A coach passes on the football dream to youth in remote Xinjiang

PAST GLORY

Watching players on the field, Ehat sees himself three decades ago, when he was in his prime.

His football career kicked off in 1970, when the Xinjiang sport authority selected players to build a regional team. To grasp the opportunity, Ehat rode a bicycle for 27km to take part in the tryout, and he made it.

Ehat played as a goalkeeper for the Xinjiang team and took part in national competitions for six years.

"Thanks to football, I have traveled around China," he says.

"Back then, transportation was poor. It took us a whole week to travel from Xinjiang to south China's Guangdong Province," Ehat recalls, but the trek never obstructed his love for football.

But injuries did. Ehat had to quit playing in 1976 due to injuries to his waist and knees.

Ehat can't play on the field, but he played on the screen. In 1980, he acted as a goalkeeper of fictional European football team Gold Lion in China's first football movie "Come On, Soccer."

Today Ehat still misses his 'good old days' as a player. "At that time we were all covered in dirt after training," he recalls.

The dirt field they used to play on has long since been transformed, but "what must be passed on is the spirit of hard work," Ehat stresses.

The manager has no plans for retirement yet, but does plan to build a youth team in Tacheng.

He plans to manage the team for at least one year to lay a solid foundation for the young players before handing responsibilities over to someone else.