CHINESE FOOTBALL

INTRODUCTION

There is a very interesting football history in China. Football is a famous game in China. The game is said to have been introduced in the early 1900’s. For the game development there have been uninteresting news concerning corruption in Chinese football games. Some people have been arrested and sentenced because of that. There is also a problem of violence in and outside the pitch. All in all, Chinese people loves football. We dislike those violent actions showed by fans in china but we sometimes forget that that is the way they are expressing their love for the game.

THE LOVE FOR FOREIGN SOCCER LEAGUES

Because of the fact that the Chinese premier league is still struggling to grow and to be mor standard, many Chinese fans have showed an interest in external football leagues especially in Europe. There are various football fans for the English Premier League, The Italian Serie A and also the Bundesliga.

HAO HAIDONG

hao was a wonderful striker for the Chinese national team. I can nick-name him as Chinese Rooney. He had scored many goals for the national team of china than any other in history. He was a player for the national team from 1992 until 2004. 103 is the number of his total matches he has played for his country. In all that appearances Hao has scored a record of 37 goals.

Hao is now 42 years of age. He was raised from youth football by  Bayi FC. Hestarde to play football in China for Bayi FC from 1986-1996. Ten year wa enough time for him to try another taste in another team. He joined Dalian Wanda FC in 1997 and served it until 2005. He made 130 appearnces for Dalian Wanda FC and he scored a total of 78 goals.

Hao s the Chinese footballer of the year in 1998. He won the Chinese FA won cup with Dalian Wanda FC. Hao also won the Chinese super cup there times (1997, 2001, 2003) with Dalian

CHENGDU BLADES FC

Chengdu Blades FC is a team which plays in the Chinese League one currently. The team is owned by Kevin McCabe. Chengdu Blades  was established in 1996. In the beginning the team was known as Chengdu Wuniu FC. The club uses a stadium called Chengdu Sports Centre. Chengdu sports centre has a capacity of 42,000. The short history of Chengdu since it was established marks a beginning of some new teams in Asia and China in particular. Such beginnings were experienced  by many huge clubs in Europe. many have already reached 100 years since they were established. Others have more than 100 ywears. Ac Milan for example was established in 1899.

Chengdu FC started to play in the division 3, and it went to division 2 after spending 2 years in division 3. In 1998 Chengdu started to participate in the division two league until 2007. It was promoted to League one in 2008and stayed for two years there. In 2010 Chengdu was relegated to division two again. The team struggled to step out of division two league and went back successfully in League 1 the next year, in 2011. In both 2012 and 2013 the team has participated in League two.

Some notable players for Chengdu FC is Raio Piijora who is an Estonian international player,and he plays as a defender in the Chinese team. Raio is now34 years old,  and he still plays for his national side. Raio played his club football in Norway, Holland and in Estonia before joining Chengdu Blades FC. He has been playing for Estonia since 1998. He has already appeared 111 times in the national team of Estonia, and scored a total of 8 goals. Raio was the best player all over Estonia for 5 years, in 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008 and in 2009.

CHINA NATIONAL TEAM

The Chinese national team is also known as the dragon of the great wall. The Chinese Football association is the agency responsible for taking care of the national team. The current team coach is called Fu Bo. Apart from several problems accompanying the Chinese football, the team has been struggling to advance its football standard.

The coming of Didier Drogba and Nicholas Anelka as well as other foreign players is an evidence which shows that the Chinese people will go to the higher level in some years to come. Drogba and Anelka were signed in by Shanghai Shenhua FC and they did not stay for so long. David Beckam at times has been going in china to help promoting the Chinese football. The current captain for the Chinese national team is Zheng Zhi. Zhi PLAYED FOR Shenzen Jianlibao from 2001 – 2004. He played for that team a total of 77 games and netted 14 goals. He started to play as a defender in his early years of his football carrier but his national team coach changed his role and he was converted to be an attacking mid-fielder.

CHINA WITH NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES

There is a very huge rivalry when China play with either Japan and South Korea. The rivalry is sometimes due to the said controversial officiating and also from the historical background of china with the neighbour countries. I was born in 1978. Since I was born until January 2010, China has played with South Korea 27 times without a single win. China has always ended up with either 11 draw matches or 16 defeats from their neighbours South Korea. It was in the East Asian Championship Game when China came out with a victory of 3-0. Rome was not built in a single day, week or even a month. The Chinese people should be tolerant on the fact that, to have a strong football team we need to wait for many years. I also think the Chinese people are not paying much attention on football as they do in Judo, Kung fu, Karate volleyball as well as other gymnastics. More emphasis, more investment is therefore needed for the Chinese soccer to come up.

HENAN JIANYE FC

Henan Jianye FC logo

The team‘s history goes back to 1959. It was formerly known as Henan Provincial Team. The club became officially professional in 1994. In some years before 1994 Henan FC passed through ups and downs as it fall under relegations in 3rd division and second divisions.  The team’s home kits are dark red with green socks while the away kits are full blue with white socks.

In the current squad there are about 3 African professional players. Christopher Katongo is a Zambiaan striker who plays for Henan Jianye. Katongo has played a total of 42 games and scored 11 goals for Henan FC so far. Katongo also won the BBC African footballer for the year 2012.

Christopher Katongo in tthe middle celebrating with fellow players

Photo by: www.zambianfootball.co.zm.

Another African Star in Henan Jianye FC is called Nando Raphael from Angola. Nando has spent a lot of his football carrier in Europe after leaving Angola during the civil war. From 2002-2006 he played for Hertha BSC in Germany. He played a total of 70 games for Hertha BSC and scored a total of 16 goals. In 2013 he joined Henan Jianye FC. He has already played three games and he has not yet scored any goal for his new team.

The other player from Africa for Henan Jianye FC is Gibril Sankoh from Sierra Leone. Gibril plays as a defender. Before joining the Chinese side Gibril also spent a lot of his time in Europe. He started to play for a Dutch club called Stormvogels Telstar FC in the year 2004. His last European club was FC Augsburg in 2013. He joined Henan Jianye in 2013. He has already played for Henan jianye a total of 29 games, and because he is a defender we should not expect him to have scored many goals. No wonder that he has not yet scored any goal in all 29 appearances.