Women's soccer head coach Chan Yuen Ting looks to the future
Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Chen Wanting, the nominee for the head coach of China's women's soccer team, revealed in an interview with the Southern Metropolis Daily that she aspires to lead the team to the World Cup in 10 years.
"I expect to be able to accumulate as many different experiences in as many different places as possible over the next five to 10 years and expect to be able to lead a team in a World Cup competition within 10 years."
Nandu: As soon as the news of your participation in the selection interview for the head coach of our women's soccer team broke out, fans in the Mainland and Hong Kong expressed their strong support. What did the bidding process go through?
Chen Wanting: When I first saw the news that CFA was recruiting a women's soccer head coach, I didn't think much about it and went for it with a normal heart. At first I thought I was not qualified for the interview, but I didn't realize that CFA was willing to give me a chance to invite me for an interview. In fact, the position of head coach of our women's soccer team is a bit distant for me. Because in my mind, this job is too huge. Frankly speaking, as far as my current ability is concerned, I am still some distance away from this position.
I would like to thank CFA for giving me the opportunity to interview for the position. I prepared for the interview with a learning mindset, respecting the opportunity and each of the judges in the interview. My main goal was to enjoy the interview process and gain interview experience. Interview experience is also rare, especially when interviewing for such a senior position. Since I am in the Mainland, why not give it a try?
ND: You also coached our national women's junior soccer team.
Wendy Chan: For me, coaching in the Mainland is always a new experience. I was classmates with Sun Wen, Vice President of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) A-Level Coaching Workshop held in Malaysia in 2015, and my classmate relationship made me trust her. When she extended an invitation to me to be the assistant coach of our national women's junior soccer team, I was relieved to accept this new challenge.
On the one hand, when I talked to Sun Wen, I could feel her great passion for wanting to change the status quo of our women's soccer youth training. While I am still young, I would love to get out of my comfort zone and see the world outside of Hong Kong. After all, soccer in Hong Kong is just a relatively small circle that is not developed enough, and I would love to go to places with a higher level of development and see soccer in different places. This is one of the reasons why I left Hong Kong.
One certainly wants to get better and better at one's job as one moves up the ladder, but there is a process involved. There are some goals that require dedicated experience to qualify for another step.
I expect to accumulate as many different experiences in as many different places as I can over the next 5 to 10 years, and expect to be able to lead a team in a World Cup competition within 10 years, I guess.
