BEIJING, China (Reuters) – Working together as a team, self-sacrifice and character building is what attracted these parents to enroll their kids in China’s first American football youth league.
The children are part of a 16-team tackle football league run by GSG Sports, a venture-backed Beijing company that has found a winning formula selling American football to parents who want their children, most of whom don’t have brothers and sisters, to learn about teamwork. Parents say they are attracted to the game because along with being a team sport, it offers something different from rigorous academic work and tutoring sessions.
“We think it’s very worthy to play this football because I find my kid has become more responsibility and he become a member in the team and he has already get to know how to cooperate with his members,” said Magge Zhang, the mother of Mentos, who wears the number 31 jersey.
The Eagles league’s star, nine-year-old Lisa Li, is one of the few girls that play for the league. She plays running back and outside linebacker, and is a demon on the pitch, regularly scoring touchdowns for her team.
Nine year-old Li once again powered her team to victory in their last game with a dramatic win over their rivals the Sharklets in the Future League – China’s first American football youth league. The team came back from being down 8-14 at half time to beat the Sharklets in a nail-biting match that saw the final score at 24-20 when the final whistle blew.
But speaking afterwards, Li she said she doesn’t see a future for herself as a player. Her mother believes it’s because she understands a time will come when physically she won’t be able to hold her own against her male teammates.
Taking a page from American high school football, Future League games are held on Friday nights and aim to create a big-game atmosphere with uniformed referees, cheering fans, camera crews and post-game interviews.
American football lags far behind soccer and basketball in China, but the huge potential market of 1.4 billion people has caught the attention of the National Football League.
This year’s Super Bowl championship was streamed live for the first time in China, where about 1.5 million mostly young fans watch NFL games each week on digital platforms.
