Giant-killers savor upset for the ages

Pure passion

The Wenhui club is based in Jingchuan, a small county in eastern Gansu province with a population of just 350,000. According to Li Xin, the club's media officer and one of its founding members, the team was born out of local soccer enthusiasts' pure love for the game.

"I think it could be tracked back to the 1998 World Cup, which planted a seed of a dream for myself and my schoolmates," said Li.

"We created a small club called Lightning Eagle as students, and we participated in all sorts of competitions. That was the start of the Wenhui club."

In 2013, supported by the county's sports bureau, Li along with 30 other grassroots players officially registered the Jingchuan 744300 club, which in 2021 was renamed Jingchuan Wenhui FC.

"Since 2013, our team has always been the champion of the local league in the city of Pingliang. In 2021, we represented Gansu provincial football association to compete in the fourth-tier league for the first time, and here we are," said Wang Zhen, another founder of the Wenhui club and president of Jingchuan county's soccer association.

"Right now our players are actually from all over the nation. Apart from our first team, we also have one Under-19 team and an Under-17 team. The club now has 150 players, among which 80 are youth players of Gansu."

To further facilitate the growth of the club, in July 2021, Wenhui signed a three-year cooperation deal with Beihai Jichi FC, a club from Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

These days, Wenhui trains mostly at Jichi's base, which provides players with better facilities. They will return to their Gansu base from May to September to play the city-level league in Pingliang.

"Simply speaking, Jichi has a better platform and we have good players. That's why we have such cooperation. Our next goal is to reach the third-tier league one day," Yao added.

While Wenhui is showing the potential of grassroots Chinese soccer, the club's win has also highlighted how the big-spending days of the CSL have damaged the development of the nation's elite ranks.

The CSL was once renowned for lavish spending on foreign stars and coaches, such as former Chelsea midfielder Oscar and ex-Real Madrid boss Rafa Benitez. However, with the league introducing regulations to force clubs to tighten their belts and the pandemic's impact over the past three years, the overall profile of the CSL has greatly diminished.

The lack of money in the league has led to a talent drain, with less investment in nurturing homegrown stars ultimately resulting in falling standards on the pitch.

Wenhui's victory over Guo'an was largely welcomed by Chinese fans on social media, with several related topics becoming trending news on various platforms.

Many netizens agreed that Wenhui's example showed that only years of effort in the lower echelons of Chinese soccer can build the foundations for nurturing a stronger generation of players and ultimately change the nation's fortunes at elite level.

shifutian@chinadaily.com.cn