Beijing time on March 24, the soccer world came sad news, China's soccer history of the legend, former national team skipper, but also China's women's football founder Chen Chengda old Mr. died today in Beijing due to illness, at the age of 93 years.
Mr. Chen, formerly known as Zhigang, was born in 1929 and was one of the leading soccer players in China. Mr. Chen loved soccer since childhood, and joined the seven-a-side small soccer game at the age of 10. In 1945, he joined the "United Star" team of Shanghai Football Club and the "Jingwu" team of Shanghai Group A Football Club successively, and in 1952, Mr. Chen was selected to the national team and went to Hungary with the team for further study after two years of serving in the national team. In 1958, Mr. Chen was honored as one of the first soccer players in China.
In 1957, Mr. Chen began to coach the national team for seven consecutive years, during which time he led our team to win the Tri-National Match between China, the Soviet Union and Hungary (1959) and the Quad-National Match between China, North Korea, Vietnam and Mongolia in 1964. in 1983, he became the Director of the Football Division of the National Sports Commission and the Secretary General of the Federation of Football Associations (FAFA), and was elected as the Vice-President of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in 1986.
Mr. Chen has devoted his life to the development of our country's soccer, and despite the shortcomings of our country's soccer development nowadays, the hard work and hard efforts of his predecessors deserve our respect and gratitude. He even vigorously promoted the development of China's women's soccer, without his strong support and promotion, China's women's soccer today may be unimaginable!
The passing of Mr. Chen is saddening. However, it is all the more important for us to learn from his dedication, carry on his legacy and continue to contribute to the development of soccer in China!
