Gao Yao (; born July 13, 1978) is a former

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 ...

football player who was able to play in both midfield or defence. He was known as a ' One club man' as he spent his whole career with

Shandong Luneng Shandong Taishan Football Club () is a professional football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Jinan, Shandong and their home stadium is th ...

playing in the

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 ...

, while internationally he was also included in the Chinese team that was a participant at the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

Club career

After playing for the Shandong Luneng youth team Gao Yao would move up to the senior team in 1998 to start his professional football career where in his debut season he would play in 3 league games. Under the new head coach

Slobodan Santrač Slobodan Santrač (, ; 1 July 1946 – 13 February 2016) was a Serbian football manager and player. He is the all-time top scorer of the Yugoslav First League with a total of 218 goals, as well as the top scorer in the history of OFK Beograd. As m ...

he would immediately rise to become an integral member of the 1999 Shandong team that won the league and cup double. When Slobodan Santrač left after the 2000 league season Gao Yao was a firmly established member of the first team despite several changes in management over the next several seasons. It wasn't until the introduction of

Ljubiša Tumbaković Ljubiša Tumbaković (, ; born 2 September 1952) is a Serbian professional football manager. He is the most successful coach in the history of Serbian powerhouse Partizan which he led to six national championship titles and three national cup wi ...

in 2004 as Shandong's new head coach when they would return to their winning ways and Gao Yao would continue to add to his honours when he won another league title in the 2006 league season. By the 2007 league season Gao Yao had, however dropped out of the first team and he saw his playing time limited when

Liu Jindong Liu Jindong () (December 9, 1981 in Qingdao, Shandong) is a former Chinese international football player who played as a versatile player capable of playing in defense or midfield. With Shandong Luneng he had won several domestic league and cup ...

emerged as Ljubiša Tumbaković's preferred option.

International career

On April 25, 2000 Gao Yao would make his debut in a friendly against

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

in a 1-0 win. After several further friendlies in preparation for the

Gao Yao was the surprise inclusions in the squad despite never playing in any competitive games. The Chinese head coach Bora Milutinović stated that he wanted a versatile player who was also good a man marker, however during the tournament he did not play in any of the games at the tournament when China were knocked out in the group stages. After the tournament he was not called up in China's next squad and has not been capped since the end of 2002.

Honours

Chinese Jia-A League The National Football Jia A League (simplified Chinese, commonly known as Jia-A, was the highest tier of professional football in the People's Republic of China, during 1994 through 2003, operating under the auspices of the Chinese Football Associ ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

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 ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

Chinese Super League Cup The Chinese Super League Cup () was a association football, football tournament in China held for two years from 2004 until 2005. History Chinese Super League Cup was established in the inaugural season of the Chinese Super League (CSL) as a sup ...

References

External links

Player stats
at football-lineups.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gao, Yao 1970 births Living people Chinese men's footballers Footballers from Qingdao China men's international footballers 2002 FIFA World Cup players Shandong Taishan F.C. players Chinese Super League players Men's association football midfielders Men's association football defenders