Football team in China excellent (6)
I believe the answer is:
palace
'football team' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'china excellent' is the wordplay.
'china' becomes 'pal' (I've seen this before).
'excellent' becomes 'ace' (I've seen this before).
'pal'+'ace'='PALACE'
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for palace that I've seen before include "imposing building" , "Locality round a monarch's official residence" , "Head of state's residence" , "very nice house" , "See 16" .)