AMID cheers and positive comments, the second football festival recently wrapped up in Shajing Subdistrict of Bao’an District. The colorful activities during the festival helped cultivate football talents for the area, according to the Bao’an Daily.

Dubbed as the “Hometown of Football,” Shajing has enjoyed a good reputation for its diversified football culture.

Currently, there are three professional football clubs in Shajing Subdistrict and 38 football coaches with national certifications.

There are more than 80 amateur football teams in Shajing. One of the communities in Shajing, the Bogang Community, has 220 football players and over 10 first-class national athletes among its 1,800 native residents.

Sponsored by the special fund of publicity, culture and sports of Bao’an District, the football festival was organized by the Shajing Subdistrict Office.

As of November this year, the subdistrict office had already organized seven free football training programs for over 500 teenagers. The office had also selected 200 talented teenager football players among 600 candidates to join two teenager football teams.

During the football festival, a football tournament named “Stars of Tomorrow” was held and eight teenager football teams from all areas in Shenzhen participated in the tournament.

Meanwhile, the subdistrict office also held exhibitions about football culture to promote the sport during the football festival.

Shajing also invited expatriate professional football coaches with top qualifications recognized by the Union of European Football Associations to train local students this summer to provide an immersive professional football training environment for the teenager players to experience.

Enhancing football training systems at schools is one of the key goals for the subdistrict office. Several schools in Shajing have already incorporated football into their curriculums and hired professional football coaches.

The football team at Shajing Middle School recently won the championship at a city-level football league and other sports.

(Cindy Zhang)