Li Yi (footballer)
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | June 20, 1979 | ||
| Place of birth | Bengbu, Anhui, China | ||
| Height | 1.84 m (6 ft 0.4 in) | ||
| Playing position | Striker (Former) | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1991–1996 | Tianjin Locomotive | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1997–1998 | Tianjin Locomotive | 38 | (8) |
| 1999 | Beijing Guoan (Loan) | 18 | (4) |
| 2000–2006 | Shenzhen Kingway | 153 | (52) |
| 2007–2010 | Shaanxi Chanba | 57 | (4) |
| National team‡ | |||
| 1998 | China U20 | ||
| 1998–1999 | China U23 | ||
| 2001–2006 | China | 30 | (2) |
| Teams managed | |||
| 2011–2013 | Shenzhen Ruby (Assistant Coach) | ||
| 2014–2015 | Shenzhen Ruby | ||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of December 1, 2010. ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of February 7, 2010 |
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Li Yi (Chinese: 李毅), born June 20, 1979, is a Chinese soccer manager and former international player.
As a player he was a striker who represented Tianjin Locomotive, Beijing Guoan, Shaanxi Chanba and Shenzhen Kingway whom he won the 2004 Chinese Super League with. He would also represent the Chinese national team in the 2003 East Asian Football Championship and 2004 AFC Asian Cup. Since retiring he moved into football coaching and was assigned his first Head coaching position with Shenzhen Ruby before leaving the club on 12 April 2015.
Li Yi started his football career playing for the Tianjin Locomotive youth before he was promoted to their senior team in the 1997 league season. His performances for his club would see him attract the attentions of the Chinese U20 and Chinese U23 teams. This led to top tier club Beijing Guoan interested in his services, however they quickly found that Li Yi had already signed a pre-contract with fellow top tier side Shenzhen Pingan. Shenzhen would eventually allow a loan move to happen and Li Yi would move to Beijing throughout the 1999 league season.
At Shenzhen Pingan Li Yi would quickly establish himself with the team and at the end of the 2000 football league season he would score 9 goals from 21 appearances. During his time at Shenzhen he experienced significant success winning the Chinese Super League in 2004 as well as playing a significant role in the Shenzen team that reached the semi-finals of the 2005 AFC Champions League by scoring two critical goals in-game and the third goal in over time, for a 3–1 win against Al-Ahli (Jeddah) of Saudi Arabia and being their top goalscorer with 5 goals. Within the tournament unconfirmed comments on the internet about Li claiming his ball shielding is similar and comparable to FIFA World Cup winner Thierry Henry, made him a target for much criticism from home fans. Viewing his off-field comments as pretentious he earned a nickname Imperator Li Yi the Great, and eventually became an Internet meme among Chinese netizens. In fact, Li never said such words. He did mention Thierry Henry after a 2005 AFC Champions League group stage match which Shenzhen beat Suwon Samsung Bluewings 1–0 at home. He said that he shielded the ball in the corner flag area in the injury time to ensure the victory, just like Thierry Henry did. The medium misrepresented his comments because they believed that saying Li's ball shielding was comparable to Thierry Henry can be more attracting.
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