Fuping county, China —
Soccer players in red jerseys jump up and down, spraying their cheering teammates with champagne, as confetti and streamers cascade around them and crowds capture the jubilation on their phones.
This isn’t Spain’s World Cup victory, clinched Sunday in New Jersey, but a win celebrated a day earlier, some 6,000 miles away, in Fuping county, a mountainous and rural part of northern China’s Hebei province, at a stadium lined with Communist Party slogans.
This game is one of many taking place across the country, as teams battle for a place in the national “Village Super League” finals. The amateur tournament has become a phenomenon in China, attracting millions of spectators across the country – and making for a colorful alternative to the World Cup that hasn’t seen a Chinese men’s national team compete for more than two decades.
“Standing in the spotlight like this – it’s not something I normally get the chance to experience,” Tong Zehao, a dentist-turned-defender for Baoding Lianchi told CNN ahead of his team’s clash with hometown contender Fuping Luotuowan village. “Before the Village Super League, there really wasn’t a (local) tournament with this level of attention.”
