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)
