Soccer Star Returns to Remote Village to Coach Yi Children

A failed professional soccer career sent 24-year-old Jifu Lama back to his remote mountain village, but what looked like defeat became dozens of children's greatest gift.

In Ze'e Village, perched 1,300 meters up in Sichuan's Daliangshan region, Lama now coaches kids from six neighboring Yi ethnic villages on a soccer pitch carved from a former cornfield. The children, ages 6 to 13, trek through rice paddies and along irrigation canals to reach practice, where they argue passionately about Messi, Ronaldo, and Mbappé before lacing up their boots.

These are "left-behind" children, raised by grandparents while their parents work in distant factories, returning only once yearly. In a region where rural families earn just $1,770 per year, a piece of candy used to be the week's highlight.

Lama's own soccer journey began in middle school when a friend gave him a Neymar jersey. The self-described rebellious teen dropped out of school, hiked to 2,000 meters, and built a wooden hut where he trained alone for days with no electricity.

He filmed his high-altitude drills and posted them online. The striking videos of a boy performing fluid footwork against breathtaking mountain backdrops went viral, earning him hundreds of thousands of followers and even FIFA's attention before the 2022 World Cup.

Professional tryouts followed, and in May 2023, Lama joined a fourth-tier Chinese club. But his first match lasted just 45 minutes before reality hit: his technique couldn't match true professionals, and the gap felt insurmountable.

The Ripple Effect

That heartbreak redirected Lama's passion into something bigger. Back home, he created a reward system where kids earn points for attending practice, trading them for free gear. Seven-year-old Aluo, who idolizes Mbappé, now has his own boots.

When corporate sponsors saw videos of children playing in puddles on sandy ground, they funded a proper artificial turf pitch. Lama proudly notes it's "better than the ones in the county town."

The transformation goes beyond the field. Hu Feifei, one of the girls on the squad, remembers playing with scraped knees in the rain, but she was happy. Now she has a jersey, socks, and boots she earned herself.

While Lama didn't become the professional player he dreamed of, he's giving children friendship, structure, and a window to a world beyond the peaks that surround them.