Zhang Qian

    zhqcindy@163.com

    The rain on Sunday did not stop a group of young kids ages 9 and under from running and playing soccer on the final day of the 2015 U9 Shenzhen Youth League.

    Eight teams of kids had joined the soccer league organized by four expatriate coaches in Shenzhen since mid-November last year. Matches were played among five private soccer clubs owned by expats and three clubs with Chinese owners.

    “My team has really grown a lot since the first game of the tournament,” said Hassan Bo, the vice president of Shenzhen Youth League and the head coach of the Wolves team. Bo’s “little wolves” players were the youngest team among the eight, not only in terms of the players’ ages, but also the amount of time the team had been playing.

    The Wolves took fifth place in the league among the eight teams. “The kids have only been training for about five months and only two of them had training experience before they joined,” said Bo, “but I have a strong belief in my players that they can achieve even greater things in the next league.”

    Jacky Zhang was No.11 on the Wolves team and won the title of Best Young Player in the league. He scored at least three goals in the final game against a team with older kids. The 8-year-old boy was cheerful and active when running up and down on the field.

    “He enjoys playing soccer and I can feel his happiness when he plays,” said Zhang’s father, who was standing beside the field cheering.

    The father told Shenzhen Daily that the he felt the foreign coaches were focusing more on helping the kids love the sport and passing on basic skills rather than pushing the kids to score at games. “My son started playing soccer two years ago after he was selected for a school team while he was still a first grader, and I can see that he has more interest in playing soccer now,” said the father.