Football Dreams Shake into Kashgar Campus: Shenzhen Kashgar Base Aid Dream

Huang Jinxiaohu

In Kashgar City, Xinjiang, football is the running figure of children, the leaping love on the playground, and the persistence of a physical education teacher for more than 20 years and the mission and responsibility of a base for aid to Xinjiang. From the earth slope open space to the professional court, from a 28-person team to a 100-person team, Maimaitijiang Mahamuti, a physical education teacher at Kashgar No. 36 Middle School, and the Shenka Youth Football Training Base, let the seeds of "integration of sports and education" take root and sprout in the Pamir Plateau, and lift the football dream of teenagers in southern Xinjiang.

Mamaitijiang Mahamuti encouraged the players during the training match midnight. Photo by Huang Jinxiaohu, People's Daily

In 1995, Maimatijiang, who had just graduated from university, came to the former Xiamalebag Town Central Primary School in Kashgar City (now Kashgar No. 36 Middle School) to teach. When he first stepped on the podium, he was moved by the children's enthusiasm for football - without a standardized stadium, the earthen slopes, open spaces, and dry riverbeds were the "court"; without professional equipment, old sneakers and cloth-stitched football can make the children sweat. "Their love for football is born, and I can't let this love be restricted by conditions," said Maimaitijiang.

2012 is the "turning year" for Kashgar campus football. This year, Maimitijiang demolished his own grape trellis, set up a simple goal in the school playground, and took the lead in forming the "Son Doll" campus football team, with only 28 members in the first batch. In order to ignite the children's interest, he incorporated football skills into interesting training and used football stories to convey the spirit of sports. It was also this year that under the care of the Autonomous Region Party Committee and the Government, the school ushered in the first plastic lawn football field. "When the children played football on a flat lawn for the first time, I will never forget the light in my eyes." Maimaitijiang said.

Since then, Maimatijiang's football education path has become more and more solid. As a national first-level football referee and a national C-level football coach, the children's training courses are carefully designed, focusing on improving skills, and emphasizing teamwork and character shaping of players. Over the past 20 years, he won the first prize in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region physical education teacher teaching competition and basic skills competition, and won the second prize in the National Physical Education Teacher Basic Skills Competition. The "Son Doll" football team has also grown from 28 people to more than 160 people, becoming the "golden signboard" of Kashgar campus football.

Shenka Youth Football Training Base Football Field. Photo by Huang Jinxiaohu, People's Daily

"Responsibility is the warmth of the heart of educators," Maimaitijiang often said, "Only by subliminating responsibility into love, work has a real meaning."

If Maimaitijiang is the "seeder" of Kashgar campus football, then the Shenka Youth Football Training Base is the "Yulin Garden". In December 2023, the Shenzhen-Karabakh Youth Football Training Base, built with 100 million yuan in Shenzhen’s aid to Xinjiang, was officially put into use. In the total area of ​​14,300 square meters, 14 professional sports fields cover 11-person, 8-person, 5-person football fields, track and field fields, and basketball courts; apartment buildings with 900 people, restaurants with 500 people, and functional areas such as rehabilitation training rooms and tactical classrooms have given southern Xinjiang the first high-standard youth football training base.

"In the past, I had no place to practice tactics systematically. Now I have all the tactical classrooms and rehabilitation rooms, and the children's training is more scientific." Looking at the facilities of the base, Maimaitijiang couldn't hide his excitement. In June 2024, the Kashgar Municipal People's Government signed a cooperation agreement with the Xinjiang Football Association, and built a total of 20 elite echelons of U8-U16 based on the base. More than 400 elite players were trained here, and 152 municipal primary and secondary school youth football teams were also guided by the base.

Women's football team training warm-up training. Photo by Huang Jinxiaohu, People's Daily, the event is the best window for testing results. Since 2024, the Shenzhen-Karabakh Base has hosted one national event, five Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region-level event, and three Kashgar regional events, and has received 42,000 participants and observers. In April this year, the first home and away Super League in the five northwestern provinces started here. Players on the field ran and fought hard, and the audience cheered, "That scene allowed us to see the future of Kashgar football." Maimaitijiang said.

Now, on the campus in Kashgar, more and more children have become cheerful and resolute because of football; on the lawn of Shenka base, batches of football teenagers are sprinting towards their dreams. From the moment when the grape trellis was removed from the Maimati River to the construction of a modern base for Shenzhen to aid Xinjiang, this persistence and cooperation that spans more than 20 years is allowing the sunshine of "integration of sports and education" to illuminate the growth path of more young people in southern Xinjiang.