The No.7 Boy
The 17-year-old Huang Tianyuan wears a No. 7 jersey. He is thin and flexible, like a lion chasing a hydrangea. The ball keeps moving forward under his control, but never leaves the foot, as if stuck. On the green field, the players' shouts of "Hey! Hey!" were intertwined with the rustle of football.
After passing two people, the ball was scored.
No. 7 is a legendary number in the football world. Ronaldo, Beckham, Figo, Di Maria… When Zhan Jun shouted out "C Ronaldo faced the heavy wall of Spain and drew a big ‘C’”, Huang Tianyuan was in front of the TV, but he could only "imagine by listening".
In fact, Huang Tianyuan sometimes imagines what the football looks like at his feet:
"I found my eyesight getting poor when I was 8 years old, and it slowly declined after surgery. I have almost no vision now. At that time, I was diagnosed with congenital glaucoma. My eyes might explode without surgery."
For Huang Tianyuan, No. 7 does not represent Cristiano Ronaldo or Beckham, but the last retired big brother, who is audible, tangible, real and warm:
"During training, everyone ate and lived together. They were all brothers. No. 7 was not particular, but just to replace the last person who left. After retiring, his number was empty. Our new player would take over his number."
(After the training, the team members help each other to eat)
The World Cup in Russia has set off a “football fever” around the world. For a while, almost everyone was talking about football. Probably not many people know that at the same time, the Blind Football World Cup was being held in Madrid, Spain. On June 18th, after many days of battle, the Chinese Blind Football Team defeated the Russian team by 2-1 and won the third place in the World Cup.
For a long time, blind football has not received much attention. Many people find it strange how can blind people play football since they cannot see? In fact, we also have a blind football team in Jiangsu. They have not only won many national championships, but also sent many players to the national team. Last weekend, we visited their training base in Nantong.
Blind Football
"Hey! Hey! Hey! Harder! Harder! Hit the door!"
In the early morning of June 23, on the football field of Nantong Special Education Center, the players of the Jiangsu Blind Football Team were playing a training game. The athletes wore blindfolds and kept making noises to convey their position to the other players. They kept dribbling, kicking the ball forward. They were agile, and the degree of confrontation was not inferior to ordinary people. It is hard to imagine that when they play football, there is only darkness in front of them. Cheng Xuefeng, a special teacher of Jiangsu blind football team:
"We blind people are divided into three levels, B1B2B3. Only B1 can participate in blind football, which means we must be completely blind. The goalkeeper is a normal person and the eyes can see. For the others, even if they have weak vision, they must be blindfolded. So everyone has no eyesight in the game."
According to Cheng Xuefeng, the rules of blind football are roughly similar to futsal. The field is 20×40 meters. The difference is that there are baffles about 1 meter high on both sides of the blind football field for players to touch to determine the position. When players play, they need coaches and instructors to command, and the football used is also specially made:
"There are five places in this ball with iron pieces. There is fine sand in the iron pieces, which can make sounds. This helps during our game. Except for the players with the ball who don’t make any sounds, others must make voice prompt when the ball is almost two meters close."
This Ball is Designed for Me
Chen Xi is 18 years old and is still in the blind school. He plays really hard in the team. In 2015, he participated in the National Paralympic Games with the team and served as a central defender. Chen Xi said that even if he can't see it, as soon as he steps on the court, he gets excited:
"When I'm playing football, my blood boils and I get oblivious of other things ."
Because of his congenital blindness, Chen Xi has never even seen football, but this does not affect his love of football:
"When I arrived at this school in the first grade, I played with normal footballs wrapped in greased paper or plastic bags. At that time, we played casually. After a long time, we would play football after lunch."
In 2015, Nantong selected blind football players. Chen Xi was selected because he had ever been a runner. When he first touched blind football, Chen Xi was so happy. He felt that the ball was designed for him:
"This ball has a sound. I feel it is different from the previous balls, because after all, the oily paper bag used to be broken when you step on it, and it breaks when you step on it. Now there is a bell in the ball, which feels much better than that. I like to play the ball, and I always follow it."
It Took Me 3 Months to Dare to Run Forward
Ordinary people usually take the ball by kicking the ball for a certain distance and then running. But blind football players cannot see, so they must touch the ball at every step to control its position. This kind of "unlimited dribbling" method is a bit awkward for ordinary people, but the blind players on the field can run fast. Cheng Xuefeng, a special teacher of Jiangsu Blind Football Team, points out that behind all the performance, it is the hard training of the athletes and the coaching staff:
"We demonstrate and let them touch the ball first. After touching it, they start to play with it. Some children can understand as soon as they touch it, but some children can’t. We need to pull their feet, probably tell them which part of the feet to touch. Also for leg raise, you have to let them touch to feel it all, and then they imitate. Just try over and over again. Some kids can slowly dribble after a week, but some will take more than half a month. They could not play with it smoothly without practice for three or four months."
The 26-year-old Sun Feng is on the field as a guard. Because of eye disease, his eyesight has been diminishing every year since he was seven or eight. Now he is completely blind. In his opinion, the most difficult thing is not the skills, but the fear of the unknown in the darkness ahead:
"If you are blind from birth, you will get used to it. The most difficult thing is that we once seen it before but then confronted a completely dark environment. Blindfolded in a big field with many people around, it is quite hard to overcome the fear of the unknown, and the sense of football also needs to be cultivated. At that time, I had to practice for a few months to bring it up before I dared to run forward.
Life is too Short, Just for Fun
The 31-year-old Chen Shanyong is the eldest brother of the team. He was selected for the national team in 2007, runner-up in the Beijing Paralympic Games, champion of two national championships, third runner-up in the World Cup, and fifth in the London Paralympic Games. When asked what blind football means to him, Chen Shanyong said:
"If I didn’t get involved in blind football, I might be limited to doing massages in Nantong, Jiangsu, and all my friends would from this circle. Because of football, I took the first flight. Because of it, I went out of Nantong and went around the whole country. I could get contact with high-level football fans across the country, step onto the sports stage and show myself. And because of football, my view of life change a lot. Thanks to blind football, it has changed a lot of things."
Since the establishment of the team, Jiangsu Blind Football Team has won the national championship twice. What is surprising is that the players of such an excellent team are only amateurs. The 26-year-old Sun Feng serves as a guard on the field. He runs a blind massage shop with a monthly income of 10,000 to 20,000. As long as the team has a competition to be called up, he is on call. This is also the normal training pattern for other players.
Sun Feng said that in fact, the subsidy for playing football is not much, only a few thousand yuan per month. For most players, income is lower than usual jobs. But every time the team is calling up, they are always on call. In addition to competition, blind football is entertainment and a proof for them. In his words, it is "fun":
"Our leisure choice is relatively poor, and sports is a good way to replace entertainment. It is also a way to highlight personal ability. To some extent, our running speed may not be much slower than the players of the Chinese Super League. To play football is a way to prove our value. Basically, athletes who play blind football are seldom meant for fame and fortune or high skills. It is a hobby. In such a short life, we just have these years to play. It’s just for fun."