Drafted by Zhou Chenlu; Edited by Zheng Yuyang

On the noon of November 11, the final match of the "Sports Carnival" Football League for the graduate students of China Agricultural University was successfully held in the football court of the East Campus. COHD’s graduate football team mainly made up of the international students won the championship.In this session of Football League, after continuously fierce competitions among graduate school football teams in the east and west campus, the two teams, COHD’s graduate football team and COE (College of Engineering)’s graduate football team, became the finalists who would be able to embark on the final round of the battle to compete against each other. 

Gong Li, COHD’s Deputy Dean, is the leader of COHD’s graduate football team this year. Zhou Xuejun, COHD’s Associate Professor from the Department of Development Management, acts as the coach of the team. COHD’s football team consists of 13 international students and 5 Chinese students, in which the international students played a dominant role as the main force in the matches.On the court, the students were full of energy and confidence and strove to combat; off the court,they made good use of their spare time to get fully prepared for the match through acquiring tactics and enhancing physical strength, in order to confront with the finals in a relaxed, confident and clear mindset.On behalf of the college, COHD’s graduate football team finally won the highest honor of the football league and embraced the championship trophy.

After the match, Shayan Sear, one of the major players of the football team as well as a second-year postgraduate international student from Afghanistan, proudly said: “I feel very honored and happy to obtain such an opportunity to enjoy the football game with friends from different countries. Winning the championship is also the greatest recognition for our hard work. In the future, I will keep taking an active part in various activities, so as to learn more Chinese culture and make more Chinese friends!"

The Football League in 2019 came to a pleasant end amid laughter and celebrations, and COHD’s graduate football team, with the international students being the main force, won the golden medal once again after their last championship achieved in 2016.The successful completion of such an activity has made COHD’s international students and Chinese students perfectly demonstrate their sportsmanship and team spirit, and more specifically, greatly enriched the extracurricular life of the international students studying in China and enhanced their sense of group honor and belonging.