The city league is thriving, and female coaches are "making their mark"

Written by Han Bing The boom in domestic city leagues has not only created extensive coaching opportunities for former male national team players, but also opened up more chances for female coaches to demonstrate their abilities.

Zhou Gaoping, a former stalwart defender for the Chinese women's national team, was the only female coach in the SCSL last year. Through ongoing tactical adjustments and mental guidance, she guided her team from near the bottom of the regular-season standings to a remarkable championship title. However, she then chose to step away at her peak and returned to coach within the Taizhou youth football development system.

The demonstration effect of Zhou Gaoping's championship run has expanded the room for female coaches in this year's city leagues.

▲ Suzhou team head coach Chen Wanting

The Suzhou team appointed Chen Wanting, who is the most famous among them: she was the first female coach in Asia's top-tier men's league, the first female coach globally to win a men's professional league title and to coach a men's team in continental competition, and she once won the AFC Women's Coach of the Year award. In March this year, after a seven-year hiatus, Chen Wanting returned to coach a men's football team. She admitted that she hopes to elevate her coaching abilities to a new level through the SCSL, aiming to help the team achieve good results while also assisting players in proving themselves to earn opportunities in professional leagues, and in the process, accumulate experience and resources for her own future in men's professional football.

With her top-tier Asian league championship credentials, Chen Wanting possesses extensive professional football coaching experience and a data-driven coaching philosophy, giving her a significant advantage in the amateur league, almost like a "reduction in dimension." However, for Chen Wanting, who has never coached a men's team in mainland China, adapting to the SCSL matches remains a challenge. Suzhou won their opener 1-0 against Yangzhou, then lost 0-1 to Huai'an, and after leading 2-0 were held to a draw by Lianyungang. With the team's season target being a top-four finish, Chen Wanting needs to make good use of the valuable two-week break to adjust her players' mentality and tactics, just as Zhou Gaoping did with the Taizhou team last year, in order to stabilize Suzhou's performance as quickly as possible.

▲ Jiujiang team head coach Wang Tingting via Jiujiang Release

This year, the head coach of the Jiujiang team in the Ganchao League (Jiangxi City Super League), Wang Tingting, is a former women's national team goalkeeper who won the best goalkeeper award in the women's league in 2007. She coached the Jiujiang women's team last year and took charge of the Jiujiang men's team for the Ganchao League this year. Coaching a men's team for the first time, Wang Tingting faces considerable pressure, as Jiujiang's season goal is "to finish in the top three and compete for the title." To achieve better results, she has not only studied last year's Ganchao League match footage and statistics but also invited former national team goalkeeper Ou Chuliang to "lend a hand" and guide the team's training. After three rounds, Jiujiang remains unbeaten with two wins and one draw, earning initial recognition from Jiujiang fans for Wang Tingting's abilities.

The head coach of the Heyuan team in the Yuechao League (Guangdong City Super League), Zhao Xindi, was a former women's national youth team player. After retiring, she pursued further studies at Sun Yat-sen University and became an associate professor in the university's physical education department, while continuing to work in grassroots football. The Heyuan team is not the first men's team Zhao Xindi has coached; last year, she led the Sun Yat-sen University men's team to a championship in the Guangdong Provincial University Games. Her coaching staff also includes two female assistant coaches, Zhang Meini and Xie Jing. Zhao Xindi has stated that she looks up to Zhou Gaoping and Chen Wanting, aiming to develop her own possession-based technical style of play.

It is believed that with the success of coaches like Chen Wanting, more female coaches will appear in domestic city leagues and even on professional football fields in the future.

▲ Heyuan team head coach Zhao Xindi