After winning the gold medal at last year's National Games, the players are determined to enjoy the sport. Zhang Yi reports.

One evening last month, a women's soccer team in red jerseys and stockings played under lights against a male team in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province.

They easily held the spectators' attention, because the team is the only one in the city's amateur soccer league that is composed almost entirely of women－the exception being the male goalkeeper. With no other female teams, they always play against men, and they usually win.

Last year, the team represented Guangdong in the women's five-aside futsal veterans' event at the 14th National Games, which take place every four years, and won the title.

It was the first time a team from the province had won the gold medal at the event.

They are nicknamed the Moms' Soccer Team because the members are all mothers and have an average age of 41. They played soccer together in their younger years, but now most have unrelated careers, such as security guard, sales, office work, PE teacher and housewife.

After getting married and having children, they were too busy to play sports, so soccer gradually faded from their lives. However, a few years ago, they reunited.

"It brings us joy and respect from others," said Tang Jingyi, the oldest player who also runs the team's affairs. A slight figure with close-cropped hair, the 47-year-old mother of two ran around the field, looking like a teenager from a distance.

The women learned to play soccer in the 1980s, when the sport began including women at the grassroots.

Every year, a coach from a sports school in Zhanjiang selected primary school students in Chikan district for an amateur female soccer team. They received training and later represented the district or the city in various competitions.

In the late 80s, Tang was chosen for the team because she could run fast. The talented player became the captain, leading her side to a provincial championship.

She started out wearing the No 16 shirt, and although she was the team's most effective performer, she decided to stick with it, even though tradition dictated that the best player should wear No 10.

However, when she was 18, Tang took off her soccer boots and put on high heels, having decided to quit the game when the coaches wanted to train her to become a professional player. "I suddenly hated soccer, because the intense physical training made me feel it was no longer fun. I also feared sunburn," she said, referring to her fair skin.

Having enjoyed dressing up since childhood, Tang became a beautician and opened a beauty salon, which boasted eight beds at its peak. Her husband works in real estate and they have a very comfortable lifestyle.

"I never told my customers that I played soccer in the past, and they wouldn't have believed it, either. I had waist-length hair and wore ladylike clothes, which was not at all athletic," she said.