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Urumqi, May 4 (Xinhua) -- For Selima Kari and Sabire Kari, the women's soccer team of the primary school in Baren Township, Aktao County, Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, won the championship in the county's soccer match, which was one of the two best things that happened some time ago.
The two are sisters, Uyghurs, Selima is 13 years old, and Sabire is 10 years old, and they both play in midfield. Aktao County, where they are located, is named after the white snow-capped peaks, which means "white mountain" in the local minority language. The venue of the game was the campus of a middle school in Aktau County, and from the stands of the playground, you could see the children playing football on the field, and you could also see the snow-capped mountains and glaciers in the distance. This is the eastern part of the Pamirs, and Aktao County is the westernmost county-level administrative region in China.
It is not the first time that the school has won the championship of the Aktao County Campus League for many years, and even the uncle who sells naan in the county knows it, and the women's football team of Kecun Primary School is very powerful. But this time it's a little different, because the other of the two things is that Shui Qingxia, the former head coach of the Chinese women's football team, wants to come to watch their games and take them to train.
Shui Qingxia, the former head coach of the Chinese women's football team, took the children to train together.
"When I heard that the water coach was coming, I went straight to the players and told the players about it, and then my sister (Sebire) didn't believe me, I told her three times, and she didn't believe me. Elsidin Aniwa, the vice principal of the village primary school and the coach of the girls' team, recalled with a smile.
There are many memories of this team. The school's women's team was formed in 2019, a year later than the boys' team. At first, it was because the girls watched the boys training on the field and wanted to join. Elsidin discussed with another coach, Mutai Lifu, about starting a women's soccer team. "Because our country's women's football is famous".
However, the establishment of the team is difficult, and many parents can't let go of their minds and think that girls are not good at playing football. After doing the ideological work of the parents, the first batch of women's football players were recruited. Train, train hard, Monday to Friday and weekends. There was no other women's football team nearby, so they could only play with the men's team, and gradually, the men's team couldn't beat them.
The person in white in the picture is her sister Sebire, and the one on the right is her sister Selima.
Playing football has also made a difference for them, "I used to be a bit introverted and not very talkative, but after I joined the football team, I became more cheerful and confident, and I made a lot of good friends. Selima said.
Selima is very steady, and Sebire is her sister's happy "little tail", because her sister plays football, she also starts to practice. "I was weak when I came into the football team, and then I practiced a lot of dribbling, tackles and stuff like that, and I was even stronger. Her little round face was a little proud, "When I move the table in the class, as soon as I move the table, the table will leave." ”
Football has brought these girls a change in temperament and physical strength, and it has also allowed them to see a bigger world.
Former head coach of the Chinese women's football team, Shui Qingxia, guided during training.
Now the parents in the village have naturally taken the initiative to send their children to the football team. "A few years ago, I was not satisfied, but now I can't recruit it." Girls' soccer teams have also been set up in nearby schools, and girls playing football can be seen on the roads of villages and towns. One factor that cannot be ignored here is that everyone has seen these girls because of the richer life experience of football. When asked about the places she has been, Selima said that there are Artush, Aksu, Urumqi, Xi'an, Xiamen......
These locations spell out the upward trajectory of this team. In 2020, they were selected into the third batch of support for Alipay's "Chasing the Wind Program", a rural campus women's football support project launched by Ant Foundation, China Youth Development Foundation and other institutions, and received resource support including equipment, funds, coach training and competitions.
In 2023, they will break out of Xinjiang and win the championship of the Northwest Division of the National Rural Campus Women's Football League - "Chasing the Wind League" in Xi'an. This means that they are eligible to participate in the national finals of the Chasing Wind League held at the end of the year, and the venue of the competition is Xiamen.
Growing up under the glaciers of the Pamirs, these girls saw the sea for the first time in their lives.
The sea is not easy to see, the distance from Aktao County to Xiamen is more than 5,000 kilometers, they got on a plane, stopped in Xining, overnight in Zhengzhou, and arrived in Xiamen after nearly 20 hours of flight.
In Xiamen, they competed with other "wind chasing girls" from all over the country, tasted the long-lost taste of losing, and also had a new goal. When there are no competitions, they wear beautiful national costumes and dance in the sea breeze. At that time, the Chinese women's football team was participating in the women's football Asian qualifiers for the Paris Olympics in Xiamen, and the "Chasing Wind Girls" were able to witness the "Sonorous Rose" defeat Thailand 3:0 at home. They wore small national flags on their faces and sang the national anthem to cheer for their sisters, while the players of the Chinese women's football team also came to the stands where they were after the game and said to them, "Come on, chasing the wind girl!"
"They said, 'Coach, we're so excited, we're so happy today!' and I kept taking pictures of them. "After watching the game, the players changed their minds. After coming back, I also really wanted to become a professional football player, and my sister (Selima) said every time that she wanted to be like Wang Shuang's sister and become a member of the national team. So they're training really hard now, and we're training them very hard. ”
My sister wants to be Wang Shuang, and my sister wants to be my sister.
Sebire was still a child, and she couldn't go out to play football with her sister in Group A, but every time her sister went out, she would bring her delicious food. There is a "particularly spicy fish steak" and a "sparkling lollipop", and the lollipop is still in my sister's desk, and I have never been willing to eat it.
After returning from Xiamen, this year's Spring Festival, dozens of local children such as my sister and teammates of the football team went to Jiangxi to start research activities and pair up with the children there for the New Year.
I went to Jiangxi for the New Year because of football, and it wasn't all because of football. Jiangxi is one of the first eight provinces (cities) in the country to aid Xinjiang, and the counterpart is Aktao County, Kezhou. In Aktao County, you can see the slogan of "one family in Gantao and two places" from time to time. There is a saying that in Jiangxi, which has 100 counties (cities, districts), Aktao is the 101st county.
In Dingnan County, Ganzhou City, my sister and the girls of Dingnan No. 3 Middle School went to the green covenant that spanned thousands of kilometers on the court, and then watched the dragon dance and other characteristic folk performances in the local town. My sister went to the home of Lai Miaomiao, a member of the women's football team of Dingnan No. 3 Middle School, to have a Chinese New Year's Eve dinner with her family, and everyone went to the football base to watch the Spring Festival Gala together. Young hearts, clinging together like pomegranate seeds.
At the football base, Selima also received a surprise, Wang Shuang, who was still playing in a foreign country at that time, heard their story and specially recorded a video to wish her a happy Spring Festival.
Shui Qingxia with Selima and Saibire
Such happiness was felt by my sister and sister when Shui Qingxia guided her to come to Jike Village Primary School with the "Chasing the Wind Project" this time. Coach Shui watched their game, witnessed his sister's two goals, and took the women's football players of Heke Village Primary School to a training session on the wing.
"In these girls, I see football in its purest form. Seeing them all enjoying themselves, being able to learn about themselves and the outside world through football, so that they can have more possibilities in life. Shui Qingxia said. She had just danced a folk dance with the girls of the football team with her not very skilled dancing posture, and her brows were stretched.
"My paper airplane flew and flew to the edge of the reeds. Take me to see the sunset and the fields full of flowers...... "The sisters sang the song they had learned. Shui Gui gave them brand new soccer balls and encouraged them to play football well and study hard.
Selima in class.
My sister is now in the sixth grade, sitting in the classroom, she is not preparing for the competition, but for the exams of the junior class, if all goes well, she will go to a new city, where she will go to junior high school, then high school, university, and continue her football dream in a new environment. She said she wanted the university to be in a place with the sea.
My sister is still in Group B, and she may take over her sister's midfield position in Group A. She was also immersed in the joy of meeting the water director, "She said that I played 'awesome'". At the end of the day, the girls of the soccer team flocked to find the water coach to sign their jerseys, and on the chest of the jerseys, there was a round purple sticker they put on themselves, which was the logo of the Chinese women's football team, a phoenix rising into the sky.
There may not be a phoenix in real life, but there are mighty golden eagles in the Pamirs, huge birds of prey that usually spread their wings and are lifted up by the thermals rising from the ground, hovering into the air and then flying into the wider world. For Selima Kari and Sebire Kari, football is their wings, and the words Jiangxi, Xiamen, Shuigui, and Wang Shuang represent the hot wind under the wings.
Having such wind and wings is perhaps one of the best things that have ever happened to them in their lives.
Editor: Wang Zhitao
Source: Xinhua News Agency