Farmers and football: The women of Vietnam who score big on the field
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Farmers from the ethnic minority San Chi group, in Vietnam's Huc Dong commune, playing a friendly football match yesterday. The women's long-sleeved shirts, skirts and headbands have been, for generations, part of the traditional dress of their small community, which numbers just over 2,000.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
QUANG NINH (Vietnam) • Legs stiff from long days of working in the rice terraces of northern Vietnam, scores of female farmers dressed in colourful cloth headbands and skirts gather on a gravel pitch for a game of football.
The all-female squads of Huc Dong commune, a mountainous village 40km from the Chinese border, have little time to practise and may spend months away from the sport when it is time to tend their crops.
But the commitment of the women, who hail from the San Chi ethnic minority group, has earned them respect - plus a little money and fame - in football-mad Vietnam. Since they began playing in 2016, the women have featured regularly in national press and across social media.
But they are far from the only success story in women's football in Vietnam, with the national side being multiple South-east Asian championship winners.
Trying to catch a pass from her teammate, striker May Thi Kim bumps against her competition as she aims for the goal on the community's gravel hilltop stadium overlooking the padi-and bamboo-covered valley.
As the team dribbles the ball closer to the goal posts, spectators - many of whom are the players' husbands and children, as well as tourists - cheer the women on.
Ms Kim and her fellow Huc Dong commune players - 14 in all, across two teams - play in black skirts, long-sleeved blue shirts and headbands that have been part of their traditional dress for generations.
Midfielder La Thi Thao, 15, says she might be more comfortable in regular shorts and a T-shirt, but is happy to show off the clothing of her tiny community, which numbers just over 2,000.
All the players in Huc Dong, including Ms Kim, make a living from hard work in the terraced padi fields and in the forests, where they grow cinnamon, star anise and pine trees. Their daily step counts climb into the tens of thousands as they traverse hills and navigate rocky streams.
Coach May A Cang has trained them hard to improve their flexibility, asking the women to run regularly to limber up their muscles.
It was tough work at first, with the players soaking their legs in warm salted water and medicinal leaves for pain relief.
While Mr Cang took on the coaching role, he admits that even he was initially hesitant when his wife, now a squad member, wanted to join the team.
14
Number of women footballers in the Huc Dong commune.
The women believe they have proved their doubters wrong - some have even passed their passion on to their daughters.
"Even if it hurts, we are OK to take it for our love of football," Ms Kim said.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
