Cao Yang (; born 15 December 1981 in

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

) is a

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

international football player who currently plays as a versatile defender or

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Club career

Cao Yang began his career graduating through the Tianjin Teda youth system eventually joining the senior team when he made his league debut on September 17, 2000 against

Yunnan Hongta F.C. Yunnan Hongta (Simplified () was a football club who played in the Chinese Jia-A League who were founded by the Shenzhen Kinspar Group in 1996 and named Shenzhen Kinspar (Simplified (). The club predominantly played within the lower leagues unti ...

in a 2–1 defeat. The following season, he would further progress within the Tianjin Teda team by playing in ten league games for them. A versatile defender with good offensive and defensive ability who could also play in midfield as well as being physically tall, saw Cao firmly establish himself within as a permanent fixture within the Tianjin team by the end of the 2002 league season. A regular for the club for several seasons he was named as the reserve captain behind Wang Xiao. In the 2008

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Association Super League, commonly known as Chinese Super League or CSL, currently known as the China Ping An Chinese Football Association Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest tier of professional football in ...

season Tianjin Teda where to have one of their most productive seasons when they finished the league fourth and were allowed the chance to play in the

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

. During their debut appearance in the AFC Champions League Cao Yang had the honor to be named as their captain against

Kawasaki Frontale is a Japanese professional football club based in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. Their home stadium is Kawasaki Todoroki Stadium, in Nakahara W ...

International career

Cao Yang began his international career playing for the Chinese U-23 team where he was named in the squad to play in the

Football at the 2002 Asian Games Football at the 2002 Asian Games was held in Busan, Changwon, Yangsan and Ulsan, South Korea from 27 September to 13 October 2002. Age limit for the men teams is under-23, same as the age limit in football competitions in Olympic Games, while ...

and saw China knocked out in the Quarter-finals. His performance in the tournament was considered good enough for him to be promoted to the senior team by the Chinese caretaker coach

Shen Xiangfu Shen Xiangfu (; ; born May 27, 1957 in Beijing) is a Chinese football coach who is the joint manager of The Regional Preferente de la Comunitat Valenciana side Atlético Museros as well as also being a former international football player. As ...

on December 7, 2002 in a friendly game against

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

in a 3–1 victory. With

Zhu Guanghu Zhu Guanghu (; born September 25, 1949 in Shanghai, China) is a Chinese football coach and a former player. As a player, he was predominantly remembered for his time at Shanghai Football Team before going into management where he started off ...

as the national teams coach Cao's international career would start to see him become a regular within the team and he was included in the squad that won the

2005 East Asian Football Championship The 2005 EAFF East Asian Football Championship was a football competition between teams from East Asian countries and territories held from 31 July to 7 August 2005 in South Korea, with the qualifiers held in Taiwan in March 2005. China PR, So ...

as well as also being in the squad that took part in the

2007 AFC Asian Cup The 2007 AFC Asian Cup was the 14th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held from 7 to 29 July 2007. For the first time in its h ...

Career statistics

Honours

Club

Tianjin Teda FC Tianjin Jinmen Tiger Football Club is a professional Chinese football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Tianjin, and their home stadium is t ...

Chinese FA Cup The Chinese FA Cup (, abbreviated as CFA Cup) is the national knockout cup competition in China organized by the Chinese Football Association. Its current holders are Shandong Taishan, having beaten Shanghai Port in 2021 for a record seventh titl ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

Country

East Asian Football Championship EAFF E-1 Football Championship, known as the East Asian Football Championship from 2003 to 2010, and the EAFF East Asian Cup for the 2013 and 2015 editions, is a men's international football competition in East Asia for member nations of the Eas ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

References

External links

Player Profile
at Sina.com * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cao, Yang 1981 births Living people Men's association football fullbacks Chinese men's footballers China men's international footballers Footballers from Tianjin Hui sportspeople Tianjin Jinmen Tiger F.C. players 2007 AFC Asian Cup players Chinese Super League players Footballers at the 2002 Asian Games Asian Games competitors for China