After leaving professional soccer, Dai Qiang struggled to make a living. But now he has discovered a new job in the sport - as a coach at a primary school in Hohhot, in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

"Finally, I can make use of what I am good at for a living and pass on my experience to children instead of laying it aside," the 28-year-old said.

Thanks to the region's strategic plan to develop soccer - the first provincial-level pilot program on China's soccer reform blueprint - more ex-players like Dai have reinvented themselves to pass along coveted expertise in the development of an ambitious school soccer system.