Source title: The inter-village football league in Rongjiang County, Guizhou Province is popular and the audience is full in some games
“Village Super” is on fire. According to media reports, this inter-village league held by Rongjiang County, Guizhou, has been viewed more than 2 billion times on the Internet. In recent games, more than 50,000 people will gather on the sidelines of the football field, waving flags and cheering. More than some of the World Cup in Qatar last year.
The object of their cheering is not the international football star, but the 20 village-level football teams from Rongjiang County, which is known as the “Miaojiang of Guizhou”. Move bricks at a construction site, shake spoons at a restaurant, or plow in a rice field.
A football team steps out of the basketball court
“Our football team started from the basketball court,” said Li Heng, the forward of the Yuezhai village football team.
He recalled: “When I was young, there was no football field in the village, so we played on the basketball court, 4 vs 4 or 5 vs 5, split side by side. At that time, the underside of the basketball hoop was built with steel pipes, which was just for us. Use it as a goal.”
Due to the limited family conditions at that time, Li Heng and his friends mostly played barefoot. “The basketball court is a concrete floor, which is not very smooth. Sometimes there is water. Before playing, we have to clean the court to remove small stones and weeds to avoid injuries.”
Li Heng’s younger brother, Li Lu, is one year younger than his elder brother, and is now a member of the Yuezhai Village football team. Li Heng would take his younger brother with him when he played football when he was a child. Over time, the village began to call the two brothers “twin brothers” in football. .
Li Heng said: “It was the first time I played on a real football field when I was in college. We didn’t have teachers or coaches before, so we practiced by ourselves.”
After graduation, Li Heng worked in the government of Rongjiang County, and Li Lu worked as a teacher in a vocational school in Guiyang. The two brothers will play football when they have time. “We play friendly matches almost every week. In addition to the old players, now we will also bring in young players from the village. The youngest players are still in primary school. We practice and learn together with them, which can be regarded as a kind of inheritance.” Li Heng His son is 4 years old this year, and his daughter is 2 years old. When Li Heng goes to play football, he will put his son on the side of the court and give him a ball to play with. “It should be cultivated in advance.”
In this year’s “Village Super League”, in addition to Li Heng and Li Lu, there are many relatives who grew up with Li Heng in the Yuezhai Village football team. “My two cousins and one nephew are on the team. If you count the big family, half of the more than 30 people on the team belong to our family.”
This team that came out of the basketball court is currently ranked fourth in the group stage, only one point away from the first place. Standing on a formal football field, enjoying the encouragement and support of the villagers. “I feel like a big-name player participating in the World Cup, shouldering the honor of the whole village,” Li Heng said.
The team’s finances are almost entirely self-care
“I used to work in Hainan. In order to participate in the ‘Village Super League’, I specially took two months off to go home to participate in the competition.” Wei Yajun, 32, usually works as a steel bar worker on the construction site, and travels with the construction team all year round. But after learning the news of the recruitment of this year’s “Village Super League”, he signed up immediately. He said that in the “Village Super League” team, situations like him are not uncommon. His “Chejiang Second Village Team” is a grassroots team. There are 32 people including the team leader and coach, and none of them are professional athletes. “We came together purely for love. “Wei Yajun said.
In 2003, Chejiang No. 2 Village mobilized the whole village to build a football field. There is a vegetable field on the bank of the Rongjiang River, which is flooded every year and gradually becomes a wasteland. The villagers trimmed the land, used fir trees as goals, sprinkled lime powder to draw lines, and built the first football field in the village. Since then, it has become a venue for many villages in the county to hold competitions. When the flood came, the competition was suspended, and when the flood disappeared, the competition continued. This competition became the predecessor of today’s “Village Super League”.
In 2007, Wei Yajun graduated from junior high school and went out to work. He was a chef at first, and then worked on a construction site. Although the work is hard, he still finds time to find someone to play football. He recalled that although it was exhausting, he was very satisfied with it. The “Village Super” team’s finances are almost entirely self-care. Wei Yajun said that except for the jerseys sponsored by an owner, other shoes and protective gear need to be purchased by the players themselves, and even mineral water is paid by the players. Kick and play by yourself.”
High school students played a wonderful “world wave”
“When my son kicked the ‘world wave’, I was working as a recorder on the sidelines. I could only suppress my inner excitement, and did not congratulate my son until the end of the game.” Mr. Xiao is still very excited about the wonderful goal he scored.
On June 9, Xiao Xiangjian, the son of Mr. Xiao, entered the “Village Super League” as a member of the Rongjiang New Zhongcun football team, and scored two goals in the match, helping the team beat the opponent 5-0. Among them, Xiao Xiangjian completed a wonderful “world wave” in the game. The ball drew a beautiful arc in the air and entered the dead corner of the goal. This scene was broadcast by professional media such as CCTV and spread to the eyes of tens of thousands of fans. .
At this time, Xiao Xiangjian was only a 16-year-old high school student. High school students like Xiao Xiangjian are the main force of the new Nakamura football team.
Temporary goalkeeper: “The harder you work, the stronger you get”
It is located in Sige Village, Sanjiang Township, Rongjiang, 40 kilometers away from the county seat. According to local media reports, Sige Village was still a deeply impoverished village in 2014. In October 2020, all the poor people had just been lifted out of poverty. Wu Dingcan, the striker of the Sige Village team, said frankly that due to the remote location, there are not many people in the village who have been in contact with football for a long time. Even so, the village still assembled a football team to participate in the village championship. This team is considered by the players to be the football team with the largest age span of players in the “Village Super League”.
Yang Shengyun, who is just 18 years old this year, is the youngest member of the team. Before participating in the “Village Super League”, he was mainly busy in the breeding industry. After participating in the “Village Super League”, he was called the “busiest” member of the team member. As the team’s goalkeeper, Yang Shengyun kept saving almost every game. Even so, the team lost by a big score in 6 consecutive games.
Yang Shengyun said frankly that he had hardly touched football before. He was drawn into the team by brothers who often played football in the village two months ago and became a goalkeeper. “The training time is too short, and the movements are always bad , and did not catch the ball. In addition to my lack of skills, the cooperation with my teammates is not smooth, and even my own defender blocks the goalkeeper.” The team suffered a series of disastrous defeats, 0 to 5, 0 to 4 , 0 to 7, and being “shaved” by his opponents consecutively, all these made Yang Shengyun feel on the verge of collapse.
Although the team’s performance is at the bottom of the teams participating in the “Village Super League”, what makes Yang Shengyun sigh is that the villagers have always supported their team, and the players have never given up hope.
“Because our team was just formed, we lacked experience in the game and did not cooperate well, but we never played passively in the game, and we always fought to the end. Now we feel that the more we play, the more vigorous we are.” Today’s Sige Village, more and more The young man is as obsessed with playing football as Yang Shengyun.
Text/Reporter Qu Chang, intern Luo Aimin
“Village Super” is on fire. According to media reports, this inter-village league held by Rongjiang County, Guizhou, has been viewed more than 2 billion times on the Internet. In recent games, more than 50,000 people will gather on the sidelines of the football field, waving flags and cheering. More than some of the World Cup in Qatar last year.
The object of their cheering is not the international football star, but the 20 village-level football teams from Rongjiang County, which is known as the “Miaojiang of Guizhou”. Move bricks at a construction site, shake spoons at a restaurant, or plow in a rice field.
A football team steps out of the basketball court
“Our football team started from the basketball court,” said Li Heng, the forward of the Yuezhai village football team.
He recalled: “When I was young, there was no football field in the village, so we played on the basketball court, 4 vs 4 or 5 vs 5, split side by side. At that time, the underside of the basketball hoop was built with steel pipes, which was just for us. Use it as a goal.”
Due to the limited family conditions at that time, Li Heng and his friends mostly played barefoot. “The basketball court is a concrete floor, which is not very smooth. Sometimes there is water. Before playing, we have to clean the court to remove small stones and weeds to avoid injuries.”
Li Heng’s younger brother, Li Lu, is one year younger than his elder brother, and is now a member of the Yuezhai Village football team. Li Heng would take his younger brother with him when he played football when he was a child. Over time, the village began to call the two brothers “twin brothers” in football. .
Li Heng said: “It was the first time I played on a real football field when I was in college. We didn’t have teachers or coaches before, so we practiced by ourselves.”
After graduation, Li Heng worked in the government of Rongjiang County, and Li Lu worked as a teacher in a vocational school in Guiyang. The two brothers will play football when they have time. “We play friendly matches almost every week. In addition to the old players, now we will also bring in young players from the village. The youngest players are still in primary school. We practice and learn together with them, which can be regarded as a kind of inheritance.” Li Heng His son is 4 years old this year, and his daughter is 2 years old. When Li Heng goes to play football, he will put his son on the side of the court and give him a ball to play with. “It should be cultivated in advance.”
In this year’s “Village Super League”, in addition to Li Heng and Li Lu, there are many relatives who grew up with Li Heng in the Yuezhai Village football team. “My two cousins and one nephew are on the team. If you count the big family, half of the more than 30 people on the team belong to our family.”
This team that came out of the basketball court is currently ranked fourth in the group stage, only one point away from the first place. Standing on a formal football field, enjoying the encouragement and support of the villagers. “I feel like a big-name player participating in the World Cup, shouldering the honor of the whole village,” Li Heng said.
The team’s finances are almost entirely self-care
“I used to work in Hainan. In order to participate in the ‘Village Super League’, I specially took two months off to go home to participate in the competition.” Wei Yajun, 32, usually works as a steel bar worker on the construction site, and travels with the construction team all year round. But after learning the news of the recruitment of this year’s “Village Super League”, he signed up immediately. He said that in the “Village Super League” team, situations like him are not uncommon. His “Chejiang Second Village Team” is a grassroots team. There are 32 people including the team leader and coach, and none of them are professional athletes. “We came together purely for love. “Wei Yajun said.
In 2003, Chejiang No. 2 Village mobilized the whole village to build a football field. There is a vegetable field on the bank of the Rongjiang River, which is flooded every year and gradually becomes a wasteland. The villagers trimmed the land, used fir trees as goals, sprinkled lime powder to draw lines, and built the first football field in the village. Since then, it has become a place for many villages in the county to hold competitions. When the flood came, the competition was suspended, and the competition continued after the flood. This competition became the predecessor of today’s “Village Super League”.
In 2007, Wei Yajun graduated from junior high school and went out to work. He was a chef at first, and then worked on a construction site. Although the work is hard, he still finds time to find someone to play football. He recalled that although it was exhausting, he was very satisfied with it. The “Village Super” team’s finances are almost entirely self-care. Wei Yajun said that except for the jerseys sponsored by an owner, other shoes and protective gear need to be purchased by the players themselves, and even mineral water is paid by the players. Kick and play by yourself.”
High school students played a wonderful “world wave”
“When my son kicked the ‘world wave’, I was working as a recorder on the sidelines. I could only suppress my inner excitement, and did not congratulate my son until the end of the game.” Mr. Xiao is still very excited about the wonderful goal he scored.
On June 9, Xiao Xiangjian, the son of Mr. Xiao, entered the “Village Super League” as a member of the Rongjiang New Zhongcun football team, and scored two goals in the match, helping the team beat the opponent 5-0. Among them, Xiao Xiangjian completed a wonderful “world wave” in the game. The ball drew a beautiful arc in the air and then entered the dead corner of the goal. This scene was broadcast by professional media such as CCTV and spread to the eyes of tens of thousands of fans. .
At this time, Xiao Xiangjian was only a 16-year-old high school student. High school students like Xiao Xiangjian are the main force of the new Nakamura football team.
Temporary goalkeeper: “The harder you work, the stronger you get”
It is located in Sige Village, Sanjiang Township, Rongjiang, 40 kilometers away from the county seat. According to local media reports, Sige Village was still a deeply impoverished village in 2014. In October 2020, all the poor people had just been lifted out of poverty. Wu Dingcan, the striker of the Sige Village team, said frankly that due to the remote location, there are not many people in the village who have been in contact with football for a long time. Even so, the village still assembled a football team to participate in the village championship. This team is considered by the players to be the football team with the largest age span of players in the “Village Super League”.
Yang Shengyun, who is just 18 years old this year, is the youngest member of the team. Before participating in the “Village Super League”, he was mainly busy in the breeding industry. After participating in the “Village Super League”, he was called the “busiest” member of the team member. As the team’s goalkeeper, Yang Shengyun kept saving almost every game. Even so, the team lost by a big score in 6 consecutive games.
Yang Shengyun said frankly that he had hardly touched football before. He was drawn into the team by brothers who often play football in the village two months ago and became a goalkeeper. “The training time is too short, and the movements are always bad , and did not catch the ball. In addition to my lack of skills, the cooperation with my teammates is not smooth, and even my own defender blocks the goalkeeper.” The team suffered a series of disastrous defeats, 0 to 5, 0 to 4 , 0 to 7, and being “shaved” by his opponents in a row, all of which made Yang Shengyun feel on the verge of collapse.
Although the team’s performance is at the bottom of the teams participating in the “Village Super League”, what makes Yang Shengyun sigh is that the villagers have always supported their team, and the players have never given up hope.
“Because our team was just formed, we lacked experience in the game and did not cooperate well, but we never played passively in the game, and we always fought to the end. Now we feel that the more we play, the more vigorous we are.” Today’s Sige Village, more and more The young man is as obsessed with playing football as Yang Shengyun.
Text/Reporter Qu Chang, intern Luo Aimin