World CP day special: How I got into playing football and what it means to me

Author’s note:

I wanted to write a piece about how I got into playing football to celebrate World Cerebral Palsy Day. I planned to do this for weeks. When I actually started writing this it was Saturday the 3rd of October. This is how I discovered, obsessed and loved football. All I want is to prove to you that football is for everyone, all I hope you get out of reading this is the ability to connect this story to your own.

What an unlikely story, a boy from China with Cerebral Palsy who loves football. Well no, not unlikely because football is a sport for everyone, “the beautiful game,” if you will. Anyways, let's start from the beginning, how this little kid, with a disability, from Beijing, fell in love with the best sport in the world, and how this sport has changed my life.

Unlike many people, I didn’t start playing football as soon as I could walk and it was not introduced to me by football crazy relatives, because I did not have any. My family has always been artistic, mathematical, and completely unathletic. I spent most of my years before discovering football liking Thomas and Friends, Spiderman or ninjas. I would switch my interests every year. From monkeys to knights to Pokemon trading cards, my relatives never knew what gifts to give me. But when I was 6, I discovered football. There was a large turf field in the middle of the playground at my primary school in Beijing. At this period in my life, I still fell over several times a day. I remember watching children run around and chase after the ball. After weeks of just ping-ponging between activities and watching football from the sidelines, I just ran onto the pitch one day and played. I didn't really play. I ran, I fell, I got up and ran again, I barely ever touched the ball. To be honest, I didn’t really care. I just enjoyed chasing my friends and trying to get the ball. I played every day for two years. There was me, many average players and one star, who never chased and only dribbled. This star player would later become one of my closest friends.

After a few weeks of engagement, I began to get closer to some of the other players. I don’t remember everything but I can assure you there were two kids who were there every single day without fail. That was me and Tim. Tim was by far the best player. if he wasn’t on your team you didn’t win. Tim and I became friends, although we were definite polar opposites. He was the most athletic person in the whole year group and I was the wibbly-wobbly, short little kid. Tim was also the person who introduced me to FC Barcelona and Leonel Messi. To this day, Messi is my favorite player and Barcelona is my second favorite team. For my first few years as a football fan, I bought only merchandise from Barcelona or Messi. I must have been seven when my parents started taking my interest seriously. When I said that my family had NO interest in football, I was lying. My mom grew up in Newcastle, England with a Liverpool fan for a brother. In fact, He is named “Ken” after Kenny Dalglish. So, obviously, she was exposed at least a little. She introduced me to her hometown team, Newcastle United. My mom grew up in the city of Newcastle in northern England. The Magpies will forever be my favorite team. When foreigners get into football they mostly support giants like Manchester United, Liverpool or Real Madrid. Here I was, supporting a team that perennially finished in the mid-table of the Premier League. Every time I tell someone that I support Newcastle United, I have to tell them the whole story.

There have been many events and moments in my football life including that time I was a player coach at an invite-only travel tournament in SuZhou, China or that time I toured St. James’ Park with Newcastle legend Bobby Moncur. But I think it is the friendships, opportunities and experiences football has provided for me that are truly worth discussing. One noteworthy event that I participated in was a tournament in Ireland exclusively for children with Cerebral Palsy that were under the age of 14. This is the perfect embodiment of all of the things football has brought to me. During those 3 days in Dublin I met more people with CP than I had in my previous 11 years of life. Not only was I able to bond with many of my competitors but the people who shared a locker room with me became close friends. And it allowed me the opportunity to play in a tournament abroad and the chance to explore another country. Never before had I felt such a burning passion about this game that I have built my life around.

I often wonder what my life would be like if I hadn't found football. I am very interested in history and debate and have always done well in school. Football provided a non-nerdy identity for me. Perhaps the strangest element of this story is the fact that I have a disability. Well, not only do I have a disability, but I lived in China before the age of 10. China is a bit behind in integrating people with disabilities into society. For some reason, Chinese parents see disablied children as a curse or as a punishment. Approximately 3 in every 1000 kids have CP, yet in 10 years I only saw about 5 children with CP in public. I knew other 5 or so because my mom founded a clinic to help children with disabilities. Barely any of them were fully ambulatory or even attended school. Considering that the population of Beijing is estimated to be about 21.5 million, this shows the stigma and prejudice associated with disabled people. Countless times, I was stopped by members of the public. They would question my parents about the way I walked or the orthotics I wore. They'd say things like, “Have you seen the way he limps?” or, “Have you taken him to see the doctor?”. We would play dumb. Did these people not think that after 10 years my parents might have noticed? Did they not understand that they didn't just make some life changing medical diagnosis? I know that most of those who asked never meant it maliciously but the remorseless interrogations illustrate the degree of ignorance and the lack of acceptance of disabled people. At school there was nothing to help disabled students and outside of school, there was nothing to help me connect with other disabled people. So you can gather that disabled people were rarely seen in society, leaving most people with a lack of knowledge. No child with CP ever tried football in China. None of my friends understand what my disability is.

Football is football, it is the beautiful game, it is a language, a lifestyle, a passion. Football has transformed my life. I discovered football as someone who could scarcely run and have grown to play in tournaments, help coach teams, and build a website all because as a curious little kid, I wobbled about on a turf pitch in Beijing. Football has brought me joy that cannot be described with words. I have something beyond a passion for this sport, it is a dependence on it.