It's 6 pm, and the summer heat still lingers over the mountains of the Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture in Sichuan province. Children begin making their way to an artificial-turf soccer pitch in Ganluo county from villages scattered across the hills.
Some carry boots in their hands, others clutch worn soccer balls. A few have just finished their homework at coach Jifu Lama's home before heading to training.
Jifu places cones across the field and tells the players to warm up. In 90 minutes, darkness will descend over the mountains. After practice, he drives the children who live farthest away back to their villages. "I worry about them walking home alone at night," the 24-year-old said.
Jifu has a set schedule for his young charges during the summer holiday.
Children around 10 years old train from 8 am to 9:30 am. Boys around 12 follow until 11 am. Girls of the same age arrive in the evening, from 6 pm to 7:30 pm. Training is on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and weekends.
Some children live only a five-minute walk from the pitch. Others spend nearly 40 minutes trekking mountain roads to attend practice.
For Jifu, these daily routines are another way of pursuing the sporting dream that eluded him as a youngster.
Years ago, he searched for places to train, hoping soccer would carry him beyond the mountains. After realizing that becoming a professional player was beyond his reach, he returned home to help a new generation discover and master the game.
What began as one boy's solitary pursuit in the mountains has become part of a broader shift in grassroots soccer. Through improved facilities, school soccer programs, expanding competitions and a more structured youth training system, children in rural areas are gaining new pathways for personal growth and education — part of China's broader effort to develop soccer from the grassroots level.
Barcelona inspiration
Jifu's relationship with soccer began with a Barcelona jersey.
When he was in the second year of junior middle school, a friend who was leaving for school in Xichang gave him the shirt before moving away.
At the time, Jifu knew almost nothing about soccer. "But that jersey opened another world to me," he recalled.
He began watching match highlights online, teaching himself dribbling skills and saving his pocket money to buy a football. Back then, a soccer ball cost 55 yuan ($7.70), while his weekly living allowance was only 50 yuan.
His school had no soccer field, so he practiced dribbling on a basketball court. When he returned to his mountain village on weekends, he searched for the flattest piece of ground he could find. "As long as the ball was at my feet, I was happy," he said.
After graduating from junior middle school, Jifu scored well enough to attend the county's top academic high school. But the school had no soccer field.
Despite scoring more than 200 points above its admission requirement, he instead chose a vocational school with soccer facilities.
Determined not to abandon soccer, he asked the principal for permission to attend classes in the morning and devote his afternoons to training. The request was initially rejected. Only after he finished first in a monthly examination for his grade, did the principal agree to his request.
When older students graduated, however, he was forced to train alone.
During his second year of high school, Jifu put his studies on hold and returned to the mountains. He set himself a five-year goal to become a professional footballer.
Without coaches, teammates or any formal instruction, he relied on online videos, books and self-designed training programs.
Unable to afford proper training equipment, he improvised. He tied plastic bags to climbing ropes to create resistance parachutes. Tree branches inserted into wooden frames became defensive walls for free-kick practice.
Eventually, he built a small wooden hut in the mountains and stayed there for several days at a time to focus on training. There was no electricity. He cooked over a fire.
His parents knew little about soccer but quietly supported their son's dream. His father even gave up 0.1 hectare of cornfield and hired an excavator to level the sloping land into a dirt soccer pitch — a significant sacrifice for a farming family that depended on every piece of arable land.
"They didn't say much," Jifu said. "But they did a lot."
In September 2022, FIFA featured Jifu's story on its social media platforms as an example of grassroots soccer.
The moment in the spotlight brought a flood of interview requests, TV appearances, and, most crucially, invitations from clubs and amateur teams.
In May 2023, he represented Jingchuan Wenhui Football Club in the Chinese Football Association Member Association Champions League, the fourth tier of China's men's soccer league.
Walking into the International Football Center of Rizhao in Shandong province for his first official match felt surreal.
"The pitch was perfect. There were fans in the stands," he recalled.
But once the game began, reality quickly set in. "I felt comfortable on the grass, but my body became stiff because I was so nervous. "For a long time afterward, he avoided watching recordings of the match.
Those 45 minutes fundamentally changed his understanding of the game. Training alone in the mountains had helped him improve his individual skills, but competitive soccer demanded much more: tactical awareness, positioning, teamwork, decision-making under pressure, and proper coaching.
"Before, I thought the game was about improving myself," Jifu said. "Then I realized soccer is played by 11 people. I had always trained alone, so the difference was enormous."
Gradually, he accepted that becoming a professional soccer player was unlikely. "I was not ready for the professional level, either technically or physically," he said.
Setting new goals
Instead of giving up soccer, he changed his goals.
Jifu earned coaching qualifications and spent time studying youth development at soccer clubs outside Liangshan before returning home in late 2024.
Today he teaches soccer at local primary schools, identifying children with genuine interest during physical education classes.
A pilot program began in one school and has expanded to two. After school, with the approval of their parents, children continue training on the village pitch.
To encourage discipline, Jifu created a points system. Children earn points by training seriously, showing good behavior and respecting teammates and coaches. The points can later be exchanged for soccer boots, training kits and other equipment donated by charities and supporters.
"Whether they become good soccer players isn't the most important thing," Jifu said. "We should first teach them good values and good habits."
More than technical ability, Jifu hopes soccer gives children confidence and ambition. "I want them to have dreams, expectations and direction," he said.
Fourteen-year-old Chen Yifeng is one of the children Jifu believes has changed the most.
Before joining the team, Jifu remembers him as mischievous and reluctant to cooperate with others. Through the sport, he has gradually learned to work with teammates and respect both coaches and opponents.
Asked about his future, the teenager answered without hesitation, "I want to become a professional soccer player."
This year, Yifeng and three other sixth-grade students — two boys and two girls — earned places at high-quality middle schools in the county through a school admissions pathway that recognizes soccer ability.
Jifu said it's his proudest achievement as a coach. "It showed me this pathway really works," he said. "Soccer may not make every child a professional player, but it can give them more choices in life."
The students will now have access to better facilities, more experienced coaches and higher-level competitions. Those with potential may eventually progress into county — and prefecture-level teams or training programs.
A bigger pitch
The dirt pitch Jifu's father once built has since been transformed.
With support from Chinese electronics manufacturer Hisense, artificial turf now covers the field, allowing year-round training. The local women's federation, charities and volunteers have donated footballs, uniforms, shin guards and water bottles.
The transformation of Jifu's pitch mirrors broader changes taking place across Liangshan. While Jifu's generation relied largely on individual determination and family support, today's children are growing up within a more structured grassroots soccer system that links school programs, competitions, talent identification and educational opportunities.
The progress is visible. The first Liangshan Youth Football League, held in 2025, brought together 851 players from 50 teams representing 14 counties and county-level cities.
In 2026, Xichang Aerospace School from Liangshan won the primary school boys' title at Sichuan's sixth Gongga Cup Youth Campus Sports Super League.
Behind those achievements is sustained investment in youth soccer. Liangshan has become one of China's pilot regions for integrating sports and education, with 103 nationally designated campus soccer schools operating in 17 counties and county-level cities.
For grassroots coaches like Jifu, such policies matter most when they reach the village pitch in the form of better fields, more matches, trained coaches and clearer pathways for children to keep playing while continuing their education.
Jifu believes competition is just as important as training. This summer he plans to take his youngest players to Xichang for tournaments.
His players benefit from artificial pitches, school soccer classes, county and provincial competitions, experienced coaches and clearer pathways into higher education. "They're much luckier than I was," Jifu said. "Everything is moving in a better direction."
Challenges remain. Boots, equipment, travel and transportation all require funding. Jifu is considering selling local agricultural products, including buckwheat and walnuts, to generate income for the youth program.
His long-term ambition is to establish a soccer club serving villages across the region, complete with full-size pitches and accommodation for young players.
"It may be a distant dream," he said. "Right now, my priority is helping more children reach better schools through soccer and discover their potential."