This article is reproduced from: People’s Daily
The Brazilian face in Guizhou’s “Village Super League”——
A football date across mountains and seas
Reporter Su Bin
“People’s Daily” (Page 06, November 11, 2024)
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In a Sino-foreign friendly match in the Guizhou “Village Super League”, Chinese players and Brazilian players competed in the game.
Photo by Zhou Guangsheng (Image China)
Rongjiang, Guizhou, a small county hidden deep in the mountains, has attracted the attention of the world with its football matches full of village flavor.
On November 6, at the “Village Super League” football field in Rongjiang County, villager Yang Zhenjiang took out his mobile phone and showed his collection to reporters. In hundreds of photos, the protagonists are mostly foreign athletes, passing the ball, scoring goals, hugging, dancing, and expressing their passion. “They come from far away Brazil. Brazilian star Kaká also came to Rongjiang before. Our ‘Village Super League’ circle of friends is getting bigger and bigger.” Yang Zhenjiang said.
On October 3, the first “Village Super League” and “Belt and Road” International Friendly Match welcomed the first Brazilian team – Sao Paulo Gaoqiao Youth Training Football Club of Brazil (hereinafter referred to as “Gaoqiao Club”). In the next 25 days, the Brazilian players prepared for the game, tasted delicious food, appreciated folk customs, and experienced China’s development vitality, people’s warmth and friendliness, and the profoundness of its culture up close.
Enjoy the friendship and joy football brings
Gaoqiao Club has been preparing for the Guizhou “Village Super League” trip for a long time.
In August this year, Gaoqiao Club head Eli Asa and team leader Yang Shengjun came to Rongjiang together. In their view, the Chinese football market has huge potential and broad prospects.
“Rongjiang is a hot spot for football. The people here’s passion and dedication to football are very similar to Brazil’s football culture.” Yang Shengjun said.
At 7 pm on October 3, with the cheers of more than 30,000 spectators, the Brazilian team officially entered the stadium. On both sides of the passage, cheerleaders composed of local people dressed in national costumes and exquisite silver jewelry danced light national dances to welcome the Brazilian players. “The atmosphere was very good!” Eliasa recalled.
The welcome ceremony off the field was warm, and the competition on the field was also fierce. In the 84th minute of the game, player Ferreira made a follow-up shot to seal the victory for Takahashi Club. The Brazilian players danced the samba excitedly, and the audience cheered them on. In the end, Gaoqiao Club defeated the team from Guiyang 1:0.
The awards ceremony was also full of surprises. Faced with the “village flavor” prize – two local specialty chickens, the Brazilian team players were very surprised and excited. Player Diego took a photo holding the chicken, smiling from ear to ear.
After the awards were given, gorgeous fireworks were set off outside the stadium, and cheerful music sounded in the stadium. The audience walked into the center of the stadium, surrounded the Brazilian players in a circle, and everyone danced together with their arms around their shoulders. Brazilian players showed off their unique samba dance steps, and people enjoyed the friendship and happiness brought by football.
At this moment, small football is a link between the two peoples and a testimony to the stronger friendship between China and Pakistan.
“Village Supermarket” becomes a platform for cultural exchanges
From October 3rd to October 6th, Gaoqiao Club played 3 games and scored 8 goals in total, showing the unique charm of Brazilian football and feasting the eyes of the audience.
“They play football as smartly as dancing, which is very entertaining.” In the audience, seeing the team’s wonderful performance, villager Dong Yongheng praised it and was eager to try it. As the top scorer of the “Village Super League”, he is eager to compete on the court. “It would be great if I have a chance to compete with the Brazilian team!”
At 8 pm on October 9th, Dong Yongheng waited for his opportunity. He led the strongest lineup of the “Village Super League” and played a friendly match with Gaoqiao Club.
With his skillful movement and quick penetration, Dong Yongheng created several scoring opportunities and assisted his teammates to score a goal. As the game progressed, the players from the Takahashi Club played patiently and at an increasingly faster pace, gradually taking the initiative.
“They have very solid basic skills and are very skilled in catching and defending.” The Brazilian players’ small-scale passing and cutting cooperation and their concentration on the game allowed Dong Yongheng to see the gap clearly. He admired him very much, “Although they lost 1:3 in the end, But there are no regrets, we plan to develop youth training and reserve strength for football development.”
During the exchange period at the “Village Super League”, Gaoqiao Club was also invited to visit Siyuan Experimental School and No. 4 Middle School in Yanhe Tujia Autonomous County, Tongren City. The players competed with the students in hoops, dribbling the ball around the pole, and bumping the ball, leaving laughter and laughter on the playground.
“It’s an unexpected pleasure to have close contact with Brazilian players. I want to learn from them, lay a solid foundation, and improve my skills.” Yang Fengshun, a student at Yanhe No. 4 Middle School, said.
A total of 10 foreign teams participated in the first “Village Super League” and “Belt and Road” International Friendly Tournament. Using the ball as a media, the “Village Super League” has not only become a stage for sports competition, but also a platform for cross-cultural communication.
“The development of ‘Village Super’ is divided into three stages. At first, Rongjiang people played it by themselves. Later, people from all over the country were invited to play together. In the future, we will go abroad to let more people around the world understand us and play with us.” Rongjiang County Party Committee Secretary Xu Bo said that the “Village Supermarket” is not only a magnifying glass for observing China, but also a telescope for embracing the world. He hopes that the “Village Supermarket” will become more and more international.
With youth training, friendship becomes stronger
Rongjiang football is actually more than just a “Village Super League”.
In the 1990s, the masses spontaneously organized games in open-air stadiums. Today, Rongjiang County has 14 standard football fields, 35 registered teams, 14 national youth campus football schools, and 41 county-level football schools… In 2019, under the initiative of Lai Hongjing, a physical education teacher at Rongjiang No. 1 Middle School, Rongjiang County Jiang took the lead in establishing a relatively complete youth training echelon in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture. The football team of Rongjiang No. 1 Middle School alone has won many inter-provincial championships.
Lai Hongjing was very excited when she heard that Gaoqiao Club was coming to Rongjiang, “This is a rare opportunity!”
During their stay in Rongjiang, in addition to participating in competitions and exchange activities, Brazilian players will go to the stadium for training at other times. Seeing the opportunity, Lai Hongjing led 20 players to the stadium and met the Brazilian players who were training.
“Brazilian players have received systematic football training since childhood, and we have to take this opportunity to learn on the spot.” In the 60-minute training match, although Lai Hongjing’s team lost the game with a score of 1:3, everyone felt that they had gained a lot, “Ai Li Coach Asa made two points. One is that the players are not passing the ball fast enough and are a bit slow; the other is that they dribble too much and stick to the ball. These opinions are very valuable and will make our future training more targeted.”
“After Coach Eliasa returned to Brazil, we continued to communicate and decided to establish a youth training club in Rongjiang and use Brazilian teaching methods to develop Rongjiang youth training.” Yang Shengjun introduced that the Rongjiang youth training club is about to be established. At that time, a group of Brazilian youth training players will stay in Rongjiang to participate in competitions, and will also serve as football coaches in primary and secondary schools. “We hope that more children will go out of the mountains with their football skills and provide them with more possibilities for the future.” Yang Shengjun said.
Nowadays, the influence of the “Village Supermarket” brand has gradually gone abroad and spread to the world. Influenced by the football cultural exchanges between China and Brazil, and with the support of the China Friendship and Peace Development Foundation, Rongjiang selected players from primary and secondary schools across the county to form the “Dream Chase” football team, which plans to leave for Brazil on November 14 for exchanges.
“Football is a business card for the integrated development of culture, education, sports and tourism in Rongjiang. We should not only actively build a ‘village super’ social football system and a ‘class super’ campus football system to open up a new path for football development; we should also take the initiative to go out and create cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries. platform, using football as a carrier to tell Chinese stories to the world,” Xu Bo said.
Published in: Beijing
