Thirty-five-year-old Igor Baletic is a football manager from Serbia. Back at home, he helped his team win the championship of the domestic U19 league twice. Baletic used to work as the goalkeeper coach of Serbia's U17 national team as well.

In 2019, he came to China and became the goalkeeper coach of Qiongzhong Women's Football Team, which is based in Qiongzhong Li and Miao Autonomous County of south China's Hainan Province.

Baletic's arrival brought great changes to the team in a good way. Not only did players improve a lot in their skills, girls also got access to new, world-level concepts of football, which should be helpful in their future development.

In order to communicate with his players more efficiently, Baletic began to learn Chinese and he's making fast progress with the help of his assistant coach.

Though he's demanding during training sessions, Baletic speaks to his wife and three kids on video chat daily, ensuring them that he's doing well in China.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in Serbia in March 2020, China sent not only a team of Chinese medical staff with experience in fighting the coronavirus, but also medical aid to the country. In January, Serbia became the first country in Europe to use a vaccine that was designed, trialed and produced in China after a million doses of Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine had arrived.

"I'd like to show my sincerest appreciation for China's help. China sent Serbia medical experts, supplies and coronavirus vaccines over the course of the pandemic, and not long ago, I also received COVID-19 vaccine injection here. Thank you, China!" said Baletic to Xinhua News Agency.