On April 14, the sixth round of the Chinese Super League started with Shanghai Seaport winning 4-3 at home against Shandong Taishan. One of the highlights of the match was 34-year-old Xie Lijun, who became the first female referee in the top men's professional soccer league. In an interview with Beijing Youth Daily, she revealed that enforcing the men's soccer championship will be her new goal.
Xie Lijun (谢丽君), born in 1989 in Bazhong, Sichuan Province, is the same year as Zhang Linlian (张琳琏), the captain of Shanghai Port in the Chinese Super League. Currently, she teaches yoga, soccer and volleyball at the School of Physical Education, Jinjiang College of Sichuan University. Since 2009, Xie Lijun has been on the road of soccer refereeing, and she has traveled 14 long years from raising the side flag at provincial secondary school tournaments to joining the international refereeing camp in 2019 to the World Cup enforcement stage.
Before joining soccer law enforcement, Xie Lijun was a track and field athlete who was favored by the soccer teacher at Sichuan College of Arts and Sciences because of her outstanding running form and physical condition. Talking about this experience, she lamented, "In school, I had majored in track and field. Because of my outstanding running posture and physical condition, I was tall, so I was favored by the soccer teacher."
In the Super League match between Shanghai and Lu on the night of the 14th, Xie Lijun and 2022 World Cup final referee Ma Ning co-officiated. Ma Ning is not only her friend, but also her mentor. Xie Lijun revealed that before joining the Women's World Cup referee camp on July 8 last year, she had made a lot of preparations, including asking Maning and other industry experts for advice. Manning's encouragement warmed her heart, "Mr. Ma really gave me a lot of encouragement. He said, don't be nervous."
Looking to the future, Xie Lijun said: "The trend of modern soccer women's soccer masculinization is obvious, female referees enforcing men's soccer matches has been very common in Europe. I am working hard in this direction. The immediate goal is our 2027 Women's Soccer World Cup. FIFA has asked us to do so. After enforcing the men's professional soccer league, the next step is to enforce and work out in the Asian men's soccer league."
