Olé! Shanghai women hit the pitch in Argentine colors
Most of the women on the Patagonia Soccer Club in Shanghai have never been to the southernmost region of Argentina. In fact, many members of China's first Argentine women's soccer team have never stepped foot in South America.
This athletic melting pot of players from Latin America, China, Europe and Africa is united by blue and white, the national colors of Argentina.
The club was founded by Tatiana Rocha Mendieta, who herself hails from Buenos Aires, almost 10,000 kilometers north of Patagonia.
Rocha Mendieta originally came to Fujian Province in 2017 with her now ex-husband. When the marriage broke up because of the strains of expatriate life, she had to make a decision whether to leave or stay in China.
"If I chose to stay, I would have to overcome the language barrier, loneliness, and being separated from my family back home," she said. "I didn't have much in the way of savings."
Still, her spirit prevailed over her misgivings, and she moved to Shanghai in 2018.
"I wanted to prove to myself that I am strong and capable of living here alone," she said.
Rocha Mendieta began studying Chinese at Jiao Tong University and found a job teaching Spanish at CIIC-Institute Cervantes in the city.
The idea of the soccer club was planted when she attended a lunch of expatriates in 2020.
One of the attendees was Luz Helena Echeverry, then Shanghai consul-general for Colombia.
A Colombian women's soccer team was being organized in Shanghai at the time, and Echeverry mentioned that it would be nice for someone to organize an Argentine team.
That was a life-changing moment, Rocha Mendieta said.
"It was hard to believe that Argentine soccer, which is so well known globally, had no one representing our national colors on this side of the world, not even a men's team," she said.
Rocha Mendieta said she named the team after the Argentine region of Patagonia because the name means "giant feet" in Spanish.
"Historically, the massive footprints left on beaches by the indigenous people have been astounding, and I want our team to leave giant footprints as well," she said. "As the first women's Argentine team in China, I want to demonstrate that we can achieve what the Argentine men have yet to achieve."
Her first step was to message Argentine groups in Shanghai seeking players.
"The first to respond was a woman from Nabila in Argentina's San Juan Province," Rocha Mendieta said. "She has been in China since 2019, and without her, our club would not be what it is today."
However, the number of responses wasn't enough to form a team, so Rocha Mendieta spread her net wider. She sent out flyers and posted notices on social media seeking players of any nationality.
The next big task was finding a coach.
"I asked a lot of people," she said. "Some who were interested in the team weren't living in Shanghai. Others said they didn't have the time or needed some compensation when we had scant funding. And some just scoffed at the idea of Argentine women's soccer. Doors closed in front of me."
Finally, amateur coach Carlos Holgado came to the rescue.
Originally from Zaragoza in Spain, Holgado moved to Shanghai in 2016. His love of soccer traveled with him.
He said he sees great hustle and a sense of honor in women's soccer, especially in China.
"Those are important aspects of football, and they show in the results," he said. "The China Women's National Soccer Team won the AFC Women's Asian Cup in 2022, while the men's team never won a match," he observed.
Mendieta praises Holgado and what he has done for her team.
"He's still our coach and he hasn't even charged us anything for quite some time," she said.
The new team, decked out in blue and white uniforms, began training sessions in late 2020.
For Rocha Mendieta, the club's birth has been a vital personal link between her homeland and her adopted home.
"I've played football since I was five years old," she said. "And when I was in Argentina, my family and I would watch games together every weekend."
She encapsulated the spirit of Patagonia Soccer Club in one sentence: "Women's soccer is about bonding together as a family."
The women's side of the sport has traditionally received far less attention than men's teams, even in Argentina.
"There are also many people who don't see women's soccer as a football game at all, but rather just as a hobby," she said.
Many Chinese women on the team said they started to play soccer in college.
They even had training experiences with men players.
"A lot of guys thought that girls are not fit to play soccer because of factors such as height and build," said a player who preferred to be identified as Ah Xiao. "So sometimes they were maybe too 'polite' and didn't exercise their full capability against us."
Another player called Sanwan said, "I need to make them understand that I'm not joking about the sport. If I take the sport seriously, they will too. I think the existence of our team is changing minds and showing that women can be excellent football players."
Other Chinese players said they were irritated when people described them as having "male-like personalities."
Despite resistance, the team has forged ahead with great spirit, bolstering the self-esteem of its members. "Getting to know ourselves better" is how one China player put it.
Patagonia Soccer Club has evolved beyond Rocha Mendieta's initial vision.
"We were surprised when a men's soccer team approached us and said they wanted to have a game with us, either in a mixed match or a women vs men match," she said
The match was a women vs men game in the end. The women lost but the men treated them with great respect, she added.
Eventually, Patagonia Soccer Club created a mixed team.
"We now have a mixed game with a men's team once a month," said Rocha Mendieta. "Dispelling some long-held beliefs is significant to us."
Soccer, according to Rocha Mendieta, is an "escape valve" from the grind of every-day life and helps people break down barriers.
She remains upbeat about the future of the team, even though players still have to cover the costs of purchasing uniforms and renting a field.
"We want to expand the club and attract and develop first-tier players," she said. "As a woman, I am aware of the enormous potential of women. It's truly incredible to see women from all over the world come together under the Argentine colors and give it their all on the field."