Dreams on the pitch: The soccer journey of rural Guizhou school

Soccer players from Yuanbao Tongxing Experimental School receive daily training. [Photo/ddcpc website]

For Luo Zihan, Ding Hong and Liu Yuting, students at Yuanbao Tongxing Experimental School in Dafang county, Southwest China's Guizhou province, it was a dream come true when they flew to Germany for the 2024 UEFA European Championship on June 13.

They not only witnessed the tournament's opening match, but also played three friendly matches against local soccer teams.

Since 2017, the school has provided soccer training to open doors for hundreds of students, some selected by the Guangzhou Football Association to study at Guangzhou Polytechnic of Sports, others as sports talent entering middle schools in other cities.

Xu Zhaowei used to be a Chinese teacher at the school. In 2017, the school received a donated soccer field, which changed both his own life and the fate of the school.

After proposing the formation of a soccer team, Xu recruited 20 students from the school, transforming from a Chinese teacher to a soccer coach. Despite his deep love for football, he had never coached or trained before. Through online videos, he learned coaching techniques, demonstrating moves himself or having the children follow videos.

After three months of training, the soccer team won the boys' and girls' soccer competitions at Dafang's sports and art festival, attracting the attention of other schools.

In early 2019, the Yuanbao's girls' football team traveled to Jinhua, Zhejiang, for the National Pupils Soccer Invitational Tournament, their first out-of-province trip. Despite losing their first game, the girls won the second-place trophy in the A group.

In the same year, the school was recognized by the Ministry of Education as a national characteristic school for soccer. In 2020, the school converted classrooms into dormitories to facilitate the daily lives of soccer players.

Since then, more students with outstanding football skills have been selected for secondary schools and sports schools in other cities and provinces, changing their lives in ways they never imagined.