The rural girls chasing goals on football pitches

Qin Furong (4th L) instructs girls of a football team in practice in Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, Sept. 1, 2023. (Xinhua/Tang Yi)

CHONGQING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- For the girls at a primary school deep in the mountains of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, football is much more than a hobby.

"Football has provided us with a brighter future and presented us a broader world," said Qin Furong, who was once a member of the girls' football team at Sanhe Town Primary School in Chongqing's Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County. This year, Qin was enrolled at Donghua University in Shanghai thanks to her aptitude for the sport.

She is not alone. Over the past decade, many of the school's alumnae have been admitted to universities across the country, including Shanghai's Tongji University and the Beijing Sport University, in recognition of their football abilities.

Their life-changing journeys all started in 2013 when Sun Xiaoming, who was then the principal of Sanhe Town Primary School, had the idea to establish a girls' football team. He had thought it could be a chance for the students to receive better education and live different lives.

At the time, Shizhu was troubled by a teacher shortage, and students in rural areas often underperformed compared to their city peers and dropped out of high school.

Facing the bleak situation, Sun, who was also a physical education teacher, looked to improve his students' futures by nurturing football talent.

"The sport has no player height limitations, and it has low costs and can be played in a wide variety of places. And there were relatively few girls' football teams in Chongqing schools at the time, providing us with the space to develop such a team," he recalled.

For Sun, the greatest difficulty was working out how to persuade the children's parents to accept his idea.

To prove its feasibility, Sun sent Ma Qinglin, a pupil who showed great athletic talent, to another primary school for football training. Months later, Ma received a scholarship to study at the Chongqing No. 37 Secondary School. Her experience brought hope to other girls at the school and their parents.

In 2013, the school established a girls' football team consisting of 20 students.

Qin was among that number. "The conditions at that time were really hard, but we all treasured the opportunity to practice," she said in a speech while attending the opening ceremony for a new semester at the Sanhe primary school in 2023. "We used footballs made of rubber, and it hurt a lot when we fell on the cement of our training ground. Although we gained bruises during training, none of us thought of giving up."

In 2015, Qin joined the Chongqing campus football league together with 10 other alumnae from her primary school. Through their efforts, the team won the championship.

Over the past decade, nearly 100 students have joined the girls' football team at the Sanhe primary school. And over 70 of those students were later enrolled in schools in Chongqing's urban areas. They have become champions and runners-up in football matches above the municipal level 26 times.

This summer, Qin volunteered to help train the Sanhe school's girls' football team. Their playground has been lined with green grass, and the footballs the students use are no longer made of rubber. But what remains unchanged is that the students still take pride in playing football.

"Long and arduous as the journey is, we will get to our destination as long as we take real steps," Qin told the girls.

Students throw footballs into the sky during the opening ceremony for a new semester at Sanhe Town Primary School in Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, Sept. 1, 2023. (Xinhua/Tang Yi)