The car circle has been quite lively recently, with new cars launching one after another. But there's one piece of news that I think is more worth mentioning than a product launch: BYD has signed an agreement with the Dongrun Foundation to jointly promote youth football. At first I thought this was just a "show," but after looking into it, I realized that's really not the case—it's actually increasingly substantive.
I looked up the Dongrun Foundation. It is a legitimate national 5A-level non-public fundraising foundation that has long been deeply engaged in youth education assistance and has won the China Charity Award twice. Over the ten years since its founding, its projects have covered 31 provincial-level regions and 324 counties across the country, benefiting more than 100,000 young people.
The Dongrun Cup National Youth Football Tournament started in 2022 and officially kicked off in 2023. It has attracted more than 1,000 school teams and over 10,000 players and coaches in total, and more than 30 participating players have been selected for the national youth team, the middle school national team, and U-series elite training camps.
BYD's partnership with the Dongrun Foundation is not a spur-of-the-moment decision. In 2010, BYD established a charitable foundation and has since been deeply involved in areas such as education support, poverty alleviation, and disaster relief. On the occasion of its 30th anniversary, BYD set up a 3 billion yuan education charity fund, inspiring more than 6,000 students.
It is worth noting that BYD pays great attention to the development of Chinese football. It not only supports Chinese football youngsters and future talent selection programs, but also pays attention to mountain-area campus schools or clubs in remote counties such as Yili in Xinjiang, Ningshan in Shaanxi, and Xingren, Pu'an, and Yuanbao in Guizhou.
Since 2024, BYD has continued to organize young football players to go to Germany, Japan, Spain, Thailand, Italy, Brazil, and Mexico, with more than 200 person-times exchanging and learning with top overseas clubs. It has also taken them to top venues such as the European Championship and the World Cup to broaden their horizons.
Car owners have not been absent either. BYD has taken car owners along to do public welfare work, delivering supplies to children in remote areas such as Xinjiang and Guizhou who love football, and has also visited the Guizhou Yuanbao women's football team to open public welfare classes and donate supplies. A car is no longer just a means of transportation, but a carrier connecting the brand with public welfare.
The key to this partnership with the Dongrun Foundation lies in "going grassroots." By empowering the Dongrun Cup National Youth Football Tournament, it focuses on ordinary high school campus teams and fills the shortcomings of grassroots football resources. It balances the advancement of young football talent with campus popularization, consolidating the soil for domestic youth football.
Overseas, BYD cooperates with giants such as Manchester City, Inter Milan, and Paris Saint-Germain, and appears at international events such as the European Championship and the Copa America, gaining attention from fans around the world. Domestically, BYD directs resources to campuses and counties, filling the gap in grassroots campus football resources.
Final thoughts
Chinese football needs more pitches, needs to discover and focus on cultivating talented players, and also needs more enterprises and foundations willing to sink resources into county towns and ordinary high school teams. The third Dongrun Cup National Youth Football Tournament has already kicked off, and the BYD cars on the sidelines deserve a thumbs-up!
