Players compete in a match in Zangbi Township of Lhari County, Nagqu, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, July 18, 2026. (Xinhua/Zhou Yulong)

　　by Xinhua writer Zhou Yulong

　　LHASA, July 19 (Xinhua) -- While football fans around the world are focused on the FIFA World Cup and its stars, spectacle and golden trophy, I stood next to a cattle pen at 4,700 meters above sea level, watching children chase a different kind of football glory. The winners' prize is not the World Cup trophy, but bananas, apples or perhaps laundry detergent. Half a world away from the showpiece in North America, the joy that football brings is exactly the same in this spot in Xizang Autonomous Region in southwest China.

　　Since last year, when I moved to Xizang to work as a news reporter, I have been constantly moved by the sheer passion for football among the children here. On work trips, as our vehicle winds through towns and villages in this mountainous region, I often spot football pitches of all sizes, where young figures run wild and free, chasing a ball.

　　At the foot of Mount Qomolangma, the world's highest peak, I interviewed children in Dingri County playing on a newly built pitch a year after a devastating earthquake. "Playing football again made life feel normal," they told me. In Lhorong County, Qamdo, meanwhile, I watched a village "Super League" tournament that drew migrant workers home from across China -- simply to kick a ball.

　　This time, I traveled to Zangbi Township in Lhari County, where a patch of cleared earth next to a cattle pen became a pitch, with earthen walls for lines and wooden sticks for goalposts. There were no stands or proper goals.