Rural Shanxi girl hopes for Beckham-like career

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August 2, 2019

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Rural Shanxi girl hopes for Beckham-like career

Source: Xinhua | 00:08 UTC+8 August 2, 2019 |

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Zhou Bingling may not have watched the British movie “Bend It Like Beckham,” but the 12-year-old girl from rural China is still determined to become a football star.

“Life has opened a new door for me, after I took part in a football summer camp in 2017,” she said.

Zhou’s team, established just two years ago, won the U13 women’s football tournament during the Chinese National Youth Games on home soil in June. It was Shanxi Province’s first national championship in football.

Back in her old school in Jiaokou County, Shanxi, Zhou was seen as a “headache” by her teachers for her mischievous character. She had known nothing about football before she participated in the summer camp held at Shanxi Sports Vocational School.

There, she played football for the first time, with 26 other girls like her — from Shanxi villages, with little knowledge of the sport, but also outgoing, active kids who didn’t like to sit quietly in class.

“I thought I came here just for fun,” said Gong Jiaqi, from Xiguan Village.

The energetic girls showed their potential at the trials, but finding a manager for the team was a problem. The job fell to Ma Yanshuang, a professional coach.

“Every day when I woke up, I began to think of what to do with the players who didn’t like training and who ate too little,” said Ma, who set strict team rules, and the girls began to listen to him.

Seeing that most of the players were short, Ma developed a skill-based tactic for them. With coaching from Ma and his colleague Wang Wenliang, Zhou and her teammates spent almost two years practicing running, shooting, dribbling and passing.

“We trained hard like this for almost two years, getting up early and going to bed late,” Wang said.

The final of the second Chinese National Youth Games saw Team Shanxi rally from a 0-1 deficit to win 2-1 and reach the highest position on the podium. “As the Chinese saying goes, one minute on the stage takes 10 years of practice,” Ma said. “Hard training and great determination are the key to our success.”

“I had never dreamed of being on a national championship team before. The title made me see a brighter future and more possibilities in my life,” said Li Shiran, a team member.

“I want to become a professional footballer and join the national team in the future. Football has shown me a way to move forward,” Zhou said.

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Rural Shanxi girl hopes for Beckham-like career

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