Reporter Han Yixi reported from Haikou On February 12, 43 players and 5 coaches from the Shenka Youth Football Base in Kashgar City, Xinjiang successfully completed their winter training and exchanges in Haikou, and returned to Kashgar City after a long journey. At Kashgar Airport, the children were warmly welcomed by their relatives and the personnel of the Shenka Football Base.

This is a journey spanning 6,000 kilometers, the team set off from Kashgar on January 14, traveled to Beijing and Chongqing respectively, arrived at Haikou Meilan Airport at around 0:00 on the 25th, and then went to the China Football (Southern) Training Base to start a nearly month-long winter training.

The winter training team was led by Yang Jinzi, Secretary of the Party Committee of the Shenka Football Base, and the head coach was Abulat Abdurehman, the coach of the U14 age group. The players, aged between 12 and 14 years old, are some of the elite players selected from various schools in Kashgar City by the Shenka Football Base, and some of them have also gone to Xi'an and Guangzhou for short training and exchanges under the arrangement of the Xinjiang Football Association. The Xinjiang Football Association also looks forward to selecting the best of the best through continuous screening and selecting the best talents for the subsequent National Games.

In Haikou, it is still sunny in winter, which is also the main reason why the Xinjiang Football Association arranged the team to train here. At Mission Hills' China Football (Southern) Training Base, the team practiced almost non-stop twice a day, played many training matches with teams of the same age from other regions where they trained, and achieved good results in the "Mission Hills Cup" held at the base. The skills and teamwork ability displayed by the Xinjiang youngsters on the field, as well as their excellent fighting and high morale, were sincerely admired and envied by the opponent coaches.

Tulahong, executive vice chairman of the Xinjiang Football Association, accompanied the team to complete the winter training almost the whole process. In addition to watching the team's daily training, he also keeps an eye on the diet and life of the players, after all, it is the first time that the children have been away from home for so long. In addition to training, Turahun also led the whole team to Sanya's Uygur Village to enjoy a sumptuous feast, and organized a visit to the aquarium in Haikou, so that the children could relax physically and mentally after training. The winter training period coincided with the Spring Festival, and on the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, Turahun also specially invited chefs to hold a Spring Festival dinner with Uyghur characteristics in the base.

Talking about this group of children, Tulahong is like a few treasures, and he is very optimistic that some of them "have a good chance to be on the Chinese Super League in the future". The captain Ranmu Tula, who is thin but already has the style of a general, also left a very deep impression on the warm-up opponents in this training camp. He has trained at Evergrande Football School for a year, and he is also recognized as the most powerful player in the team. When asked why he didn't continue his studies at Evergrande Football School, his answer was simple: "Because my mother misses me too much." And his goal is to "be in the national team in the future".

Under-12 goalkeeper Iliyar, who looks quite mature, is also one of the players Turahun is most optimistic about getting on the professional stage. He's calm in front of goal and he's very good at his feet. He told reporters: "I actually started playing as a winger, when I was 8 years old, I went out to play once, the team had no goalkeeper, the coach asked me to go to the goal, and it turned out that I was very good. I've been goalkeeper ever since, and I prefer to be a goalkeeper. ”

The immature central defender Muhaimat Tursun, who is a proud disciple of U12 coach Maierdan Rahman, looks polite off the field, he is completely different on the field, accurate prediction, fierce interception, and no fear even in the confrontation with the U14 echelon. "Buy Coach" expects him to become a Cannavaro-style centre-back in the future.

The power of role models is endless, and most of the children's idols are Messi, Ronaldo or Neymar, and of course, there are also representatives of outstanding players in Xinjiang such as Baihelamu and Eiffelding. During the winter training period, the Chinese men's national football team and many Chinese Super League and Chinese League A clubs also trained at the Mission Hills base. Although the children did not have the opportunity to meet the two Xinjiang players in the national team, Baihelam and Maiwulang Mijiti, they were also very happy to meet Chengdu Rongcheng midfielders Mutalifu and Azmat under the contact of Coach Abu.

Mutalifu, who has already made a name for himself in the Chinese Super League, is from Kashgar and has also practiced under Nur Ahmet Ahaiti, who was the team's U13 head coach this time. After the group photo, he also sent his blessings to the juniors: "I am very happy that they can enjoy this sport, pay for their dreams, and hope that they can be good people, play good football, read good books, and become useful people for the country." ”

"Study hard", said more than once from the mouths of Chairman Turahun and Coach Abu. At 8 o'clock every night in this winter training, all team members must hand in their mobile phones and complete the cultural class on time and in quantity.

In the eyes of many people, Xinjiang players are in excellent physical condition and tough in style, but they are lacking in technology and teamwork. Turahun elaborated on the efforts of the Xinjiang Football Association in this regard, and constantly instilled the concept of "reading more" in the youth training, "I hope that when the children grow up, even if they can't play professionally, they can also find a living opportunity through reading, which is the meaning of campus football, sports and education integration", and "through reading more, they will have a better understanding of football. ”

The 35-year-old head coach of the team, Abu, is "learning and teaching well", he was admitted to Xinjiang University as a football student, and after completing his studies, he played in the professional league in Guizhou Zhicheng for two years through a trial. Because he was the only son in the family and his father died early, in order to accompany his mother, he gave up the career opportunity and returned to Kashgar to work in youth training.

In Coach Abu's view, the current youth training model has changed a lot. When he was in elementary school and junior high school, most of the children who ran fast and had good physical fitness but poor learning went to practice football, and children who studied well were often "given up". But now, they pay more attention to the concept of "learning to play football", because such children "have stronger comprehension and reading skills on the field, and often have better implementation of the coach's tactical arrangements".

Abu also took his son as an example: "He is now in the third grade, with scores of more than 95 points in Chinese and mathematics, and he is also practicing football, although his current level is average compared to some children in the base, but I have always encouraged him, and I believe that in three years he will be better than those children!" With the help of various Xinjiang aid forces, Coach Abu himself has continued to learn, making him feel that this is "the best stage in the past ten years of work", and his greatest hope is that "more Xinjiang children can enter the national team and win glory for the country!" ”

The strong football population and super hot football atmosphere are the source of confidence for Tuhahong and Abu to have more Xinjiang children enter the professional team and even the national team in the future.

According to Turahun, the Shenka Football Base has a total of nearly 2,000 players aged 8 to 16, and only a small part of the elites of the same age came to Haikou for training. They usually send coaches to various schools, train at the school from Monday to Friday, select outstanding seedlings to go to the base for training and competitions on weekends, and then select the best players to focus on training and send them out. These efforts have been strongly supported by schools and parents, and this is the current state of football in Xinjiang, which Turahun is proud of. What is the most important thing for children to come out and play football? Turahun thought: "First of all, you have to come out! ”

Talking about the fundamentals of football development, Turahun specially mentioned to reporters the hot "village super" in Guizhou in the past two years, and he said that the model of the village super is very similar to the way they implemented community football before. With the efforts of the Xinjiang Football Association, Kashgar City, with a population of about 1.02 million, has 109 amateur clubs, and in 2021, the "Unity Cup" competition was held in Kashgar.

In his opinion, no matter what the level is, the first thing is to let the masses "participate", and the more parents participate, the higher the probability of children playing along. There are more children playing football in school, which will naturally lead some children who don't like to play football to fall in love with football together. Turahun said: "If you want to develop football, you have to let football return to society, and the root of campus football is actually in social football. ”

The winter training of the Shenka Youth Football Team also received strong assistance and support from the China Football (Southern) Training Base, and they coordinated and arranged the team's accommodation, training and games in the shortest possible time.

China Football (Southern) Training Base is a project officially awarded by the General Administration of Sports of China and the Chinese Football Association in 2022, located in Mission Hills Haikou Tourist Resort, with a total planned area of about 800 acres. The whole base has 30 football training fields and the only indoor standard 11-a-side football training field in China and even in Asia, as well as an athlete hotel that can accommodate more than 850 people, as well as a complete physical training center, rehabilitation center and other supporting facilities. Coupled with Hainan's unique good climate, this base has become the first choice for winter training for many teams, including national teams.

On January 20, Chairman Tulahun and Liu Xiaoxin, director of the Football newspaper, visited Cai Mingyang, the general manager of the base, who also briefed them on the status and future plans of the base. Turahun was also quite envious of the configuration of the base, and also put forward the idea of future cooperation, exploring the possibility of establishing a Chinese football training base in Kashgar or Xinjiang. He is full of confidence in the development of football in Xinjiang, "And I believe that there is hope for football in Xinjiang, and there will be more hope for Chinese football!" ”