Women's soccer team scores victory for equality

Having won a gold medal at last year's National Games, the players are determined to continue enjoying each other's company. Zhang Yi reports.

One evening last month, a women's soccer team in red jerseys and stockings played under lights against a male team in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province.

They held the spectators' attention because the team is the only one composed almost entirely of women — the only exception being the male goalkeeper — in the city's amateur soccer league. Without other female teams, they always play against men, and they usually win.

Last year, the team represented Guangdong in the women's five-a-side futsal veterans' event at the 14th National Games, which take place every four years, and won the title. It was the first time a team from the province had won the gold medal in the event.

They are nicknamed the Moms' Soccer Team because the members are mothers with an average age of 41. They all played soccer in their younger years, but most of them have unrelated careers, including working as security guards, saleswomen, office employees, PE teachers and housewives.

After getting married and having children, they were too busy to play sports, so soccer gradually faded from their lives. However, a few years ago, they reunited.