Story By: Juan Mayes, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Golder’s News And Sport 

This is the pretty sports journalist who misspelt over half the Chinese national football team’s names but netizens still love her because of her looks.

Bandao Dushi (BD) News journalist Xing Chengbo incorrectly spelt the names of 15 of the 23 players from the Chinese national team who were participating in the East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) E-1 Championship that took place in December of last year.

The mistakes came in an article Chengbo wrote showing support for the Chinese squad before their 2-1 loss to Japan continuing a 21-year losing streak for the Chinese against their Japanese rivals.

Some of the errors included writing ‘Xian’ instead of ‘Xi’ for midfielder Zhang Xizhe and using the wrong Chinese character to spell Guangzhou Evergrande winger Wei Shihao’s surname.

Chengbo’s mistakes came as a surprise to many as she had previously covered the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the 2014 Asian Games with no incidents.

Local media report BD News apologised for the mistakes and demoted Chengbo to “trainee journalist”.

However, pictures of the pretty journalist surfaced from her Weibo account after the incident, earning her support from netizens.

‘Aikanqiu de Yang’ wrote: “Can’t blame her with looks like that!”

‘Manman Gai Chila’ said: “I forgive her. She must be forgiven!”

“Yes, she has my forgiveness,” ‘Mofashou 14760’ wrote with a heart emoji.

‘Mingchao Xiaohouye’ added: ‘Who cares – nobody knows who plays in our national team anyway.”

South Korea were crowned champions of the 2019 EAFF E-1 Championship after a 1-0 victory over Japan. China finished third.

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