Football Becomes Part of Everyday Life for Left-Behind Children in Jinzhai.
When a group of third-grade pupils at Xianhua Experimental School in Jinzhai County first stepped onto the training pitch for the Green Pitch CSR Project programme in April, most of them had never received any formal football training.
Some were shy and hesitant to join in. Some complained of tiredness after running only a few laps. Others were still unfamiliar with the exercises and rules. At that point, football was little more than an unfamiliar ball to them.
One semester later, the scene on the pitch had changed.
As soon as the school bell rang, children would run towards the pitch and greet their coaches with a high five or fist bump. They had begun learning how to dribble and pass, and were trying to work together in small-sided games. Towards the end of the semester, far fewer children were saying that they were tired, too hot or wanted a break. More of them could stay fully engaged throughout the warm-up, drills and matches.
One young participant said that they were no longer afraid of playing football because “the coaches don’t shout at us.”
It was a short remark, but one that captured the most meaningful change during the programme’s first semester: football had gone from being an unfamiliar sport to something the children wanted to return to after school—and were willing to try again.
Initiated by VfL Wolfsburg, Green Pitch CSR Project is a football-based community programme providing training and developmental support for left-behind children in Jinzhai, Anhui Province. From April to June 2026, its first semester involved 30 third-grade pupils from Xianhua Experimental School. Starting with no previous experience, the children gradually became familiar with football through regular training sessions. Along the way, they also began learning how to express themselves, work with others and respond to winning and losing.
Why Children Do Not Spend Training Queuing in Long Lines
A typical Green Pitch CSR Project session consists of three parts: a warm-up, a themed practice and small-sided games.
The warm-up involves far more than simply moving wrists and ankles. Coaches combine football with games such as “Turtles and Sharks” and “Ants Moving House”, allowing the children to warm up through running, reacting and moving with the ball. As their bodies become active, they naturally settle into the session.
Head coach Zhao Yifan explained that one of the most important principles taken from VfL Wolfsburg’s youth development philosophy is to give every child as many touches of the ball as possible.
During training, the coaching team tries to avoid making children wait in long lines or spending too much time on one-way instruction. For complete beginners, it is through touching the ball and running with it that football gradually becomes familiar—and, eventually, enjoyable.
Even during the warm-up, the coaches therefore try to ensure that every child has a ball at their feet. The themed practices cover basic skills such as passing, receiving, dribbling and shooting, alongside light opposition. Each session ends with small-sided games.
Rather than having 30 children chase a single ball around a full-sized pitch, three-a-side and four-a-side matches give everyone more opportunities to participate. The children can pass, dribble and shoot more often, while applying the skills they have just practised in a game setting.
By the end of the first semester, the participants had developed a basic command of skills such as dribbling and passing. For a group that had started from scratch, the ball no longer felt quite so unfamiliar—and football had begun to feel fun.
Having the Courage to Try Again Matters More Than Getting It Right
What does it mean for football to be fun?
For Nikola, the programme’s international coach, this is an unavoidable question when discussing children’s football. Whether the children arrive with a smile—and leave with one too—is the most direct way to judge the success of a session.
This has become one of the programme’s basic measures: Do the children want to attend? Are they engaged during training? Do they still want to come back when the session is over?
Most participants are third-grade pupils. At the beginning, some were excited and energetic, while others were shy and reserved. Some also needed time to adjust to the physical demands of regular training.
The first step, therefore, was to help the children step onto the pitch, touch the ball and gradually become comfortable with football through repeated attempts, rather than expecting them to master a set number of skills immediately.
For children encountering football for the first time, a safe and relaxed environment in which they are free to experiment is especially important.
The coaches often tell them that a football pitch is not a maths problem in a classroom. Getting an action wrong does not mean failure. Simply having the courage to attempt something new is already a breakthrough.
At the beginning of the programme, the coaches and children agreed to greet one another with a high five or fist bump before and after every session. Within a little over a month, it had become a habit. Some children would run towards the coaches before they had even put down their schoolbags. Some would talk about playing football in PE class that day, while others would share small stories from school.
The coaching team’s semester review recorded similar changes. After one semester, the children were no longer as constrained by their fear of making mistakes. Most had become more comfortable with the coaches and were willing to share both amusing moments and personal worries before and after training.
As a result, the sessions gradually expanded beyond teaching movements and practising techniques. They also helped the children understand that, on the football pitch, they are allowed to try, allowed to make mistakes and encouraged to have another go.
Finding Their Voices on the Football Pitch
Football has also brought changes in how the children communicate and work together.
Some children may not usually speak up in class, but on the football pitch they begin to use their voices while running, passing and combining with teammates. Football is itself a form of communication: players need to alert one another, call for the ball, decide when to pass and when to receive, and learn to consider those around them through repeated combinations.
The coaches have noticed that some children have become more willing to express themselves on the pitch. Expression does not always have to mean standing up and speaking in front of a group. Calling for the ball, communicating a position or choosing to pass to a teammate can also be a way of finding one’s voice.
One participant said that they had enjoyed football from their very first session. Their favourite activity was now the passing game because, once they had learnt it, they could continue playing with their older sister at home. After scoring a goal, their teammates told them how good they were—and when their sister heard about it, she praised them too.
Another participant recalled that when the coaches first announced that they were selecting children for interviews, their immediate thought was: “Please don’t choose me—I have social anxiety.” Once the interview began, however, they found everyone to be gentle and considerate. Afterwards, they said it suddenly felt as though their “social anxiety had disappeared.”
A third participant said that they ran out of the classroom to attend training after school every time. They enjoyed drag-backs and touches with the ball and still remembered learning the V-shaped move. When asked why they were no longer afraid of playing, their answer was simple: “Because our coaches don’t shout at us.”
When children know that a mistake will not immediately be met with criticism, they become more willing to carry the ball forward and make their own decisions on the pitch. Here, football is both the content of the training and a way for children to practise expressing themselves and working with others.
What the School Sees Is the Smiles on the Children’s Faces
Since the programme began, Principal Sun Jun of Xianhua Experimental School has visited the training pitch almost every day. The biggest change he has noticed is that there are more smiles on the children’s faces.
In his view, football has created a consistent after-school opportunity for physical activity and given the children another reason to look forward to school. Even at weekends, they find themselves thinking about returning the following week for football training.
“When a school can hold this kind of attraction for its children, I believe education has succeeded,” Jun Sun said.
Xianhua Experimental School primarily serves children from rural communities, including many left-behind children. It is also a designated school for a local programme supporting orphaned children. With this student population in mind, the school has continued to explore ways of supporting children’s broader development.
The school promotes a “Five-Colour Happiness Education” philosophy, in which “Orange Vitality Empowerment” is closely connected to sport and extracurricular activities. Clubs devoted to football, roller skating, art, music and reading give children different spaces in which to develop.
With Green Pitch CSR Project becoming part of school life, the children now have another place beyond the classroom where they can exercise, cooperate, express themselves and demonstrate what they can do. For the school, this is also an important reason why the football programme has been able to become part of the children’s everyday routine.
Keeping Football in the Children’s After-School Lives
Following the completion of the first semester, the coaching team has already identified its priorities for the next phase.
On the technical side, the children will be divided into groups based on their current ability. In terms of session design, the coaches will continue to increase the use of small-sided games and scenario-based practices, helping the children understand football in situations that more closely resemble real matches. Psychological support will also remain important, with encouragement and guidance used to help children who are nervous or hesitant gradually build confidence.
For VfL Wolfsburg, this is where the value of Green Pitch CSR Projectlies: bringing children’s football training methods into schools, helping complete beginners discover a love of the game and then supporting them as they improve step by step through structured training.
The programme’s ability to deliver regular sessions on a school pitch in Jinzhai also relies on the support of a growing group of partners.
Alongside Volkswagen Anhui, Desay SV and MZ Testing, the programme has now welcomed JOYNEXT, Inovance Automotive and Schnellecke Logistics, a German logistics company headquartered in VfL Wolfsburg. Through Green Pitch CSR Project, a growing number of partners are bringing their commitment to children’s development onto this school football pitch.
As one of the programme founding charitable partners, Volkswagen Anhui became involved both through the Volkswagen Group’s long-standing relationship with the club and through its commitment to the local community in Anhui.
Desay SV has a long-term interest in sport and community engagement. Through the programme, it hopes to bring together German youth development methods and corporate social responsibility, giving children opportunities to grow through running, cooperation and challenge.
MZ Testing is focused on the long-term value of sport in children’s development. It hopes that football can help the participants learn to work together, handle both victory and defeat, and gradually develop healthier and more confident attitudes.
The programme’s new partners are extending that support even further. JOYNEXT and Inovance Automotive are contributing through concrete action, while Schnellecke Logistics has chosen to support a community football programme in China from its home city of VfL Wolfsburg. Its involvement creates a tangible connection between VfL Wolfsburg and a school pitch in China, carried by the warmth and shared language of football.
For the children, all of this support ultimately finds its way back to the pitch: a training session that can take place every week, a coach who continues to accompany them and another opportunity to step forward and try.
From touching a football for the first time to looking forward to the next session, these changes may not immediately appear on a scoreboard, but they are happening—quietly and genuinely—on the pitch.
For these children, football is becoming something to look forward to after school. And in these small yet meaningful changes, the value of Green Pitch CSR Project is gradually coming into view.
