If you graduate in 2022, there are two directions for the future. One is an offer from a Beijing state-owned enterprise that has already arrived, and the other is a professional team contract that requires trial training to sign, and the latter's monthly salary is only half of the former.
Stay and you'll be greeted with a comfortable 9-to-6 life. Leave you with the pressure of competing everywhere. Of course, you have to be successful in trial training to enjoy the opportunity to compete on the pitch and injuries that come at any time.
Ideal or reality, this is a question? But it's not a problem either.
With a lot of money, little stress, and being close to home, the choice seems easy to make, but Jiang Mingzuo wrote the opposite answer.
"I wanted my life to be challenging and I couldn't put football in my heart, so I decided to put on my boots again."
This women's football girl, who became popular on Douyin (500,000 fans) with her beautiful face and graceful posture, was dubbed by many as the most beautiful female football player in China. It's a compliment, but also a prejudice, "You look so beautiful, you don't look like you can play football." The comments of netizens are invisibly denying the ability of this women's football girl.
Fortunately, Jiang Mingzuo was not caught up in public opinion. In the winter of 2022, she picked up her sneakers again and ran towards the green spring of 2023.
On February 12, Dalian people welcomed the first match of the 2023 Chinese Women's Football Championship. Facing the women's Super League team Shaanxi Women's Football Team in the first round, Jiang Mingzuo's name always stayed on the bench.
She looked disappointed on the bench and did not say a word, but the head coach Wang Suolong observed her displeasure and took the initiative to ask: "If you are allowed to play in the next game, can you do it, do you have confidence in yourself?"
"You let me on, I will definitely give it my all." Jiang Mingzuo's response was somewhat underconfident.
Three days later, Dalian people welcomed the triple champion of the Women's Super League Wuhan Women's Football Team. Jiang Mingzuo came off the bench again and watched for 90 minutes off the court, missing his second career debut.
From entering the Qinhuangdao Football School in the first year of junior high school to representing TEDA North Chinese Medicine in the university, Jiang Mingzuo is the main force and captain of the team. That has changed now, and she needs to compete for the job and even play a substitute role. Although she knew that she had not been trained systematically for more than a year, and when she entered the professional team, she found that her opponents and teammates were generally above herself, but she still couldn't adapt to the gap at first.
"I feel bad in my heart, and I always want to cry."
At the final whistle, the team lost 4-0 to Wuhan, and Dalian people, who lost two consecutive games, were close to being out. At lunchtime, the teammates ate all the food on the plate, but Jiang Mingzuo lost his appetite, and this situation lasted for several days, and the plate and mind were full of anxiety about when he would be able to play.
After eating, the players return to their rooms or take a walk down the street to enjoy a short relaxation after the game. Only Jiang Mingzuo was left alone, and Wang Suolong asked her again: "Can you do it in the next game?" ”
"Yes, coach, trust me." Jiang Mingzuo's answer was decisive and resolute. Soon, there was not much food left on her plate.
On February 18, the starting list of the Dalian women's football team appeared with a rare name: "No. 24 Jiang Mingzuo".
In the game, the fierce style of the Qinhuangdao girl was eye-catching. With a precise sliding tackle, an active upper grab, and a high position of pressure at all costs, as a central defender, she covered the position near the middle line. Where there is the opponent's attack, there is Jiang Mingzuo's figure.
Fallen sliding shovel
2 tackles in a row
Hui Expulsion
High pressure to the midline
On the grab success
Jiang Mingzuo is outstanding
In the 62nd minute of the second half, she suddenly cramped and sat on the ground. The team doctor helped him off the field and asked if there was a replacement, and Jiang Mingzuo shook his head. After supporting her legs on the sidelines, she reappeared one minute later. It was not until 76 minutes that Jiang Mingzuo, who was completely exhausted, was replaced.
Charley horse
"Played well." Wang Suolong patted his lover and pointed out the shortcomings in her debut. "I hope that I can practice these aspects next, and when the women's A competition starts, let me see you differently."
That game, although the team lost 2-0. But for Jiang Mingzuo, she has won confidence. 'I gave myself nine points on my debut, and as a centre-back, I didn't make any major mistakes, I had a good pass success rate in all respects and I did a good job of fulfilling the task given by the manager.
The debut that was close to a full score was something Jiang Mingzuo did not expect. Just like practicing as a child, she never thought that she would be able to go on a professional path in the future. And this is precisely from that boring and monotonous childhood.
No. 5 Wenti Road, Haigang District, Qinhuangdao City, this is the place Jiang Mingzuo is most familiar with in the past. From the age of 12, she spent all her secondary school here.
"Six years is too long, and I have been wondering why it is not time?"
In 2011, Jiang Mingzuo and his twin sister Jiang Mingyou were selected to enter the China Football School, becoming the first batch of students of Qinhuangdao Football School's transformation elite education, and their coaches happened to be the mentors of former international players Gao Lin and Huang Bowen.
From the day they entered school, the sisters began a militarized life of learning to play. "I was excited when I enrolled, full of freshness, and curious about everything."
During the conversation with Jiang Mingzuo, she can still familiarly recall the schedule more than ten years ago: "Morning: get up and wash, take the car to eat + go to class." Noon: Eat by car + lunch break + class. Afternoon: training + bathing + eating. Evening: self-study + laundry + sleep. Weekends: Training during the day, self-study at night. ”
Day by day, and the cycle continues. The children in the football school seem to have passed 365 times in one day, and 365 times have cycled for 6 years.
In Jiang Mingzuo's words: "Training every day is very tiring, I feel that time passes so slowly, the schedule is full, and there is no free time at all." "Even during the Spring Festival and the New Year, the sisters still spent time in the football school.
You know, the distance from school is only about 20 kilometers home. Home is in front of you, but far away. As a twin of Qinhuangdao, studying and playing football here is no different from students from other places.
During this period, many of the 18 people selected from more than 100 people had withdrawn, but because the contract was in advance, if they gave up early, the players needed to compensate the football school. Under such constraints, no one dares to say no lightly.
Practice three volts in summer and three nine in winter. Every winter, when the heavy snow puts on a white coat, Jiang Mingzuo still has to be driven to the training ground. In her memory, the experience of practicing in the snow is the most profound and memorable.
"At that time, the artificial grass was full of snow, and I was practicing with a creak in the snow. After a training session, we swam around the snow. When I changed my shoes, my feet were already frozen unconscious. ”
Yan Shi is a high apprentice. Asian brother Sun Xingmin practiced in the snow when he was a child, Yan's father Sun Xiongzheng would use hundreds of bales of salt to melt snow, and the Chinese football school used a tougher environment to carve these jade.
In 2017, the women's U18 final of the Hebei Provincial Games. Within 90 minutes, Qinhuangdao and Baoding were tied and entered the seconds reading stage in injury time. Qinhuangdao won a free-kick in front and the referee raised it with one arm. Jiang Mingzuo pressed the ball to the ground, looked up, and kicked it out. A sudden arc bypassed all the defenders of Baoding and reached the right side of the penalty area. In that position, there happens to be a teammate.
That was Kang Myung-woo. The younger sister stopped shooting and scored the ball before the opposing goalkeeper had time to react. The Jiang sisters completed an incredible sword seal. More than 2,000 days, with a snap of a finger, it turned into a match made in heaven to bid farewell to the performance.
A group photo of a family of four after winning the championship
At the moment when the whistle sounded, Jiang Mingzuo was embarrassed. It was the whistle of graduation, the prelude to leaving, and at that moment, she was full of emotion, and her pace of walking out of the court slowed down. "At that time, I was very reluctant to leave, how did I feel that the time was up all of a sudden?"
The river of time flows into the sea, and finally we go our separate ways, and no port is a permanent stop. When parting quietly approaches, people will automatically forget all the bad things and remember all its advantages.
In the summer of 2022, Jiang Mingzuo once again ushered in a farewell. This time, she wants to wave goodbye to her alma mater, Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
In the 5 years of college, she dressed in white, as the captain, helped the Beijing Traditional Chinese Medicine Women's Football Team win the Capital League championship, and helped TEDA Women's Football Team win the 5th place in Women's B, triple jump in three years, successfully rushed into the Women's First and entered the professional league.
In the last year of college, Jiang Mingzuo did not regard the football that had been with her for a long time as a survival tool in the future, and her energy was focused on her graduation thesis and school recruitment.
"I never wanted to play professional football before."
After leaving campus, Jiang Mingzuo first went to an advertising agency as an intern, and then joined a state-owned enterprise in Beijing. My sister made the same choice as her, working after graduation and giving up the fantasy of professional football.
9 to 6, clock in on time, commute on time, weekends off, no saber rattling competition, no worry about unpaid wages and job competition. As long as you work according to the rules, even if you are a little less efficient, you can settle down and work until retirement.
Being in such a comfortable environment, Jiang Mingzuo felt uncomfortable, "I don't like the life that can be seen at a glance." ”
The heart that flew on the court in the past was like a wild horse out of control, always breaking free from the reins of reality. "I want to have a different challenge every day, never know what will happen next, and this kind of life is more attractive."
The next day, Jiang Mingzuo made a resignation plan. At this time, the junior sister sent her a trial notice for the Dalian women's football team. In the end, God helped her make a decision. There are only more than half a month left before the trial training day, now he is 24 years old, his physical functions are gradually declining, the most important thing is that there has been no systematic training for more than a year, Jiang Mingzuo repeatedly doubts whether he can do it?
When she woke up, at dawn, Jiang Mingzuo got up, sorted out her thoughts, submitted an application for resignation, and signed up for the Dalian women's football trial, and she synchronized the two decisions with the family group. "I want to try professional football, give myself a deadline of 1 year, and see if I can reach the platform of the Women's Super League."
"Sazo, since you have decided to play, I hope you take responsibility for your choice and play well. It's better to make a name for yourself, or don't go. Jiang's father and mother Jiang did not object, and the only appeal was not to give up lightly.
Before the trial, fitness is the biggest problem. In January, during the coldest season in Beijing, every day after work, Jiang Mingzuo would run 10 kilometers along the community, "every day I would find a game to kick, make a date with some familiar friends, and try to recover as much as possible." ”
On the first day of the trial, Jiang Mingzuo stepped on the familiar and unfamiliar arena again. Before starting, she was nervous, and many movements were not perfect. "I don't have a lot of confidence in myself, on the one hand, because I have played school football for 5 years, and there is definitely a gap with the players who come up in the professional echelon. Moreover, there has been no systematic training competition for such a long time, and I am worried that I will not be able to keep up. ”
Competing with a group of eighteen and nineteen-year-old juniors, she was a little powerless. After returning to the room, Jiang Mingzuo collapsed on the bed, "I don't want to move at all, I can't eat at all." This rhythm lasted for 7 days, and Jiang Mingzuo persevered, but it is unclear whether he will be admitted.
With the arrival of the Year of the Rabbit in the lunar calendar, Jiang Mingzuo received the first big gift of the year of his life - the trial training passed. "Happy and nervous, especially in this unknown new environment."
In February 2023, Jiang Mingzuo joined Dalian Women's Football Team and officially became a professional football player. From junior high school to university, in the past 11 years, Jiang Mingzuo and Jiang Mingyou have been with each other all the way and danced with the ball.
I thought that the two of them would abandon the ball and practice medicine after they walked out of campus, but I never thought about abandoning medicine to transform. Jiang Mingzuo even returned halfway, returned to the original point, and ran back to the court from the workplace. Because this is where the heart belongs and the stage where the mind never forgets. Even if the salary is not high, even if the pressure is huge, even if the prospects are unknown, at least the mind is free and comfortable.
After 2 months of training and competition, Jiang Mingzuo has adapted to the rhythm of the professional team. Looking back at herself, who was only given 1 year, now she wants to give more patience to the future.
"Relax it to two or three years and try to play on the stage of the Women's Super League during this time. In these short 2 months, with the help of coaches and teammates from Dalian, I have truly seen my progress and growth. ”
"Of course, when asked if I would dream of the national team, my answer, like all female footballers, is that I hope to play for the national team one day, but this goal is a bit far away for me now."
"However, I believe that as long as I take it step by step and meet the challenge every day, I will slowly shorten the distance and get closer and closer to the national team. I may not be able to reach it in the end with all my life's efforts, but my personal end will be closer to this goal. ”
When he was a child, Jiang Mingzuo wanted to escape from football school, and after graduation, Jiang Mingzuo wanted to escape the workplace. Looking back, the restraints had tempered her, and now she was freed from the shackles and became her master, striding forward.
Source: Northwest Lookout Author: Xu Zexin