A village soccer “super league” in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Southwest China’s Guizhou Province, kicks off on May 13, 2023, with 20 teams attending the event and villagers in minority costumes dancing in circles to cheer for them. Photo: VCG

"Forget about Lionel Messi, go watch the village super league!" some Chinese netizens made suggestions to those Chinese soccer fans who get frustrated because they couldn't get a hot-selling expensive ticket to watch an international friendly competition between world champion Argentina and Australia in Beijing next week.

The village super league, or "Cun Chao" in Chinese, is a soccer game among different villages in Rongjiang county, Southwest China's Guizhou Province, and it was been held on Saturday evening, which is so down-to-earth but popular that it has attracted the attention of football legend Michael Owen, who recorded a video to show his support.

"I want to say congratulations to 'Cun Chao' for all your success, for getting all the good results in football and I wish 'Cun Chao' all the very best for the future. I'm sure you're gonna get better and better," he said.

Not only Owen, but also millions of Chinese netizens are paying attention to this non-professional football league in the countryside of Southwest China. On Chinese Twitter-like social media platform Sina Weibo, the hashtags and topics about "Cun Chao" have reached at least 200 million views as of Thursday, and some videos about the game also got millions of likes on short video platform Douyin.

Children play with a giant football during the “village super league” in Rongjiang, Southwest China’s Guizhou Province on June 3, 2023. Photo: IC

The village super league, which will continue until late July, has attracted 20 teams to participate in. The final of the game and a firework ceremony as well as a music festival will be held on July 29, according to the schedule released by the organizer.

These football players come from a variety of backgrounds. They are vendors, drivers, students, carpenters, tilers, former butchers, and brick factory workers. The players come from various ethnic groups such as Miao, Dong, Shui, Han, and Yao. Their ages range from 15 to over 40 years old, according to the China News Service.

Sun Lei, a Beijing based sport journalists and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the reason why Cun Chao gone viral is that firstly, the local people have traditional enthusiasm on soccer, and the game has not been impacted by the commercialization like what happens in the well-developed urban areas in China.

Rongjiang football has a history of more than 80 years. Today, more and more grassroots sports events are held in the mountains and are using sports as a medium to showcase the unique charm of the local area, reflecting a vibrant lifestyle filled with agricultural activities and rural fun, the China News Service said.

"This kind of football game is natural and with 'pureness,' and it's very similar to the soccer culture in Europe and Latin America, which is driven by the enthusiasm of the ordinary people not the economic benefits. When people participated in the game, not only the players, but also audiences and cheerleaders as well as the small retailers who sell snakes and drinks… the game is providing not only values of sports, but also social with low costs," Sun noted.

This kind of atmosphere is very rarely seen and is treasured in China, especially for people in urban areas who are getting increasingly busy and under great work pressure, and when they look at the chill, fun, relax and down-to-earth way of life in the countryside somewhere in this country, they will naturally be interested, just like how the Zibo barbeque gone viral previously, experts said.

The local residents face less pressure than urban residents and they have more time to enjoy their life, and this makes many people in urban areas envious and even jealous, as this is the lifestyle that they are hungry for.

According to statistics by the local media, the match on Saturday attracted nearly 50,000 spectators. Among the sea of people, ladders became the preferred tool for obtaining the best viewing angle. The atmosphere on-site was extremely intense, to the extent that the well-known Chinese sport TV commentator Han Qiaosheng had to climb a ladder to provide commentary.

The atmosphere of the event has exceeded expectations, Han said, adding that even though he has traveled around the world to report on various competitions, including the World Cup and the Olympics, he finds the village super league in Rongjiang is really different, because the matches are so down-to-earth.

Li Yang, a sport industry professional and an online football commentator, told the Global Times that thanks to the well-developed social media in China as well as successful policies like poverty alleviation and rural revitalization in recent years, more and more well-educated young people with talents, techniques and ideas are returning to the rural areas for development.

"All of these are the reasons why the village super league of Rongjiang can be seen by millions of people and gone viral," Li noted.

The soccer field in Rongjiang has become a joyful gathering place that villagers visit on weekends. Local residents have designated Saturday "Super Saturday Rural Football Night," said local officials, noting that the local government welcomes all domestic and foreign media and tourists come to report and enjoy the game.

Before matches, representatives from each village team, dressed in traditional ethnic costumes, carry local specialties on their shoulders, play the reed pipe, and dance as they enter the field together with the local football players.

In recent years, the "Village BA" in Taijiang county, also in Guizhou Province, and the "village super league" in Rongjiang county have become popular trends, whose essence also lies in the rural characteristics, said experts.

To what extent the Village BA and the village super league can improve the general environment for sports in China is still in question, because in some fields, Chinese sports due to the fast development of commercialization, are facing problems such as corruption and professional misconduct.

However, experts said there is at least one good impact brought by the Cun Chao to Chinese soccer - to make more people see the pureness of joy brought by the sport and encourage them to play soccer.