Dialogue with Yang Lina: The best year to travel to Europe at the age of 30 Try hard to feel the beauty of football

In March 2023, I embarked on a journey to Europe, where I visited six female Chinese footballers who played in Europe. They are the representatives of the Chinese women's football craze in the ocean, and their courage to go out is also inspiring many girls with football dreams. I tried to understand all the joys and hardships of their lives abroad, hoping to record them. Their experience in the ocean does not determine whether the Chinese women's football team can rise as a result, but at least their experience, whether good or bad, will become a part of their lives, and may also help the girls who go out in the future.

Written by/Zhang Nan

San Juan Dispi is a small town around Barcelona that can only be reached by suburban train. The whole town is full of life, except for residential areas and cafes, restaurants, bakeries that do not open until noon, there are almost no other supporting settings. Even the only football club here, Las Planas, plays on a somewhat rudimentary field. But it's very down-to-earth.

It was in such a club that Yang Lina began her second career in Europe.

The perfect Parisian life is missing only the most important things

Yang Lina, a native of Shanghai, has been a cheerful and outgoing girl since she was a child. From her start-up coach Qian Hui, to her current teammates in Spain, they are praising her social skills.

"My English is definitely not the best, but I just dare to communicate with people." It is precisely because of this personality that playing abroad has always been a yearning for Yang Lina.

Yang Lina (front row, first from right) participates in the 13th Shanghai City Games

Qian Hui is Yang Lina's enlightenment coach who led her in Putuo District when she was a child, mentioning Yang Lina when she was a child, she always smiled and said: "She can live well wherever she goes, her personality has been so cheerful since she was a child, and she is kind and enthusiastic, so she needs no need to worry about living overseas." ”

In addition to personality, there is another important reason that drove Yang Lina to make a decision, that is, to go to the upcoming World Cup. It was the third World Cup of her career, but the first two were missed by mistake. Especially for the 2019 World Cup in France, she lost out when the squad for her last trip to France was announced. Now 28 years old, she hopes to make good use of this last opportunity to strive to stand on the World Cup and truly improve her abilities.

Last year, the only major competition experienced by the Chinese women's football team was the East Asian Cup. After the East Asian Cup, in order to train the team, the Chinese women's football team went to the United States for training. It was also at that time that Yang Lina began to start playing football in Europe. In fact, as early as the end of 2018, the Chinese women's football team had a period of intensive training in Australia in order to prepare for the Olympic preliminary round. Yang Lina still feels that it was her best time, and there were indeed some clubs including Australia who came to contact her and wanted her to play overseas. But the World Cup will start next year, the team preparation time is more concentrated, on the one hand, she is afraid that her energy will not be able to keep up, on the other hand, if she goes to Australia to play, it means that the whole season schedule is full. Therefore, she gave up anyway.

Yang Lina joins Grand Paris

But this time she didn't want to miss it again. So when she was training in the United States, she began to contact European clubs, and the giants Paris became her first stop.

And it's just the beginning of her challenge. In the United States, she had to apply for a visa to play football in Europe independently. Although often competing outside, flying around is already commonplace. Beat her from the United States to France, the whole time she flew by herself, but this was the first time for her. From Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., and then from Washington to Paris, a long journey alone, but she was ready to come and be at ease. Because she only went to Japan to participate in the East Asian Cup at the beginning, Yang Lina simply brought some national team equipment and supplies and went abroad. She didn't expect that she didn't even have time to go home, so she started her adventure career in Europe.

Yang Lina just arrived in Paris to get a car

Yang Lina was not anxious because of this, and calmly came to Paris. The club has given a car, and she can drive it when she gets started; If you don't have any clothes, you can buy them in Paris. Being at ease with encounters is the best mindset for living overseas.

Fortunately, Li Mengwen, a teammate of the national team, arrived in Paris a few weeks before her, and the two became the best companions for life in a foreign country. Yang Lina's English is not as good as Li Mengwen, she is an extrovert, she is good at communicating with people, and many things that need to be communicated, Yang Lina communicates for Li Mengwen. Although Yang Lina had never even entered the kitchen before going abroad, she liked to study. On Halloween, Li Mengwen also painted Halloween makeup according to Western culture, brought ingredients, and the two made a spicy fragrant pot to spend the festival.

After training and competition, the two went to Paris to play together, took pictures of each other, exchanged clothes with each other, and the violin sound of street performers could make them stop and feel different cultures.

If Paris worries her the most, it's how quickly she finds her place in the club. Before going to Paris, Yang Lina had not touched a ball for more than ten days. At that time, because the club had not yet found her a house, she ran downstairs in the hotel to practice strength. After starting to train with the team, the pace of training in Grand Paris was significantly stronger than in the domestic league, and it took about a month for her to adapt to the rhythm of the team.

"In the domestic league, we really 'walk' and we can play, often listening to two and watching three passes. But when it comes to European teams, they can't, and they have to get the ball and then get it with one or two feet to get the ball accurately. It is precisely because of this situation that she forced herself to improve her ability as soon as possible in the short term.

Paris Saint-Germain Women's squad is not as strong this year as last season, but it is still very competitive at the back. Although the team recognizes her ability, the purpose of playing abroad is to improve herself, and if she does not have the opportunity to play, it will lose the meaning of improvement.

After a few months, Yang Lina also knew that she could not waste any more time. So, she decisively decided to change clubs.

Find the best club for you in Spain

In fact, after Yang Lina came up with the idea of loan to other clubs, there were many options. At that time, there were still two months to go before the transfer window. Other French clubs have also thrown olive branches at her, and some in Spain have wanted to bring her in. But with the experience of Grand Paris, she knows very well that although the strong team has the ability to improve herself, if there is still no chance to play, the value of exercise is still not much. So she resolutely chose to join La Liga's promoted polo team Las Planas.

Home of Las Planas

"If it's a good club and I can only get 50 per cent of my chances to play, or maybe have to compete, that's still not up to my psychological requirements. So I chose Las Planas, at least they valued me and wanted to give me a chance to play. In fact, until she left Paris, Yang Lina was still grateful for the changes that Grand Paris brought her.

Coming to Barcelona, while Spaniard's slow pace and two-hour slower lifestyle than anywhere else did make her uncomfortable, nothing was more important than being able to play.

"Spain's team doesn't have a fast pace like France, so it's easier to adapt and be comfortable with their attacks and defenses. Yang Lina also said that after coming to Spain, the whole defensive aspect has improved than before.

Yang Lina training daily photo / Zhang Nan

The house the club found for Yang Lina is less than a 20-minute walk from the stadium, and on weekends the club also plays junior games. When the team has a game, the whole town will come to cheer, and many Chinese living in Barcelona will also drive here to cheer Yang Lina.

In order to make these overseas players more comfortable training, the partners of the Chinese women's football team have assigned them life assistants, who can help them solve any local language communication. Because foreign clubs do not have such perfect support for physical rehabilitation, the partners also equipped them with some rehabilitation equipment to make it more convenient for them to relax after training at home.

Yang Lina herself said that she is a social cow, and her club teammates are from Tiannanhai and North, and who is from Northern Europe, who is African, and who is from the United States. She usually communicates with her teammates in English, and some of the club's staff members are not good at English, which does not affect her communication with others at all. Simple things can be solved even by comparison, but if they can't be solved, mobile phone translation software can do everything. The club's team Fernando doesn't speak English, but likes to pull Yang Lina to talk about this and that. After training and wanting some ice, Fernando ran directly to get a bottle of mineral water, and both laughed. But all this is considered a pleasure of living abroad.

Barrier-free communication with teammates Photo/Zhang Nan

There are only two hours of training every day, and although the pace of these two hours of training seems a bit slow to Yang Lina herself, as long as she can get a chance to play, everything is worth it.

In addition to training, although the club also provided her with a car, she did not often go to the city of Barcelona. Every morning after training and going back to her room to take a shower, she began to study cooking. Her kitchen is fully stocked with seasonings sourced from her local Chinese supermarket, and she can satisfy all kinds of flavors. In order to meet the requirements of making Chinese food, she also bought a large stir-fry pot and asked her teammates to carry a mini rice cooker from China before training in Europe. Her coffee table is filled with a variety of domestic snacks. "It's all the previous national team training, the snacks brought by my teammates, I didn't finish eating before leaving, all of them let me bring back." She herself posted a video of "Xiao Yang's kitchen" on social media to fill her life. After cooking and eating every day, I am ready to go to bed. She enjoys this life.

Come out and know that we are no worse than others

Since I was a child, I have been engaged in football, and I have little time to accompany my parents, and I can't cook at home, so I can do anything. It's a pity that her parents haven't eaten her cooking. However, Yang Lina said that her parents are not worried about this, what is really worried is that she has been busy with football, and she is almost 30 years old and is not in a hurry to get married.

She also often relaxes her mother: "We still have children on the team who come back to play football after giving birth, don't worry about this." ”

Cheerful Yang Lina Photo/Zhang Nan

After coming out, Yang Lina found that in fact, many times in the past, the career of female athletes was an inherent prejudice, especially for age. In addition, the results of the Chinese women's football team have not been good in recent years, and everyone will not be so confident in the international arena.

Playing football in Europe for a few months, Yang Lina has a lot of personal feelings. "I came out and learned that 30 is actually the best golden age for female players in Europe. In the past, we may feel that when we get older, we will recover more slowly. But in fact, at this age, all aspects of your physical fitness and experience are the best stage. Yang Lina said that if she came out in her twenty-four or five, her thoughts and experiences at that time would be different from now, and her way of looking at things would be different, and she might not adapt to life overseas and give up. But now I am completely different.

Listen carefully to the instructor's explanation Photo/Zhang Nan

From last year's East Asian Cup, to play in Europe. The overseas training of the national team in February this year is the best test for these players, and Yang Lina's performance through several warm-up games in the first training camp, she can feel the change herself. "I think I really learned something different about European football, like how they handle the ball in high-intensity games. How to defend in different situations. "Yang Lina is glad that she really brought back something useful.

Playing in European leagues and playing for national teams and European teams, Yang Lina's deepest feeling is that Chinese players are no worse than European players!

"Maybe your muscle type is not as good as home, and the speed is not as fast as the family. But our technology, consciousness is no worse than others. People say Chinese are the smartest, so we should use our wits to play. In addition, our Chinese women's football team has always had a very tenacious will, and it is really good to have the spiritual support of women's football. This is Yang Lina's deepest feeling.

What kind of impact can playing overseas have? This is the answer that many people want. But can having so many players playing overseas really change women's football in China? This is definitely not something to be equated.

Yang Lina in training Photo/Zhang Nan

With her personal experience, Yang Lina prefers to look at these two things separately. "Going abroad to play football, what do you want to get? For example, I want to go to the World Cup and go to a really high level league before the World Cup to improve my own abilities. So I chose to come out and at a time when I probably didn't have as many playing opportunities in Paris, I immediately decided to change clubs. "Everyone's goals are different from everyone's.

But with this experience, Yang Lina still encourages young players to come out and take a look. The five major leagues must be the leagues that can represent the highest level of women's football in the world, and the ability to improve will be very fast. "But other leagues don't mean you can't improve. It's still about finding a club that suits you, and you still have to come out and exercise when you have the opportunity. Domestic leagues are now becoming more and more professional, no matter what kind of club you are in, you should find a higher goal for yourself to achieve. That's the most important thing about football as a profession. Yang Lina said.

Before she turned 30, she did something that she probably just thought about but didn't put into practice. And now, she really came out and used her experience to tell more people about her experience, some successes and some failures. But they are the best experiences, so that more people can take fewer detours in the future. And the new world may also open another door to her career.