In the morning sunshine on Saturday, Ningbo Yongjiang Park welcomed the grand opening of the 8th "Kick the Ball" Community Football Tournament. Greentown China, together with Zhejiang Professional Football Club, invited Panasonic, Toshiba Air Conditioning and B/S/H to join the event. Many leaders from Ningbo Sports Bureau, Football Association, Greentown China and Zhejiang Professional Football Club were present to add color to the event. Greentown sent a warm embrace to the people of Ningbo who had just experienced the typhoon with the activity of "Kick the ball", and every kick of the ball was a deep greeting and incentive to the city.
Ningbo has been warming up to the idea of "kicking the ball around" for a long time now. As soon as the registration channel was opened, the 32 spots were quickly snatched up, and the teams that couldn't make it have already started planning their strategies for next year's competition. Today, these teams gathered at Yongjiang Park with their families and friends, and as the players were cheered on by their families and friends, one of the warm-up players proudly asked his companion, "Do you feel the charm of 'Kick the Ball'?"
Since 2015, Greentown China has been committed to promoting soccer in the community, hoping that soccer can take root in the city. Eight years have passed by in a flash, and it seems like yesterday that the "Kick the Ball" Community Football Tournament has already gone through eight years of spring and fall. During these eight years, Greentown has continuously given the tournament new connotations and upgraded it.
In the first edition of "Kick the Ball", Greentown built a five-a-side soccer stadium in Taoyuan Town, the venue of the tournament, and demonstrated to the public their dedication to community tournaments by pursuing the ultimate in this way. In the same year, Greentown also invited the world-class soccer star Baggio to attend the event, which further enhanced the attention of the tournament. The second edition of the tournament featured heavyweight guests such as former Zhejiang Greentown and Japan national team head coach Takeshi Okada and former China national Olympic team head coach Clausen. In the third edition of the tournament, amateur players were able to play with the Hangzhou women's soccer team, which became one of the highlights of Zhejiang's soccer scene that year. In the following years, the tournament continues to innovate, such as the "Football Carnival", "North-South Championship Match", etc., former international players Fan Zhiyi, Yang Chen, Li Weifeng, Qu Bo, etc. have to participate in the players to cheer. Last year, the tournament even launched an exclusive customized soccer. This year, "Kick the ball to go" is the launch of online mini-games of the same name, so that more people online experience the fun of soccer.
When the tournament was launched in 2015, Hangzhou was the only region with 32 teams participating. With the expansion of its influence, "Kick the ball to go" gradually added Ningbo, Beijing, Tianjin, Dalian, Wuxi, Qingdao, Chengdu, Chongqing, Foshan, Wuhan and Xi'an and 12 other regions, with a total of 168 teams participating in the competition. At last year's Shaanxi National Games, Zhejiang won the gold medal in beach soccer (men's division) with 12 players who had participated in "Kick the Ball". The Tianjin National Games Cage Soccer Championship team from Zhejiang also included many players from Kick the Ball to Go. The tournament takes into account the popularization of soccer and the promotion of elite, which is the pursuit of "Kick the ball to go" all along.
Greentown regards "Kick the Ball" as a public welfare activity and insists on innovation, hoping to bring new experiences to the participants. Although this is a platform for amateur soccer, the organizer always pursues professionalism, so that every participant can feel respect in the game.
This year, Chongqing, Chengdu and Wuxi for the first time to join the "kick to go". When Greentown released the registration information in Chongqing, it quickly gained a lot of "fans" in the area. Community teams in Chongqing have praised Greentown for its initiative to allow more community teams to participate in the tournament for free.
Zhang Yadong, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Greentown China, said Greentown will continue to be committed to soccer and contribute to the development of the national soccer team. Greentown's long-termism is not only reflected in youth training and professional matches, but also on grassroots pitches.
