Voy Boys! How A Failed Film Project Kickstarted A Football Dream in Xinjiang

Bilal Yasen sprints across the football pitch, a black blindfold covering his eyes, his foot deftly dribbling the ball before he winds up for a shot.

As he moves, the 18-year-old shouts "wei wei wei" to alert his teammates – a call that has become the signature of his team, the Voy Boys, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region's first blind football squad.

Four years ago, Bilal Yasen even didn't hear of blind football. He never would have pictured himself suited up to play the game, let alone earning a spot to compete at the 12th National Games for Persons with Disabilities, an event that's set to kick off next Monday.

His journey, and that of his teammates, began with a commercial film project that never came to fruition.

A dream born out of a failed film

In 2021, film producer Su Yiyan traveled to a special education school in Shache (or Yarkant), a county in Kashgar, to scout for visually impaired boys to star in a feature film. Inspired by Shanghai's long-term aid to Xinjiang's impoverished areas, the film was to follow a struggling Shanghai coach who finds redemption while helping blind children pursue football dreams.

At the school, Su met Bilal Yasen, a shy boy who would linger on the edge of the football pitch, lighting up whenever a stray ball rolled to his feet. But he was unable to join the sighted or even deaf students who played regularly because of his blindness.

With the help of Shanghai's aid program officials, Su recruited 13 visually impaired children, including Bilal Yasen, aged 11 to 15, none of whom had ever heard of blind football.

The sport, which originated in Spain, requires athletes with varying degrees of visual impairment to wear blindfolds to ensure fairness – only goalkeepers are permitted to retain their sight. The ball is equipped with metal bells, allowing players to locate it by sound. Players call out "voy," Spanish for "I'm here," a cue that Chinese athletes have adapted to the phonetically similar "wei."

Despite the Chinese national blind football team claiming silver at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics and securing a fifth-place finish at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, the sport and its athletes remained largely unknown to the Chinese public.

Su arranged a 45-day camp for the boys, combining acting and football training.

Initially, the project faced skepticism. A parent wondered aloud, "How can a blind child possibly play football?" Some kids even showed up in slippers. But by the end of the camp, they were able to dribble the ball.

"They slowly started to look like a real team," Su recalled.

The pre-production process had gone smoothly until funding ran out. The COVID-19 pandemic hit the film industry hard, and the project had to be shelved.

When Su told the boys the movie might never happen, their response was urgent: They messaged her on WeChat, "Can we keep playing football?"

For the older boys, the stakes were higher as Shache's special school offered no high school education, meaning they would soon have to leave the team and abandon their newfound passion.

The question haunted Su. She refused to let their dream die, reaching out to her network and connecting with director Li Zhiwei, who shared her vision.

The pair decided to pivot: The costly commercial film would become a low-budget documentary, made with a skeleton crew of just 7-9 people, a stark contrast to the 100-plus crew a feature film would require. The documentary's goal was to capture the boys' love for football and their unyielding determination, in the hope of attracting support to keep their team alive.

Let the boys run

In June 2023, filming began, with the production team making 15 trips to Shache, working pro bono and relying on other jobs to cover expenses.

"We had to dig through our pockets each time, figuring out how long we could delay equipment payments and how to cut travel costs by trimming the crew. We made sure to keep the gender ratio balanced and never wasted a single bed," Su said.

The bigger challenge was securing resources for the boys' training. Shache has been one of the Kashgar counties receiving targeted assistance from Shanghai since 2010. Although officially lifted out of poverty in 2020, it lacked basic football infrastructure: Turf for the pitch, proper gear and coaching fees were all hurdles to overcome.

Su eventually received the support she needed. Xinjiang's local disabled people's federation and foundation stepped in, and Shanghai once again offered help. One of the earliest sponsors, SMG (Shanghai Media Group) Pictures, invested in 2024.

"This is a rare and valuable subject that chronicles the real-world growth and transformation of a unique group of individuals," said Li Yang, vice general manager of SMG Pictures. "We hope to boost public awareness of the visually impaired and vulnerable communities as they strive for a better life, greater social inclusion and fuller participation in sports."

This year, the project was included in Shanghai's "Cultural Enrichment for Xinjiang" initiative. With support from Shanghai and Xinjiang, the documentary's filming wrapped up smoothly, and it has now moved into post-production.

In August last year, the boys formed Xinjiang's first blind football team, naming themselves the Voy Boys, or in Chinese, the Wei Wei Wei Football Team. Wei also sounds a lot like "win."

Two months later, they competed in the National Blind Football Championships in Fuzhou, east China's Fujian Province. In their final match against Team Jiangxi, Bilal Yasen alone scored five goals.

For him, the journey was especially tough. Diagnosed with glaucoma and cataracts at seven, Bilal Yasen lost full vision due to lack of funds for surgery, and unlike teammates who retained some light perception, he had to learn the game entirely through sound and touch. He loved football and trained harder than anyone else.

"Playing football makes me happy," he says in the documentary. "I run and attack without stopping – and the wind buzzes past my ears."

Searching for light in the darkness

Adiljan Tursun's journey has been just as arduous. Like Bilal Yasen, the 14-year-old lives with cataracts and glaucoma, and the grueling physicality of football risks further damaging his optic nerve. Once, he could make out shapes within a 10-meter radius; today, his vision is all but gone, leaving him with barely a flicker of light perception.

Su told Shanghai Daily that his father did not want him to play. But after long consideration, he agreed to let Adiljan Tursun keep playing, believing that if blindness was inevitable, football might still be the key to unlocking a brighter, more hopeful future for his son.

Recent statistics from the China Disabled Persons' Federation indicate that there are approximately 17 million visually impaired individuals in China. A study by Nanjing Normal University of Special Education reveals that the employment rate for visually impaired people remains low, with many primarily working in massage therapy.

But football has opened new possibilities for the Voy Boys, carrying them beyond the desert and toward a broader world.

In July 2023, four children, including Bilal Yasen and Adiljan Tursun, were selected to participate in a monthlong training camp with the Shanghai Blind Football Team. Here, they experienced many "firsts:" riding the subway, visiting a 100-story skyscraper and exploring Disneyland.

They also learned about diverse careers for visually impaired people, such as making coffee, running businesses, working in offices and playing sports.

In April, some of the team members traveled to Shanghai to play with professional players from Shanghai Shenhua, a top Chinese Super League team. Now, they will soon compete in the National Games for Persons with Disabilities in Guangzhou.

"Blind football has showed me a bigger world," said 17-year-old Abudumijit. "Without it, I wouldn't have even left Shache."

Sadly, some of the Voy Boys, including Adiljan Tursun, withdrew from this year's National Games due to eye conditions or family reasons.

Su is still working hard to help the boys access eye treatment in big cities. Although the optimal treatment window has passed, reclaiming a faint sense of light would be a meaningful change for children living in darkness – at the very least, it would let them distinguish day from night.