GUIYANG, July 24 (Xinhua) -- "Lionel Messi is one of my football idols, and the other is my football coach Piri on the football field training all the kids there," pointing to a man in a red T-shirt. Wei Feng Chunye, a 10-year old kid, said, that he has found a football hero in his daily life and has developed a strong relationship with him since he took the football training course last year.
Chunye is a primary school student, living in the city of Kaili, in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous prefecture, SW China's Guizhou, which is a mountainous province and also one of the most impoverished areas of China.
Chunye's coach, 24-year-old, Mauricio Javier Martinez Neira, comes from Chile. Piri is just the nickname given by his grandma when he was a child. Piri started playing football at the age of 6. After 18, he played in the top and second-tier leagues of Chilean football league system. But he did not do well. A year later, he came to China, working with a football club in the city of Chengdu for just six months. When coming back to China again in 2018, he chose to live in Kaili.
"Before coming to China, my Chinese friends in Chile told me that China is a vast country with a strong economy and is especially striving to promote football culture, so I may have a great opportunity to find a good job here," Piri said, adding that he is a UEFA qualified football coach.
He signed with a local football club -- Guizhou Feng Yun football club, which is Kaili's first football club registered with Guizhou Football Association (GFA), aiming at developing youth school football and cultivate local football culture to lead more young generations to participate in football.
The two bosses of the club Yao Yu and Geng Ming are big football fans. They used to work in the same government-owned company in Kaili, however, they resigned in order to launch a football club as China was accelerating the promotion of youth football.
"I love this club and I love my bosses because they are totally devoted to football and they also treat me well," Piri said. Most importantly, he found that residents in Qiandongnan were interested in football. Even a youth school football league was established, which now attracts more than 1,000 students from primary, secondary and high schools of Qiandongnan each year.
"I often see people play and train around where I live and I also join in football competitions organized by the local residents, which I never experienced in Chengdu before," he said, emphasizing that football is his life and that he always feels happy when he is occupied by football, through which he is able to get along with the local residents.
Piri's work is to teach students football skills mainly at primary and middle schools. But in summer and winter vacations, he trains the local kids, whose number ranges from 20 to 50, five times a week. Chunye is one of the kids who have applied for the training courses since Piri embarked on his football journey in Kaili.
"The first time I played football with Piri, I realized what 'professional' is," Chunye said, adding that he started playing football about five years ago and has attended football training with several football coaches, but Piri is the best he has ever seen.
"I have learned a lot from Piri like how to work with teammates, how to sharpen our shooting skills and so forth," He said. Piri is so kind to everyone that all the kids love him very much.
The kids' parents speak highly of Piri. Chunye's mother Feng Yan said that Piri is a professional and disciplined coach who can teach her son high-level football skills.
"The coach could show and teach them some stunning football techniques if the kids want to know," she said.
Geng Ming echoed that China falls short of quality football coaches partly due to the unwillingness of the retired professional football players of China to work as coaches. He introduced that the club has another five football coaches including Kevin Vidana Sanchez from Spain.
"We arrange for each foreign coach to work with two Chinese coaches, thus we could make sure that our training courses are the best, the Chinese coaches could learn from the two foreign coaches too," he said.
People could see training materials prepared by Piri and Sanchez on their office desk, which are designed for kids at different ages. "The content must be scientific and suitable for the kids," Piri said.
Being professional brings in development opportunities. According to Yao Yu, the club has worked with the local government to provide ten primary and middle schools with football training courses for students. It has also got allied with 40 schools and 20 other organizations establishing a platform for spreading football culture.
Zhen Hua school of minority ethnic group is a cooperator, which has more than 1,700 students and two-thirds of them show their interest in football. The headmaster said that the cooperation has reduced the burden of the school's football teaching and increased the students' football interests.
The club has also stirred up the football training market in Kaili. "More and more training clubs popped up like bamboo shoots that I have never seen before," Feng Yan said. "It's a good phenomenon that kids in Kaili could have more of a chance to receive professional football training which is good for their physical and mental health."
"Kaili is building a football school which will provide better football education for the young generations in the near future," Yao Yu said, adding that he was excited at working on this project.
"I was excited too," Piri said, continuing that he will always be humble and enthusiastic to make contributions to China's youth football.
"I love the people here in China because they love me too," he added.
