities, and logistics all arranged by the local partner, the Yingdong Education and Training Center. The accommodation was set at the Guangzhou Ulink College of Foreign Nationals (GUIS, hereinafter referred to as Ulink). This school, known to almost everyone in Nansha, has a significant background.

According to information released by the Guangzhou Education Bureau, Ulink is the first school in Guangzhou to accept children of returned overseas talents and also the first foreign nationals' school in Guangzhou certified as a "Hong Kong Service Provider" by the Hong Kong Trade and Industry Department. It is a key education project under the Nansha Plan implemented by the Nansha District.

"Over the past decade or so, running schools in Nansha has been getting better and better, which has given us strong confidence. Coupled with the accelerating integration of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, more and more projects in the region are being completed, and a growing number of global talents are flocking in. The successive openings of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) and the Guangzhou Nansha Minxin Hong Kong People's Children's School have further solidified our decision to establish the Guangzhou Ulink College of Foreign Nationals, an all-age international school, in Nansha," said Chang Yan, Deputy Superintendent of Ulink, during the school's open enrollment.

In fact, the Ulink Group has a long-standing connection with Nansha. The ULC Cambridge International High School and the NCPA American High School, run by the group at Nansha Yingdong Middle School, were established in 2004 and 2012 respectively. Over the past decade, they have nurtured many outstanding young talents in Nansha. According to statistics, both high schools have a 100% university admission rate, with over 95% of graduates entering QS World Top 100 universities, and an average annual scholarship total of nearly $4 million USD.

It can be said that even before the Nansha Plan was implemented, the Ulink Group had already built a bridge from Nansha to prestigious international universities. In 2025, the second Century School Cup Elite Football Exchange Tournament (High School Division), hosted by Football Magazine, was held at Ulink. Sixteen teams from 16 cities gathered there to compete for a national championship. At that time, Ulink's Superintendent, He Mengsheng, made a somewhat surprising remark: "Campus football has great potential even in international schools."

Those familiar with He Mengsheng know that he is a person who does everything to the utmost. Even a single dish at a private dinner can be explained with great detail. In his eyes, anything that can be shared with others is like a treasure and must have a story. So when the Century School Cup was being discussed for placement at Ulink last year, He Mengsheng agreed without hesitation. In his view, students at international schools should not be confined to tennis courts or swimming pools; they can also excel on the football field. Therefore, when the National Youth Women's Football Elite Tournament once again landed in Nansha, Ulink naturally became the first choice. From the Century School Cup to the Paris Saint-Germain Academy (Greater Bay Area) youth summer camp, and then to the National Youth Women's Football Elite Tournament, Ulink not only brought together national men's and women's football teams in Nansha but also proactively embraced the top-tier youth system from Paris. In this convergence and inflow, international exchange in football quietly grew at Ulink and in Nansha, pushing open a door to global exchange.

What exactly can Ulink offer students? Let's first look at some data.

Among the Class of 2026 graduates at Ulink, 213 students received 997 university admission letters from 11 countries and regions, averaging nearly 5 offers per student. U.S. universities provided 408 options for Ulink graduates, covering nine campuses of the University of California system, including the renowned UC Berkeley and UCLA. Additionally, Ulink graduates were favored by 9 top U.S. universities ranked in the top 30, such as the University of Michigan. In Europe, there were 302 admission letters from top UK universities, including nearly 70 from the G5 super-elite universities. University College London (UCL) alone sent 57 admission letters to Ulink graduates, while King's College London, the University of Manchester, the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Warwick collectively issued 142 admission letters.

In fact, this is the norm for Ulink graduates. The Class of 2025 at Ulink received over 1,100 admission letters, again averaging 5 per student, with total scholarship amounts exceeding $5 million USD. Supporting these impressive numbers are the two international curricula used by Ulink: the A-Level program offered by Cambridge International High School, dual-accredited by Cambridge and Edexcel, and the AP Capstone program used by NCPA American High School, which is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). This program consists of two core courses: a seminar focused on developing information analysis, evidence-based argumentation, and public presentation skills, and a research course in which students independently design and complete a year-long research project, culminating in an academic paper and defense.

Where do Ulink's high-quality foreign resources come from? Their partnership list includes two heavyweight names: International Schools Services (ISS) in the U.S. and St. Paul's Girls' School in the UK. ISS, with a 70-year history, is one of the largest international education organizations in the U.S., and Ulink is its sole partner in China. Founded in 1904, St. Paul's Girls' School consistently tops the Sunday Times' private school rankings, with over half of its graduates gaining admission to Oxford, Cambridge, or Ivy League universities.

The Nansha Plan explicitly states: "Plan and build schools for children of foreign nationals" and "Introduce first-class foreign educational resources to Nansha for high-level cooperative schooling." This means Nansha needs to create such an international exchange platform. For a city to face the world, it cannot rely solely on ports and factories; it also needs education that can retain talent and channels to access international resources. Ulink has become the precise entry point for this channel.

In fact, Ulink is not alone in Nansha. The Minxin Hong Kong People's Children's School, the Jinan University Hong Kong and Macao Children's School, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) have all successively established themselves here. This indicates that Nansha is systematically building a complete set of infrastructure for international exchange, proving that Nansha's claim of "facing the world" has never been just a slogan.