A league of their own

Local flavor

Tsetseg, a female herder from Bayankhoshuu village, started watching the Shine River Cup as a little girl and has been in love with it ever since. In the early 2000s, when she was in her 30s, she began to play her own part, volunteering to be a driver, cheerleader and assistant of the soccer team in her village.

During the season each year, she will get up before sunrise to finish her work, such as milking and herding the cattle, so that she can have enough time to go door to door picking up the soccer players in her village.

She drives the players, as well as the meat donated by villagers, to the soccer field via her tractor. After arriving at the ground, she is also responsible for cooking meals for the players.

For people in the Shine River Cup, the annual soccer tournament is like Naadam, a traditional festival for the members of the Mongolian ethnic group to celebrate harvest through all kinds of entertainment, Tsetseg says.

Herdsmen from near and far are excited about coming to watch and enjoy the festival atmosphere of the event, she adds.

In recent years, as more local people-regardless of their age, gender or ethnic group-gain enthusiasm for the sport, Tamir's club has added Futsal (a mini, five-a-side soccer game) to the annual tournament.

Futsal is popular among children and women, although there are currently only a few dozen players, Tamir notes.

Also, a few soccer players who first played in the Shine River Cup have now joined the team of the Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology in Baotou.

Tamir and his colleagues want to help more talented young people become professional players.

"Through the game, we found quite a number of local talented, young people and hope that they can receive better training," he says.

However, resources and the ability to help these young hopefuls are limited.

"Our top priority for now is to keep the annual tournament going," Tamir says.

Xinhua contributed to this story.