"Go to Beijing to play football." Xu Jiajia fulfilled one of his dreams.
On July 8, at the Beijing Workers' Stadium, like many "famous feet" who play here, photos of Xu Jiajia and a group of young teammates were hung in the players' locker room. On this day, the U13 youth football team of Qianxian Prefecture of Guizhou Province mixed with the Beijing Guoan U12 echelon.
Four years ago, with the help of poverty alleviation cadres, Xu Jiajia entered Luguan Primary School in Xingren City, with more than 1,200 students, from a rural school in Qianxian Prefecture, Guizhou Province. There, she met a volunteer police officer from Beijing, was selected for the football team, played well, and under the leadership of the "police coach", she was promoted to the key middle school of Qianxian Prefecture. Last week, she flew to Beijing for the first time and kicked a soccer ball into the Beijing Workers' Stadium.
On July 8, the youth football team of Qianxian Prefecture in Guizhou Province took a group photo with the players of Beijing Guoan Football Club. Photo by Beijing News reporter Wang Fei
This is the story of an ordinary mountain girl fulfilling her dream, but behind it, it is the story of one group of people helping another group of people to ignite hope.
In March 2021 and September 2022, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau successively sent two batches of 40 civilian police officers with professional expertise to Xingren City and Pu'an County, Qianxian Prefecture, Guizhou Province, to carry out three-year football and English volunteer teaching. Among them, two groups of 24 soccer support police officers (4 who remained in office) continued to promote and popularize campus football, set up a total of 22 campus football teams, and led campus football teams to achieve excellent results in competitions held in the country, Guizhou Province and their counties and cities for many times.
Under the planning and promotion of the volunteer teaching team, the government of Qianxian Prefecture has set up a youth football training base in Xingyi City, the capital, and established a "whole chain" promotion channel of "primary school-junior high school-high school-university-employment" for outstanding football talents in Qianxian Prefecture.
13-year-old Xu Jiajia has a bigger dream: "Go out of the mountains and go to a better place to study." "The volunteer police planted a seed in the hearts of the children.
On July 5, in the friendly match between the Qianxian Prefecture Youth Football Team and the Beijing Youth Team in Guizhou Province, Xu Jiajia and her teammates hugged and cheered after scoring a goal. Photo by Beijing News reporter Wang Ying
"I'm going to play football in Beijing"
In Guizhou in June, the bee sugar plum is in season, the branches and leaves of the plum tree are pressed by the fruit, and the wind blows, swaying softly with the sound of the tuft.
"I'm going to play football in Beijing." In the distance came the cheers of children. Xu Jiajia, with short neat hair and a tanned face, ran home, followed by two "police instructors" from Beijing.
The courtyard instantly became lively. Mother Lin Yifan rubbed her hands sternly, her feet were busy, bringing washed plums for a while, and then going to the chicken nest to touch eggs, pluck the bacon on the beam, and then rush into the kitchen to get busy; Father Xu Shenggui said to the two coaches to compare the tape, his accent was heavy, he spoke quickly, and repeatedly, "Jiajia has bothered you." ”
Xu Jiajia, 13 years old this year, is the only child in the village who went to Xingyi City, the capital of Qianxian Prefecture, to study in a public junior high school, with good grades, and was also selected for the U13 women's football team in Qianxian Prefecture, Guizhou Province, and will soon go to Beijing to participate in a youth football summer camp. More than two years ago, she often skipped class, was the "eldest sister" among children of the same age, and was also a "problem student" who gave teachers a headache.
In that period of time when I felt ashamed and regretted when I thought about it, Jiajia met Song Xiaochuan, a police officer who came to support the teaching. He was like a light shining into Jiajia's life.
In 2021, children who have just been selected for the football team are training, the first one in the picture is Xu Jiajia. Photo courtesy of interviewee
On March 18, 2021, the first batch of 18 police officers from the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau went to 6 schools (3 primary schools, 3 junior high schools) in Xingren City and Pu'an County, Qianxian Prefecture, and began the work of providing targeted assistance and support for education. Song Xiaochuan and his partner formed a football team at Luguan Primary School in Xingren City.
Song Xiaochuan found that Jiajia was a good seedling. In the fifth grade, she ran fast, was physically fit, intelligent and understanding, and was not only selected for the team, but also selected as its captain.
For more than a year after that, this group of children who "didn't even know what football was at first" sweated on the training ground day after day, and little by little learned to pass, dribble, shoot... They represented Luguan Primary School in the Xingren City School Football League and won the championship many times.
Xu Jiajia was selected for the Qianxi Southwest Prefecture Training Team, along with 15 male and 11 female team members brought out by the volunteer police, who could go to Xingyi City, the capital of Qianxian Prefecture, to attend junior high school.
The opportunity was in front of him, but Jiajia's father made a difficulty. When he received his daughter's call, Xu Shenggui was blinded, he was working in a rubber factory in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, and he needed to calculate the account.
The Xu family had five children, Jiajia was the youngest, including her, and three children were studying at the time. Studying needs money, his wife Lin Yifan has liver disease, and she needs money to see a doctor, and the family of seven relies on farming, raising pigs and Xu Shenggui doing odd jobs to survive. And to go to Xingyi City to study, you have to spend an extra fee every month.
On July 1, Xu Jiajia's mother Lin Yifan (first from right) said that Jiajia was going to Beijing, with a smile on her face. Photo by Beijing News reporter He Junyi
Without hesitating for too long, Xu Shenggui quickly called Jiajia back, "Go, no matter how difficult it is at home, you have to stay up." "In this ordinary farmhouse deep in the mountains, reading is a top priority. Xu Shenggui has always regretted that he was unable to go to junior high school because he could not pay 90 yuan in tuition, and he felt sorry for his eldest daughter who was admitted to university but voluntarily gave up choosing to work.
Xu Jiajia was lucky that she met many "nobles" on the way to school. In the third grade, the poverty alleviation cadres stationed in the village proposed with Xu Shenggui to send Jiajia and her brother to Xingren City to study, and helped them contact the school. The brothers and sisters entered the city, and Jiajia also had the opportunity to become Song Xiaochuan's student.
"Go to a better place to study." It is the hope of the children of this family to get out of the mountains. Jiajia has gone farther and farther, she can go to play football in Beijing, where she is beloved, and her parents are not at ease, and they tell her vigorously, "Listen to the coach and don't get hurt during the game." ”
"Take them to see the outside world"
After more than two years of volunteer teaching, the "police coaches" from Beijing have built a football team from scratch in their respective schools, and have also achieved good results.
The police promoted the establishment of a football association in Pu'an County, achieving the goal of having a football association in the whole prefecture of southwest Qianxi. Xingren Phoenix Middle School established the first high school girls' state-level team in Qianxian Prefecture, and achieved the sixth place in the girls' group A at the 11th Guizhou Provincial Games held in August 2022, which is the best result achieved by Qianxian Prefecture since the resumption of the Guizhou Provincial Games. At the 2022 Midwest Youth Football Invitational Tournament, two U12 football teams led by the volunteer police won four games, standing out among 20 teams from 9 provinces and winning the Excellence Award...
Wang Gang and Zhang Jinan led the Phoenix Middle School girls' football team to represent Qianxian Prefecture in the competition. Photo courtesy of interviewee
At first, it was difficult to find a few children who had been exposed to football in the school, and the new playground, the standard soccer field with new turf, and the gleaming metal goals were all just places to run and climb in the eyes of the children.
In order to pull up the first high school girls' state-level representative team in Qianxian Prefecture, Wang Gang, a volunteer police officer, and his colleagues drove to find people one place by place, driving a total of more than 5,000 kilometers of mountain roads, and finally selected 28 junior high school graduates in Xingyi, Xingren, Anlong, Zhenfeng, Wangmo and other counties (cities), and arranged for them to study and train in Phoenix Middle School.
Most of these children do not excel in school, their family conditions are also very difficult, there are many siblings, their parents work outside the home all year round, and some children have even taken on the burden of raising younger siblings. Bellome was one of them, and after being selected, her family did not approve of her playing football.
"What's the use of kicking?" The volunteer police have been more or less questioned in this way. They patiently explained, "There are many different paths in life, and football may open a window for children. "When they have time, they also visit their homes to persuade parents who are concerned. With the joint efforts of the coach and the staff of the Wangmu County Government and the Education Bureau, Bellomei finally appeared at the training ground.
Wang Gang on the training ground is strict and does not smile. Photo by Beijing News reporter He Junyi
Being a teacher is a big challenge for police officers. Cai Shuo, a police officer who teaches at Longxi Shiyan School in Pu'an County, has a "headache" student, named Chen Jinfang, the little girl has good physical fitness and explosiveness, and is an all-round player, but she is too introverted and shy.
For a long time, Jin Fang never looked up, did not speak, did not respond to the coach during training. Cai Shuo asked a few words anxiously, she cried, Cai Shuo, who was less than thirty years old, was helpless in the face of such a half-old child.
When he first arrived at Longxi Shiyan School in Pu'an County in 2021, Cai Shuo was guiding the children to train. Photo courtesy of interviewee
A year and a half later, Cai Shuo learned about her psychological state at that time in a letter written to him by Chen Jinfang, "I don't know anything about football, I don't know how to play, how to stop, how to defend, like a baby facing a new world..."
In this new world of football, coaches teach children the rules and techniques of football hand-in-hand, taking them into the wider world.
Wang Gang and his colleagues found ways to "make a fortune", bringing subsidies such as clothing, football, and backpacks to the children, giving them beef stew and chicken legs on weekends, and also raising various expenses such as transportation, food and lodging when they went out to compete. "Take them to see the outside world."
"I can do it!"
Football training is a chore, and the limits of body and perseverance are pulled to get back to improvement.
Every time she trained, Xu Jiajia ran on the field with all her strength. "She dares to confront and rob," Song Xiaochuan said, which is Jiajia's advantage.
In order to welcome the friendly match of the Beijing Summer Camp on July 4, Xu Jiajia (right) and her teammates intensified their training. Photo by Beijing News reporter He Junyi
She still has the energy to not admit defeat. Just entered junior high school, Jiajia experienced two surgeries of gastroenteritis and appendicitis, and his training and study fell behind a lot, and the former captain of Luguan Primary School was no longer conspicuous in the "mastery" state team. Shi Miao, who served as the physical coach and life coach of this team, could see that Jiajia was a little frustrated, but she was still trying to catch up.
On June 29, during a training session on the eve of going to Beijing to participate in the youth football summer camp, Jiajia started a low-grade fever, her little face was red and sweating, but she still did not want to take leave, "I can't delay any longer." After gritting her teeth for two hours, she ran out of strength and almost fainted during the switchback run at the end of training. Shi Miao forced her to rest, sat on the sidelines drinking water to cool down, and Jiajia gasped and watched her teammates train, her brows wrinkled.
Xu Jiajia once said that since joining the football team, life has a more specific head, "to fight, to win." ”
After each training, Wang Gang often became hoarse and exhausted. Photo by Beijing News reporter He Junyi
But "winning" is by no means the only thing the coach wants to pass on to the kids. Added to this is self-confidence, perseverance, and conviction.
No team wins steadily, especially for a newly formed team, losing is inevitable. Falling and conceding goals again and again are regarded by Bellome as a ditch on the road to success, and when you get up and step over, you will always improve.
In the 2021 Guizhou Provincial FA Cup Youth Football League, the Phoenix Middle School girls' football team achieved 8th place, and 7 team members won the national second-level athlete spot, including Bellomei, which is a huge help for her to enter a sports professional college in the future.
After Chen Jinfang was selected as the goalkeeper of the Qianxian Prefecture team, it was like a different person. Cai Shuo only determined at that time that Jinfang's past performance came from lack of confidence. "It wasn't until she participated in the state tryouts that she found out that she was still the best and really never cried again. In the past, I saw me take a detour, but now I dare to 'provoke' me, 'Coach, you can't run, it's not as fast as me.' ’”
In the summer of 2022, Chen Jinfang (back row, 3rd from right) was selected to join the southwest Qianxi women's U12 training team, and the players took a group photo with coach Tang Yongxin. Photo courtesy of interviewee
The crying little girl on the football field was gone. Chen Jinfang is very hard at training, and she attributes this to the exercise she has exercised since childhood. She has three older sisters and one younger brother, the younger brother was born unable to speak, his parents took him everywhere for medical consultation, and the young Chen Jinfang had to walk alone for more than an hour to go to school every day, from dawn to dawn. Since the third grade, she has come home to do laundry and cooking, feeding pigs and chickens, and has been until now.
In the past, Xu Jiajia would cry when she cut off her shoulder-length long hair, but now, in order to facilitate running, she shaved her short hair fiercely, and her ears and forehead were exposed.
"I can have more than 500 balls in a row." "In this exam, I got the 7th place in my class." Xu Jiajia continued to congratulate Song Xiaochuan. "When she first started training, she couldn't turn a ball upside down, and she had to practice for three or five in a row." Song Xiaochuan didn't ask Jiajia how he worked hard to reach this level, and Jiajia wouldn't pull him to complain and complain.
"Look, I can do it!" The children proved themselves with solid results.
The baton of dreams
In July 2022, 14 of the first batch of 18 police officers returned to Beijing after completing their volunteer education. Song Xiaochuan also left, and before leaving, he handed Xu Jiajia over to Wang Gang and Wang Haonan, who remained in office, and the second batch of Shi Miao and Tong Jixiang, who came to support teaching.
The coach took the baton, but the training never stopped. Wang Gang on the football field is a "ruthless character". He said that training began at six o'clock in the morning, thunder did not move, rain fell into ice in winter, and wet and muggy in summer, but he insisted that "if you are late, you will be punished", and the girls crying tired will invite stricter requirements, and he seems to be never satisfied with their performance.
Every morning at 6 o'clock, the sky was still dark, and the figures of the girls had already appeared on the playground of Xingyi No. 5 Middle School. Photo by Beijing News reporter He Junyi
In Chen Jinfang's eyes, her enlightenment coach Cai Shuo belongs to the "moisturizing and silent" type, and the "big king" coach Wang Gang is like a strict "old father", and "Xiao Wang" coach Wang Haonan does not talk much but can understand her, and always says a word into her heart at critical times... She set up the hilarious group photo of the coaches as her mobile phone screensaver.
Much of the concern of "old fathers" is in places that children cannot see. In private, Wang Gang talked about the difficulties of children, "I learned to wash and cook at a very young age, without parental care, the conditions at home are not good, and the nutrition cannot keep up. ”
After leaving southwestern Qianxi, Song Xiaochuan was entrusted by his friend to save 300 yuan a month in Wang Gang as a subsidy for Jiajia's living expenses. He repeatedly told Jiajia, "You just have to rest assured, study hard, and don't fall behind in football and cultural classes." ”
Jiajia couldn't bear him, looking at the video made when Song Xiaochuan left after the end of teaching, every frame in it was a memory of training and competition together in the past, she buried her head and cried, and made an agreement with the coach: "I want to go to Beijing to go to university, we will see you in Beijing then." ”
I didn't expect the meeting to come so quickly. On July 6, just after the friendly match with the Beijing team, Xu Jiajia saw the coaches hiding outside the stadium to surprise them. She rushed to Song Xiaochuan and asked him in a stack of voices, "Did you see that we won the game?" ”
July 6, Beijing, Song Xiaochuan (left), Tang Yongxin (middle), Zhang Jinan nervously watch the children play outside the arena. Photo by Beijing News reporter Zhang Jingshu
Song Xiaochuan doesn't talk much on weekdays, not as enthusiastic as children express emotions, but he will still "break defense" for such moments. He looked at the child in front of him who had not been in a hurry to "ask for credit" for a year, and saw that she had grown taller and improved, and his heart was extremely comforting.
On the title page of the English book given to Xu Jiajia, Song Xiaochuan wrote this sentence: "I hope you stick to your dreams and work hard to realize our agreement." See you in Beijing in the future! ”
He knows that the seeds of hope have been sown, and these seedlings are tenaciously absorbing nutrients and striving upwards.
From March 2021 to the present, with the relay help of two batches of volunteer education police of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, and with the strong support of Guizhou Province and Qianxian Prefecture's physical education, public security and other departments, 2 team members have been rated as first-class athletes, 38 team members have been rated as national second-level athletes, 6 have been selected into the Guizhou Provincial Youth Training Team and studied in Guiyang Experimental School, and 45 people have been selected into the Qianxian Prefecture Youth Training Team and studied in Xingyi No. 5 Middle School.
Children's dreams take on a more concrete shape. Cai Shuo's student said to him: "Coach, my life has never been so wonderful before you came, and I will go to university, become a police officer, and teach football like you."
Tong Jixiang, a young volunteer police officer, remembers that when he first arrived, he asked the children what their dreams were, and one girl said, "I want to open a commissary in our village." A year later, her dream became—"I'm going to go to military school and be a soldier." ”
On July 10, as the summer camp drew to a close, children watched the flag-raising ceremony in Tiananmen Square. After the ceremony, a girl greets the rising sun with open arms. Photo by Beijing News reporter Wang Jianing
During the interview, Chen Jinfang held a baby face and said like a little adult, "I'm so lucky, don't you say that this is that fate has been changed?" ”
If you seize the opportunity, you don't want to let go. When I was at school, I got up early every day to train, and I was at home during the holidays. At 5:30 a.m., Chen Jinfang got up on time and ran around the mountain road in the village for half an hour, rain or shine. "I have dreams, it's my own business."
"What is your dream?"
"Enter the national football team." Chen Jinfang blurted out.
Football is like a ray of light that illuminates the path ahead for children. Wang Gang said that he is willing to be the leader, "whether the children will embark on the path of professional football, their love of football, their understanding of sportsmanship, and the change of their own destiny will be passed on to the next generation." The hope of the team members falls on the earth like a seed, and the whole region will develop better and better, which is the real 'dual support of wisdom'. ”
Beijing News reporter Zhang Jingshu Editor Liu Qian Proofreader Zhang Yanjun