The Chinese Card-Master!
The website SixthTone reported recently that “Ma Ning has become an unlikely celebrity in China, attracting sponsorship deals, viral memes, and millions of social media interactions.” In one recent short period, "Ma has been announced as brand ambassador for several major Chinese companies, including tech giant Lenovo, consumer electronics maker Hisense, and dairy brand Mengniu. Official accounts dedicated to Ma have also been launched on lifestyle platform Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, and video streaming site Bilibili.”
Most of us have never heard of this Chinese citizen. He is in fact a Chinese referee who “has become the unlikely face of the 2026 Soccer World Cup in China.” China's national men's team did not qualify for the tournament.
Ma is the only Chinese match referee at this year’s FIFA World Cup (June 12 to July 20). His promotion has propelled him into the limelight. This is his second appearance at a World Cup, following his debut at the 2022 tournament in Qatar, where he served as a fourth official — an assistant referee who works off-pitch.
China’s president Xi Jinping has repeatedly spoken of soccer as a matter of national aspiration for China, saying he wants China to qualify for, host, and eventually win a men’s World Cup. “I am a football fan,” Xi said in a speech in Mexico, where he also noted China’s limited World Cup history. Xi has tied soccer to national pride and broader development goals.
Under Xi’s leadership, Chinese state planning has targeted China becoming a “world football superpower” by mid-century, centring on grassroots expansion, school-based training, infrastructure build-out, and league reform. The aim is to build a whole football ecosystem. A 50-point reform plan was adopted under Xi Jinping’s leadership planned to overhaul grassroots, professional, and national football. Soccer has been introduced more systematically into schools, with a national curriculum planned for thousands of schools, aiming for 50 million players and major expansion of training centres and pitches.
But the reforms improved structure on paper more than they changed the underlying talent pipeline and football culture. The biggest problems are weak youth development, over-centralised governance, well published corruption, and a system that still does not produce enough creative elite players.
And so Ma Ning has emerged as someone Chinese fans can still support. Ma is joined at the tournament by assistant referee Zhou Fei and VAR official Fu Ming. “China has been absent from the World Cup for 24 years, so any Chinese presence — whether a player or even a referee — becomes a rare and highly visible point of connection,” said one commentator.
In a 2015 domestic match, Ma issued nine yellow cards and three red cards, a performance that earned him the nickname “card master” among fans. On Chinese social media, Ma’s strict refereeing has also fuelled the creation of viral memes featuring his face alongside red and yellow cards. Topics related to Ma have garnered over 3 billion views on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and nearly 100 million on Xiaohongshu. One blogger wrote: “You don’t need to worry; they won’t retaliate against your country, because it’s strong, and they won’t retaliate against your team, because there isn’t one” - meaning that with China’s men’s team absent from the tournament, the referee need not fear any backlash for his liberal use of red and yellow cards!
Pray for Ma Ning that he would find the Lord Jesus after his brief moment in the spotlight ends on his return to China.
Pray for Christians amongst China's soccer players that they would avoid corruption and have a testimony of faith in the Lord Jesus.
Pray for all the believing Christians taking part in the World Cup that they would continue to witness for Jesus when the games are over.
