Soccer babe born again as a true fan
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CHINA - "Please! Don't call me a soccer babe anymore," shouted Liu Wenwen, who was crowned the prettiest football babe in China during a beauty contest sponsored by CCTV. The stunner, who is featured in hundreds of Internet photos, is known as a beautiful woman capable of heating up an audience with her mini-skirts and attractive face.
But Liu is hoping people will concentrate on her football knowledge and not her physical charm.
Liu, 27, traveled to Beijing from Wuhan in 2006. She has been developing a love of sports since she was a 15-year-old middle school student.
During the 1998 World Cup, Liu was a huge fan of the talented Italian footballer Roberto Baggio and saved every cent of her pocket money to purchase products related to him.
She even picked up her pen and started to draw pictures of football players.
Since then, she has drawn pictures of several football players, including David Beckham, Batistuta and lots of Roberto Baggio.
Liu mailed one of her pictures to Baggio in 1998 and, after several months, she got Baggio's reply.
"I mailed a caricature of Baggio to him and expressed my feelings about him in my letter," Liu said, "I did not expect his reply, after all he is so far away, so I was so excited to receive it."
Baggio's reply was written in Italian and Liu said that she kept the letter for 12 years before she knew what he had written. Recently, Liu attended a TV program and the host organized for the letter to be translated.
"He thanked me for supporting him and said he would play harder on the field, but when I knew this, he had already retired from the field for six years," Liu said.
Over the years, Liu has dug more deeply into football.
She spent 20,000 yuan (S$4,132) to go to South Africa for 10 days from June 4 to June 14 to watch the first match of the 2010 World Cup. She said it was her dream to watch such a match and was moved by the action on the field.
"I almost wanted to cry because my dream had finally came true and people around me cheered emotionally for the team they supported," Liu said.
Liu said she refused earplugs, which were offered to fans free of charge to protect their ears from the noise of the horns that reverberated throughout the stadium.
After the trip, Liu announced that she no longer wants to be known as a soccer babe and said she will not pose for any more sexy photos.
"Most soccer babes in China are not qualified and they do not love the game. Many do not even know the basic rules and spirit of the sport," Liu said. "I am different from them because I am really a football fan."
Liu said most soccer babes in China take the title as a platform to develop their modeling careers.
Although she works as a model and poses for magazine photos, Liu insisted that she now wants to be described as a freelancer because of articles she has written during the World Cup in a newspaper and for a website.
Liu said she depends on her income from writing to support her life in Beijing. She added that her first book is now being edited.
"It is fortunate that I can work on my favorite things, writing and football," Liu said.
As a young woman, Liu said frankly, her favorite team was Italy because it had so many handsome players. She says she now likes many other European teams, including Spain and the Netherlands, which she supports because of their teamwork.
"I would like to see the Spanish team become champions," she said, "I believe in their capability and we need a new world champion."