"She doesn't play football, and I can't accept it" — the unwavering commitment of county-level youth coach Liu Lin

Zuo Rui reports from Xingyi At the lush green Lutun Football Town, located in the scenic Lutun Ancient Town, more than 570 players and coaches have gathered for the 2026 Central and Western China Youth Football Invitational Tournament. These primary school graduates who love football, along with grassroots coaches deeply rooted in county-level football, represent not only the rising momentum of youth training in central and western China but also the driving force behind the early development of professional and national team players. One such figure is Liu Lin, the coach who discovered U17 national women's team forward Ju Zhitong and serves as the team leader of the U13 girls' team at the Xiushan Youth Training Center.

Ju Zhitong's younger teammates have been invited to the Central and Western China Youth Football Invitational Tournament for two consecutive editions. In the last tournament, they won the silver award in the Gold Plate group. This time, with a completely new lineup, another group of girls who had never left Chongqing flew to the competition for the first time. The 40-year-old Liu Lin told Football that the significant improvement in the tournament's level has brought greater challenges to his team, but regardless of the results, they deeply cherish this opportunity. "I told my players that even Ju Zhitong rarely had such chances when she was young," he said.

Twenty years ago, Liu Lin enthusiastically tried out for Chongqing Lifan, but due to never having received professional training, the outcome was predictable. He didn't make the team. Later, after completing university and running a business, he still couldn't let go of his unfulfilled football dream from his youth. So he returned to Xiushan, co-founded the Feilin Sports Club with a friend, and began his journey into youth football training.

In 2019, when the girls' football program was launched at Yingfeng Primary School, there were only five girls on the team, including Ju Zhitong, who had to train and compete alongside the boys. In 2021, encouraged by the girls' impressive performances on the field, the club's youth training focus began shifting toward girls' football. Starting in 2022, Liu Lin's team won the Chongqing City Championship in the U12 girls' category for four consecutive years — and during this period, Ju Zhitong had already moved up to a higher-level youth training platform.

Liu Lin believes that the biggest challenge in developing girls' football is the lack of widespread participation and the small base of youth players. To expand the pool of girls' football players within his capacity, Liu Lin has persistently focused on three things over the years: First, he has visited nearly all of the county's 30-plus primary schools, scouting for promising talent through class leagues or PE classes, never missing even a rural school with only a few dozen students. Second, for girls with football talent whose parents are indifferent, he repeatedly uses his persistence and sincerity to win them over. "There are parents I can't convince, but talent is rare, and I won't easily give up on anyone." Third, for female players who excel in training but come from financially struggling families, he immediately offers full exemption from training fees as an incentive.

With support from relevant departments in Xiushan, and through Liu Lin's efforts and advocacy, the atmosphere and reach of girls' football in the area have greatly improved compared to the past. Many primary schools in the county have established girls' football teams, with most coaches coming from Feilin Sports. Each school team has at least 15 players, creating a small environment for local competition and mutual learning.

From his self-recommendation to Lifan to building his own youth training system, time has brought many changes to Liu Lin, but it has not altered his way of doing things: if there is no opportunity, he fearlessly takes the initiative despite the risk of failure; if conditions are lacking, he exhausts all means to create them. Through years of hard work and step-by-step examinations, Liu Lin is now the highest-level football coach in Xiushan — an AFC C-level license — which gives him the confidence to lead a coaching team of more than 10 people.

Ju Zhitong not only has outstanding physical attributes but also possesses an exceptional understanding of tactics and techniques. Meeting such a player is a blessing for any coach, but retaining talent and staying true to one's original intentions in difficult times requires relentless effort and the courage to "go forward even if thousands stand in the way."

In the fourth grade, Ju Zhitong, feeling down due to an injury, considered giving up football. Liu Lin repeatedly encouraged her to persevere. During the pandemic, when normal training and matches were impossible, she once again thought of quitting. Liu Lin drove her and three other players to a desolate field on the outskirts of the county town, where they conducted small-scale training for three months. "I would never be willing to let a good prospect like Ju Zhitong slip away," he said.

After graduating from primary school, Ju Zhitong left Xiushan to join the girls' football team of the High School Affiliated to Southwest University, was selected for the Chongqing Provincial Games team, later earned the title of "Olympic Star," joined the "Chufeng Plan," and scored three goals in the U17 Women's Asian Cup this May. Now, she has signed with the Women's League A club Chongqing Aoti Women's Football Team and begun her professional career.

Nurturing a national team player like Ju Zhitong is certainly a coach's honor, but Liu Lin feels even more accomplished seeing the positive changes football brings to his players. "Like many peers in youth training, I also want results and top talents," he said. But once he sees how football can influence children and move their parents, his football beliefs become only more simple and steadfast.

If meeting Ju Zhitong was a stroke of luck, encountering Liao Feilin's parents also required a bit of fortune. "They strongly support their daughter playing football and are willing to make sacrifices for it." Three years ago, Liu Lin went to E'rong Town Primary School in Xiushan to select players. Among a group of fourth-grade girls playing casual football after class, he spotted Liao Feilin's athletic potential.

The subsequent communication with her parents went exceptionally smoothly. Upon learning that their daughter had to transfer to Fengxiang Primary School as a day student, her parents, who had been working far away from home, immediately rented a house near the new school, 50 kilometers away. Liao Feilin recalled that she was actually very anxious at the time — on the bright side, she longed to play better and go further; on the downside, the unknown future and unfamiliar world "made me a bit scared."

At the age of 10, Liao Feilin ventured alone into the county town, leaving behind her family and friends, feeling almost nothing but "fear and loneliness." Moreover, falling behind her classmates in studies and struggling to match her teammates in football made her very sad, and this situation lasted for a long time.

To help the young Liao Feilin adapt to life away from home, Liu Lin tried every possible approach and even considered letting her return. Fortunately, the parents stood by the coach, and her teammates became her new companions. "I'm very grateful to Coach Liu; he never gave up on me," Liao Feilin said, pausing for a moment in the shade of the trees at Lutun Ancient Town.

As she integrated into the team, she no longer relied on individual breakthroughs, and the confidence gained from football also significantly improved her academic performance. "I love football more now than before. Once I immersed myself in it, I found football even more interesting, and improving myself feels really good," she said. Football has brought her more and more friends, including not only teammates but also opponents from other places. "Football has also taken me to many places I've never been before."

Becoming a starting center-back from the player who started training the latest is no small feat, but Liu Lin clearly is not surprised by this. In the first round of the Central and Western China Youth Football Invitational Tournament, Liao Feilin scored a goal; at the award ceremony, she personally won the "Courage and Perseverance Award." After this summer vacation, this football-specialized student will become a seventh grader at Chongqing No. 29 Middle School. Facing a big city and a new school, she is no longer afraid but full of anticipation.

Ramos is Liao Feilin's role model; she admires the way the Spaniard tackles, describing it as "both stylish and brave." But in her eyes, Ju Zhitong is the "most outstanding player" she knows personally. "I got her autograph and also played football with her. To play like her, I still have a long way to go," she said. In Liu Lin's view, players like Liao Feilin are not unique on his team. Since he threw himself into youth football training, what he most enjoys seeing is "their determined looks and the transformation from the inside out."

Examples of players who, like Ju Zhitong, went from county towns to national teams and inspired younger peers to train hard are not uncommon among the teams participating in the Central and Western China Youth Football Invitational Tournament. It is known that places like Liuba, Zhidan, Dingnan, Zizhong, and Xichang have all contributed talent to national teams across various age groups.

On July 22, the U13 boys' team of the Liuba County Youth Training Center defeated their opponents 2-1, achieving three consecutive group-stage wins. On the same day, three active Women's Super League players — Shi Xiaomin, Li Xiaoyu, and Dong Yongshuang — returned to their alma mater, Liuba County Middle School. They currently play for Shaanxi Zhidan Women's Football Team; Shi Xiaomin was previously called up to the Chinese women's national team, and Li Xiaoyu also has experience with the national youth team.

Xue Guanzhen, the head coach of the Liuba County Youth Training Center's boys' team, said that the team competing in Xingyi, Guizhou, is also primarily composed of players from Liuba County Middle School's school team, formed by the local youth training center and including a few players from other local schools. He himself graduated from this school, which has a strong football tradition and a distinctive youth training system, and was admitted to Xiangtan University through the special recruitment exam for football-specialized students.

Two years ago, Shi Xiaomin's childhood friend and teammate Xiao Danjiao graduated from Xi'an Institute of Physical Education and returned to Liuba County Middle School to begin her coaching career. Two years later, Shi Xiaomin and her peers, as senior alumnae, held a face-to-face seminar with the school to convey the spirit of perseverance and share their dreams.

Xue Guanzhen feels proud of his fellow townspeople like Shi Xiaomin and Xiao Danjiao, who have taken different paths since childhood but are now making their mark. He believes that younger students will surely take them as role models and pursue their football dreams more courageously. Speaking during his summer break, while interning as a coach at his alma mater, he said he also wants to return to his hometown after graduation next year to contribute to Liuba's youth training efforts.