Girl鈥檚 football dream set to come true
Print Edition
In a playground on a hot summer鈥檚 day, Ma Fenhua, 15, was playing in a football match, running hard and cheering every time her team scored.
鈥淚 had never imagined this in my first eight years living in the mountains,鈥 Ma said.
Ma was born in Jingyuan County, a formerly impoverished mountainous area in northwest China鈥檚 Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. She moved to live in Lingwu City with her family in 2012.
Lingwu, which has 41 football-playing schools, is where Ma鈥檚 football dream began.
鈥淚 saw a real football pitch in the first year I moved here,鈥 Ma said. 鈥淚t was so large and flat, totally unlike anything in my village.鈥
While many girls of her age took up singing or dancing, Ma always preferred football but her family were against her new hobby.
鈥淪he gets tanned and sometimes cries because of injuries or tiredness from all the training,鈥 said Bai Hongyan, Ma鈥檚 sister. 鈥淲e tried to persuade her to stop playing football but we failed.鈥
In 2017, Ma鈥檚 dedication to her training was rewarded when she was one of 24 young footballers chosen to receive a government scholarship to travel to Britain for a 15-day training camp.
鈥淚 had never traveled anywhere even by train, let alone going abroad on an airplane,鈥 Ma said.
Ma later joined the women鈥檚 football team in her middle school. Her coach Ding Xin taught Ma and teammates how to dribble, pass and trap the ball, and instructed them how to defend and shoot.
鈥淢y girls are making quick progress and they have won many prizes,鈥 Ding said.
Ma鈥檚 future plans are inextricably linked with her dream of playing her favorite sport. 鈥淚f I鈥檓 admitted to a college, football must play a key role there,鈥 she said.
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