The Ball 2002 set off across Europe & Asia to uncover the spirit of football and established the legend of The Ball as a powerful symbol for the football community. It is not just any ball, it is The Ball, the star of the beautiful game.
Stop Press: the desert was traversed, games were played in Niye and Turpan, and the Ball narrowly missed rolling to a stop in the Turpan Depression. 154m below sea level, 38 degrees in the shade – it’s hotter here than the desert. Now onwards, and incidentally upwards, to the gates of the Great Wall of China…
Chris surfs the dunes
A highlight for me was on the stretch from Korla to Turfan, when, driving through the arid western end of the Tian Shan mountains, we entered a gorge where the craggy hillsides were replaced by huge dunes which covered the rocks as if the sand had been poured on from above.
Pausing for a recording
Maayan and Gersh had left the bus in Korla, both heading for Beijing, so it was only Phil, Tim and me who arrived in Turfan late in the evening. We were delighted by the balmy evening temperature – a significant change from the deep desert, where it had become quite cold at night and we spent a pleasant hour or two in the hotel courtyard browsing through our World Cup planner and guide books, figuring out which games would be worth heading for, and getting a handle on their locations.
The Ball left Niye in the early morning after the Kashgar Allstars’ convincing victory, and headed north across the Tarim Basin and the second largest shifting sands desert on Earth, heading for Korla…
With a full five-a-side compliment of players, ably managed by Abdulwali, our Uyghur fixer, the team that helped Rock the Kashgar set off into the wilderness for five days of kickabout and competition down the Southern Silky Skills Route…
We stop off en route to Niye for some refreshment and a kickabout.
Hello everyone from Rob – the infamous Battersea Park football fouler.
Chris adds: here’s an action replay, as if you needed reminding ;-)
The Infamous Battersea Park Fouler about to get his name
The Infamous Battersea Park Fouler’s destiny is decided
I’m currently packing my bags to join Phil and Chris in Xiahe, near Lanzhou. I’ve already had my first taste of Chinese officialdom facing the stern woman behind the glass at the Chinese Embassy in London last Thursday morning. She grabbed my forms without a word and refused to answer any of my questions about bits of the visa application form I couldn’t complete. As I left the embassy to wait two hours for them to express process my application, I met three travellers on the steps who had been refused a visa, despite having submitted airline tickets, full itinery and contacts in China. I hadn’t submitted any of this information; I hadn’t even bought a flight yet, so I wasn’t very hopeful.
I returned two hours later to face another stern woman behind glass and…
The evening of May 5 will be one few Kashgar locals ever forget after a dramatic night of football in the heart of the old city.
The teams at The Yumulakshahar
The football’s journey to Seoul continued at the Kashgar Coliseum, a gladiator-style pit arena where around 10 international travellers and many local children took part in an epic contest which would have graced the original Rome amphitheatre itself.
We drum up support for a game at the livestock market and then play in a former lake.
Our goal in Kashgar was to visit the fabled Sunday market where local life gathers to meet, exchange, barter and haggle. People make long journeys from the outlying regions to attend the market, which echoes with the trading cries of Tajiks, Kyrgyz and Uyghurs.
On a particularly windy day in the desert, we decided to go for a walk to find an internet cafe which was rumoured to have a copy of Photoshop. I thought it would mean I could upload and edit some photos without the customary difficulties we’ve experienced here in China. It turned out to be another wild goose chase, but resulted in a charming incident in the backstreets of old Kashgar…
China has felt like sanctuary after the tribulations of the journey from Kazakhstan, and after spending a couple of days in Urumqi and hooking back up with the Boy Noble, we collectively decided to make a 3000km detour to Kashgar, the gateway to the Karakoram highway, on the far western edge of the Taklamakan desert.
A warm welcome in Kashgar
Kashgar is another of those places, like Samarkhand and Bukhara, whose name resounds with mystery and allure. It lies at the very heart of the continent, close to the borders of Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and is rightly considered the crossroads of Asia…
As soon as we arrive in Kashgar, Chelsea fan Phil does his best to find a place to watch the final and we meet Gersh for the first time.
