'River' football star dreams of career goal

KUNMING－Ai Kanxiang, a high school student from the Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture, Southwest China's Yunnan province, has become an online sensation after several videos of his creative way of practicing football in a river surfaced on the internet.

In a recent video, Ai is seen standing in the middle of a river with the flowing water up to his knees. A friend plays a ball in his direction and Ai delivers a precise bicycle kick that smacks off the river bank. He lands back in the river with an almighty splash.

Ai, 19, of the Blang ethnic minority group, was born in a remote mountainous village in Menghai county of Xishuangbanna. His first kick of a football was only his first year in junior high school.

"I only came across football in textbooks in my childhood. But I fell in love with it in September, 2015 when I made my debut," Ai says, adding that all his troubles faded away on the pitch and he especially liked to be sweaty after a long match.

But in the sloping, mountainous region of his hometown, finding a flat area to play can prove challenging. "We create a small pitch with tree branches and stones or even play football in the river," he says.

At the beginning, Ai recalls, playing in the water was mostly for staying cool. "The tropical weather in my hometown is too hot in the summer and I can play for longer in the river."