Standing side by side with her idol and presenting to the Yugoslav
China head soccer coach with a clay sculpture she had made herself
for him, Wang Meihui has finally seen her dream come true.
Wang, a third-grade student from a middle school in Anshan, a city
some 85 kilometers southwest of Shenyang, had her long aspiration
realized when she had a heartened meeting with Bora Milutinovic in
Shenyang days ago.
Crazy with soccer at a very young age, Wang had been attracted by a
new hobby of clay sculpture when she entered the middle school. The
idea of making a sculpture of "Milu", as he is known throughout
China, came to her mind when watching the Chinese team he leads at
last year's Asian qualification tournament for 2002 World Cup
finals. She began her efforts without telling anybody.
But her secret was at last discovered by a local newspaper. In an
interview with its reporters in April, the teenager soccer fan
said: "I really admire Milu. He is the hero of Chinese soccer. How
nice would it be if I could present this sculpture to him someday
by myself!"
Editors of the newspaper suggested that she made a bigger sculpture
and promised to contact "Milu" for his promise of meeting with the
teenager. Milutinovic happily agreed to meet his young admirer
prior to his team's warm-up match in May in Shenyang.
At
the long-aspired meeting, the girl handed a letter in English to
"Milu" and presented him a red scarf of the Chinese Young Pioneers.
Beamed with a broad smile when coming to the vivid sculpture, the
head coach gave Wang a big hug, talked with and had pictures taken
with her. He also gave her a ball with his autograph and some
Chinese Football Association souvenir badges.
What else could a Chinese soccer fan of her age expect for? The
over-excited teenager smiled with a full satisfaction.
(Xinhua News
Agency May 17, 2002)