On the morning of 23th March 2021, Martin Thiess, General Manager for China of the German football club Borussia Moechengladbach, Xuan Ling, Project Manager for China of the club, Hui Yu, Deputy General Manager of Water-Soft-Wind Cultural Development Co., Ltd, Fanxi Ye, Sport Project Manager of the company came to visit School of Physical Education and Sport(SPES) of HENU. Besides the German guests, Weiwei Guo, Deputy Director of School’s Football Office Henan Province (SFOHP), Director of the International Football Academy (IFA) of HENU, Xiangdong Li, Director of General Department of SFOHP, Xian Niu, Secretary of Party Committee of SPES, Dachao Zhang, Dean of SPES, and Youkuan Shi, Vice Dean of SPES, attended the meeting. Weiwei Guo took the chair.

Dachao Zhang firstly warmly welcomed the presence of the domestic and international guests. He then introduced the history of the historical development of SPES as well as IFA. He emphasized that the school kept a healthy cooperative relationship with the society depending on its nutrition of students, scientific researching, society-oriented service as well as inheritance and innovation of the Chinese traditional culture. In particular, for the past few years, the school made a substantial progress in international communication and cooperation and a valuable contribution to the development of national physical education and sports. He hoped that a trilateral agreement on exchange programs, fostering and authentication of coaches and construction of the youth training system could be reached at this meeting.

Focused on the development of football game in schools in Henan Province, Weiwei Guo noted that China had been utilizing an elites’ breeding approach on the game for the past several decades; however, the campus football ideals adhered to education and popularization, and it aimed at the enlargement of the game population by attracting more and more children to play football; this game should play an even greater educational role during the maturing process of the youth and improve both their mental and physical conditions; with 1.1 billion population and among the highest of total economic value, Henan held both one of largest magnitude of education and one of the largest number of enrollment regarding all kinds of school types around the country; nowadays, there were three to four million boys and girls in Henan who were frequently playing football games; during acceleration of developing schools football in Henan SFOHP targeted popularization of the game, promotion of football culture as well as maximization the positive influences of this sport in the growth of the young people; SFOHP would like to go further on learning from the developed nation regarding football with their advanced pedagogical concepts as well as the competition system in teaching, learning, and training.

Martin Thiess introduced his club to the attendants. He considered that Henan had tremendous potentials in football. He was therefore very interested in the cooperation with Henan. Xuan Ling said that the professional techniques and experiences of the club could perfectly suit and support the development of Chinese football.

Borussia Moechengladbach is a famous German football club with a long history of 120 years. From 2016 the club begins stepping into globalization and practicing its Ponies Philosophy around the world. It has been running international youth training and enhancing cultural communications in China, Holland, Belgium, France, Britain, America and Mexico.

Contribution: School of Physical Education and Sport