World Cup stars score with women
MOST women watching the World Cup action are more interested in how handsome the players are rather than the result, according to a survey.
And the single ones among them have been so impressed that body shape has become a top priority in their search for a boyfriend, Chinese matchmaking website jiayuan.com said yesterday.
More than 2,600 people responded to its survey, 45 percent of them women.
Some 70 percent said the players’ muscles were the main attraction in Brazil. The women who were not married said a fit body and a keen interest in sports was more important than income, an apartment or a car when it came to choosing a boyfriend.
Another reason for their focus on the soccer field was to have something to gossip about, many said. “There are a lot of soccer stars who are good-looking and provide a feast to the eyes, and the World Cup is such a hot topic these days that I don’t want to be left out,” said Guo Yijun, a 30-something Shanghai woman who works in the media. She said she mainly watched Italy play because the team had a lot of good-looking players. But husbands and boyfriends need not worry too much.
Only 8 percent of the women thought the World Cup more important than their partners. And that view was echoed by the men, with just 12 percent saying the matches were more important than their partners.Yao Yongliang, 27, a Shanghai public servant and soccerholic, said his girlfriend was much more important, but he still ignored her when it came to staying up late.She has asked him not to watch too many matches as she fears he might be too tired the next day and unable to concentrate. But he said: “I could not bear to miss any games between strong teams, particularly Germany and Argentina as they are my favorites.”
When she complains he’s paying more attention to the game than to her, he turns a deaf ear.
“Everything will return to normal after the World Cup, it is only once every four years,” he said.
Some 59 percent of the men said they would rather miss sleep than miss a game, and just under a third of the women said they would watch games with their partners.
However, more than 80 percent of women said they understood their partners’ World Cup craze.
Zhang Jiarui, the website’s “love consultant,” said the World Cup was a good opportunity to boost relationships by watching together.
But she advised silence, other than to ask questions about the rules or players’ skills. Complaining about football was “not a smart choice.”
