Wang Shanshan , the captain of the women's football team hidden in the corner Wang
Shanshan is known as the "low-key king of the restricted area". In the eyes of her father Wang Ruijin, her daughter is "too restrained"
Maybe being a coach, maybe doing other football-related work, it's a part of my life after all.
——Wang Shanshan
On February 6, at the Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, India, in the final stoppage time of the Asian Cup final, the score between China and South Korea was still stalemate 2-2.
In the 94th minute, Wang Shanshan, who was in front of the penalty area, received a pass from his teammate and turned to pass the ball into the penalty area. Teammate Xiao Yuyi, who was in front, volleyed and the ball went into the net.
The whole place is boiling.
After a lapse of 16 years, the Chinese women's football team regained the Asian Cup championship trophy. Wang Shanshan, the captain of the Chinese women's football team who contributed lore assists, was also awarded the Asian Cup Most Valuable Player because of the excellent performance of the entire competition.
With neat short hair, thick eyebrows, and eyebrow-length bangs, Wang Shanshan under the camera always frowns and looks serious.
Wang Shanshan, known as the "low-key king of the penalty area", always attributed the credit for scoring goals to the help of teammates and daily training in an interview.
In the opinion of Wang Shanshan's father, Wang Ruijin, her daughter is "too introverted". "If you want to find her in the crowd, look for her in the corner. Once you find one, she will definitely be there."
The girl who was 12 years old and couldn't "pass" by the coach is now 32 years old and still running on the court.
Beijing News reporter Zhou Siya
The little girl who can't "pass" the coach
In a community in Jianxi District, Luoyang City, Henan Province, the walls of the building with yellow walls are wrinkled. Walking up the dark stairs for three floors is Wang Shanshan's home.
Just after 10:00 a.m. on February 9, noise came from inside the house.
Stepping into the door, there are two sofas in the 10-square-meter living room, one horizontal and one vertical against the wall. The small living room is crowded with reporters who come to interview, and there is almost no place to stay.
From the day the Chinese women's football team won the championship, such a scene has been repeated in this small living room every day.
The Dongsheng No. 3 Primary School in Jianxi District, which is only one kilometer away, is the starting point for Wang Shanshan to become attached to football.
In the memory of the enlightenment coach Geng Hongjie, Wang Shanshan was still the little girl who couldn't get rid of herself during the training.
Geng Hongjie, who was the coach of the school's volleyball team at the time, remembered that when she was in the second grade, Wang Shanshan's physical fitness was superior to other students, so she was recruited into the volleyball team.
The slender Wang Shanshan is not outstanding in terms of height, but in volleyball, Wang Shanshan can run and jump, and has strength when dunking the ball.
Introverted, she usually doesn't talk much in the team, and always trains on her own.
Geng Hongjie said that on the volleyball court, Wang Shanshan almost fought against the opposing team by herself.
Geng Hongjie likes football. In order to exercise the physical fitness of the team members, Geng Hongjie often brings the team members to play football to warm up.
In Geng Hongjie's impression, facing other children, he has always been able to hold the ball under his feet steadily.
But when facing Wang Shanshan, after a few rounds, Geng Hongjie was out of breath, but he still couldn't dribble the little girl who only reached his shoulders.
After several warm-up trainings, Geng Hongjie felt that the girl in front of him who could compete with him had a natural talent for sports.
"She has an unwillingness to admit defeat, and is a rare good seedling," said Geng Hongjie, who was considering letting Wang Shanshan take a better path of development.
When Wang Shanshan was about to graduate from primary school, Geng Hongjie approached Wang Shanshan's father, Wang Ruijin, and suggested that she take the path of football.
Geng Hongjie told the other party that Wang Shanshan's bone age results show that Wang Shanshan's height will not have much advantage in volleyball in the future. Such a physique is suitable for football. "She is flexible. It would be a pity if she didn't take the road of sports."
At first, Wang Ruijin was undecided: he has been in the clothing, fruit and vegetable business all year round, and he has no good economic conditions. Once he embarks on this road, the future may be very difficult.
After watching Wang Shanshan's performance on the court a few times, Wang Ruijin replied to Geng Hongjie, "We don't know much either. If you say Shanshan can do it, we will let her learn and fully support her."
Geng Hongjie still remembers that he asked 12-year-old Wang Shanshan, "Would you like to play football?" Wang Shanshan smiled lightly and said, "Yes, I like it anyway."
The "Queen of Nine Balls" who escaped from the bus
Around 2003, Wang Ruijin sent Wang Shanshan to Luoyang Football School.
With zero foundation, Wang Shanshan had a difficult start.
Wang Ruijin said that in order to keep up with the progress, in addition to the normal training, Wang Shanshan took the initiative to practice on the playground for two hours.
Later, even in training with the men's football team, Wang Shanshan was not inferior.
In 2005, 15-year-old Wang Shanshan left Beijing alone to train at Shichahai Sports School.
A few years later, Wang Shanshan joined the Tianjin Women's Football Team.
In 2011, Wang Shanshan was selected for the national team for the first time.
The following year, Wang Shanshan represented the national team for the first time. In the two games, "newcomer" Wang Shanshan scored 3 goals.
According to media reports at the time, after the game, a sports reporter wanted to interview Wang Shanshan, a new face who scored three goals in a row in two games.
Unexpectedly, when Wang Shanshan heard that a reporter was going to interview her, she ran away on the bus.
The next day, the reporter completed the interview under the arrangement of the team leader.
In Wang Shanshan's house, the most frequently mentioned phrase by her parents is, "My girl is introverted and doesn't like to be interviewed. She always says that the credit is given by the whole team, not by her alone."
From the records of media interviews, it is not difficult to find Wang Shanshan's low-key and reserved.
In the 1/8 final of the 2015 World Cup, in the 12th minute, teammate Li Dongna assisted and Wang Shanshan shot in front of the goal, scoring the only goal of the game.
In the end, the Chinese team defeated Cameroon 1-0 and advanced to the top 8 of the World Cup.
In the media interview after the game, Wang Shanshan was not satisfied with her performance: "I lost two single-handed opportunities, and the one in front of the goal was too hesitant."
In the 2018 Asian Games, in a Chinese women's football match against Tajikistan, Wang Shanshan came off the bench in the 56th minute and scored nine goals in just half an hour. Known as the "Queen of the Nine Balls".
In an exclusive interview with the media after the game, Wang Shanshan said that she did not expect to score so many goals in such a short period of time. When mentioning these nine goals, Wang Shanshan said that she was able to score so many goals because everyone passed the game well.
"I only know that in this position, I just need to do what I need to do. Grab the spot and outflank, these are the contents of the usual training."
However, due to the lack of broadcast of women's football matches, this name was quickly forgotten by people, and Wang Shanshan herself did not mention it.
The hardest person on the field
In Wang Shanshan's Weibo account, there are a total of 32 Weibo posts.
Since the first Weibo post in 2016, except for the Weibo posts automatically posted by the Asian Cup Champion, Most Valuable Player and National Games Gold Medal system, in the past 6 years, the women's football captain has only posted 5 posts per year. Weibo.
In Geng Hongjie's opinion, Wang Shanshan is too low-key. She once persuaded her in private that she could say a few more words in front of the media, and Wang Shanshan agreed.
But when she was interviewed by the media, she stayed far away.
Wang Shanshan once said that she is not a player who relies on her body for food, but she always tries her best to find her own scoring method in the face of different defenders.
She was born thin, and among those strong defenders, she could only rely on her brain and consciousness to find opportunities to score.
Perhaps because of insufficient congenital conditions, Wang Shanshan has developed a keen sense of scoring opportunities.
Some netizens described her as "playing the avant-garde organization to kill, and playing the defender as firm as a mountain", and some netizens called her the "little quick knife" of the Chinese women's football team, "one of the most important offensive points on the front line, and a keen sense of smell in front of the goal." The breakthrough, coupled with the extremely fast kick speed, often makes the opponent hard to guard."
According to Geng Hongjie, Wang Shanshan's national team leader once commented on Wang Shanshan's "comprehensive skills and good physical fitness". Although Wang Shanshan is usually unknown and does not publicize in the team, the coach knows in his heart that she is "the strongest running ability on the court, and also the The most tolerant person."
According to the technical statistics of a game, Wang Shanshan is always the one with the longest running distance in the team.
In December 2021, IFFHS (FIFA Statistics Association) announced the 2021 Asian Women's Best Team, and Wang Shanshan became the only Chinese player selected for the main team.
"Mom, look at my plaster"
Injuries are a must for an athlete, but in the eyes of her mother, Zhou Yuhua, her daughter Wang Shanshan's over-strength makes her distressed but often speechless.
In Zhou Yuhua's memory, since childhood, Wang Shanshan hardly ever cried.
When she was three or four years old, Wang Shanshan broke her chin because she fell down the stairs and needed stitches.
The doctor in the small clinic did not give Wang Shanshan anesthesia. When the needles were stitched, Wang Shanshan endured the pain without shedding a single tear. "If you look carefully, she still has this scar on her chin."
My daughter has been sensible since she was a child, and seldom told her family about her injuries.
Zhou Yuhua called and asked, Wang Shanshan's reply was always "no big deal", Zhou Yuhua could only observe her daughter's injury through TV broadcast.
Sometimes Wang Shanshan had bandages on her legs, and sometimes it was just a gesture of bending over and rubbing her knees. Zhou Yuhua knew that this was the pain caused by the accumulation of water in her daughter's knees.
The most impressive time for Zhou Yuhua was in 2016, two months before the start of the Brazil Olympics, when Wang Shanshan was seriously injured. She still learned the news from the Internet.
When making a video call, Wang Shanshan made a joke in front of the camera: "Mom, look at my cast."
Zhou Yuhua felt sorry for her daughter and proposed to go to Beijing to cook for Wang Shanshan, who was preparing for the war, for two months, but was rejected.
Wang Ruijin also remembered that during that time, other players were training on the court to prepare for the Olympics, and Wang Shanshan could only do rehabilitation training in the stadium alone.
Her legs were injured, so she did upper body exercises.
"For so many years, setbacks have always accompanied her. Even if she loses, she looks peaceful under the camera, but she still competes with herself in private and secretly doubles her training."
Wang Ruijin said that Wang Shanshan rarely goes home once a year, but when she is at home, she spends several hours in the gym every day.
Wang Ruijin remembers that when her family was financially difficult in the past, Wang Shanshan ran along the Songshan Road near her home and followed her on a bicycle.
Geng Hongjie has witnessed the efforts of Wang Ruijin and his wife over the years: they first sold clothing, and later they did some small commodity business, and most of the money was given to Wang Shanshan as a daily subsidy.
In the early days of Wang Shanshan's entry into the national team, part of her living expenses still came from her parents. "It's also because of her persistence that she stepped up step by step. This kind of hard work has given us hope, so we have always been confident in her."
Wang Ruijin said that in the decades he has watched his daughter's game, he has been to the scene of the game many times, and he is used to seeing only a handful of spectators in the stadium. "The tickets are only a few dollars, but no one is watching."
There will also be voices of doubt on the Internet.
Some people questioned that Wang Shanshan's level is not enough and should not enter the national team. Some people questioned that Wang Shanshan is too old to keep up with physical strength.
Wang Ruijin read these comments on the Internet behind Wang Shanshan's back. After reading it, he was sullen, "What the audience sees is only the highlight moments of the players on the court, and the hard work behind them may only be known by a few people."
"It's already a part of my life"
On the night of winning the Asian Cup, Wang Ruijin and his wife didn't fall asleep until four in the morning.
After the game, Zhou Yuhua sent Wang Shanshan a WeChat message: "Congratulations, congratulations to the Chinese women's football team, congratulations to the girls." Wang Shanshan made a video call from India. In the camera, Wang Shanshan shouted excitedly, "We are the champions!"
The data after the game shows that Wang Shanshan made 5 appearances in this Asian Cup, with a playing time of 418 minutes, 5 goals, 2 assists and 4 steals.
On the back line, Wang Shanshan successfully cleared 12 times, blocked 2 times, and intercepted 5 times.
After the game, some netizens left a message: "Wang Shanshan, the semi-final was tied in 118 minutes, scored a penalty kick, and sent a lore assist in the 94th minute of the final. What is the captain of China!"
Wang Shanshan said in a post-match interview that she attached great importance to winning the championship. The Chinese women's football team is facing the transition between the old and the new. To develop and improve Chinese women's football, more people are needed to participate, and more football culture needs to be constructed at the social level. Create a better football atmosphere.
"Our championship, for all of that, means a lot."
"Winning the Asian Cup this time is just the beginning. Next, the Chinese women's football team has to prepare for a series of tasks and tests such as the Asian Games, World Cup, and Olympic qualifiers. The team can't stay in front of the honor for too long." Facing the camera , Wang Shanshan's eyes are firm, "From now on, we must calm down ourselves first, because women's football progresses step by step, what needs to be down-to-earth, and cannot be maintained by heat."
The 32-year-old Wang Shanshan did not reveal to the media when she stopped. She once said that if she can no longer play football one day, she will definitely stay in this field.
"Maybe being a coach, maybe doing other football-related work, after all it's a part of my life."
In January 2016, Wang Shanshan once returned to his alma mater Dongsheng No. 3 Primary School as a football ambassador. Geng Hongjie organized a competition between the staff representative team and the student school team and invited Wang Shanshan to join.
At that time, Wang Shanshan was wearing a pair of travel shoes and agreed without saying a word.
Geng Hongjie blew the whistle as the referee in that game, watching Wang Shanshan sometimes stop the ball in the chest, sometimes dribble the ball, Wang Shanshan, who is usually shy, showed a bright smile on the court, "She must like football very much. I could feel her joy when she was running on the court."
At the Asian Cup awards ceremony, Wang Shanshan trotted through the crowd, took the MVP trophy, held it high, and everyone cheered.
After the ceremony, the football field returned to calm.
Sweat hid in the soil, and a new green sprouted on the grass.