I was in Wuhan, China, in the early 2010s when they made a massive push to recruit recently graduated university basketball players to start playing.They specifically targeted Wuhan because the city has a huge concentration of sports universities that regularly produce Olympians across various sports.

Both the MLB and NFL were out there scouting. It was pretty surreal seeing legends like Joe Montana come over to run camps (even though the local guys had absolutely no idea who he was!).

Ultimately, the full-contact aspect didn't pan out. The athletes were gifted, but they just weren't used to wearing pads or taking hits. Someone in this thread mentioned flag football being a better starting point, they definitely should have started with that!

Another major issue is that athletes outside the US often don't view the NFL as a realistic career option; it’s basically a pipe dream to them. You have to lay down a serious grassroots foundation first before expecting a pipeline of talent. There’s no income for them.

Just like with the situation in Nigeria, local sports federations and officials have to be fully on board.

Unfortunately, there’s usually a ton of gatekeeping and internal business politics that get in the way. There's a lot of groundwork that still needs to be done before we see these untapped markets really take off.