Gong Lei () (born 15 October 1965) 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 ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager and former player as well as media pundit. As a player he represented Beijing Team,

AS Pirae Association Sportive Pirae is a football club from Pirae in Tahiti. They are one of the most successful teams in Tahiti having won the Tahiti Division Fédérale nine times. They are also the first French Polynesian team to have reached the fi ...

Toronto Lynx Toronto Lynx was a Canadian soccer team based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1997, the team last played in the 2014 season of the Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Great Lakes D ...

South China South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not n ...

Toronto Olympians Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anchor ...

and

Beijing Kuanli } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

before he retired and moved into coaching. His first coaching position would be with

Gansu Tianma F.C. Dongguan Dongcheng (Simplified Chinese: 东莞东城) was a football team based in Dongguan, Guangdong province, in the People's Republic of China, that played in the Chinese Football Association Jia League. Founded on 18 December 1999, as Gansu ...

where he had a short spell with them before becoming an assistant at Shaanxi Zhongjian. He would manage

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 ...

side Guizhou Renhe where he won the

2013 Chinese FA Cup TOSHIBA 2013 Chinese FA Cup () is the 15th edition of Chinese FA Cup. The match of first round was kicked off on 31 March 2013, and finished on 7 December 2013. The cup title sponsor is Japanese company Toshiba. Participants Chinese Super League ...

Playing career

As a youth player Gong Lei was considered a promising youngster and was part of the Beijing Football Team that won the 1984

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 ...

title. This soon saw him called up to the Chinese U-20 team squad that took part in the

1985 FIFA World Youth Championship The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

, where China were knocked out in the quarter-finals on 1 September 1985 by the Soviet Union. After several seasons with Beijing, Gong then went abroad to

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austr ...

and joined

, where he experienced significant success by winning several league and cup titles with them. He was nominated for

FIFA World Player of the Year The FIFA World Player of the Year was an association football award presented annually by the sport's governing body, FIFA, between 1991 and 2015 at the FIFA World Player Gala. Coaches and captains of international teams and media representativ ...

in 1993 and is the only Chinese football player to be nominated for this award. Nearing the end of his career, he then spent a short time with Canadian club

, Hong Kong team

and

before he retired.

Managerial career

Gong became a football commentator and pundit in 2002, providing analysis to

CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...

sports channel Sports channels are television speciality channels (usually available exclusively through cable and satellite) broadcast sporting events, usually live, and when not broadcasting events, sports news and other related programming. The first sport ...

for

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

before he gained his first Head coaching position with second tier Chinese club

before the start of the 2003 league season. The club had high expectations for the season after they brought in English international

Paul Gascoigne Paul John Gascoigne (, born 27 May 1967), nicknamed Gazza, is an English former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He is described by the National Football Museum as "widely recognised as the most naturally talente ...

into the team, however Gong lost his influential marquee player after the club's owners had a dispute with the player over wages. This saw results decline and the club's owners decided to move to

Ningbo Ningbo (; Ningbonese: ''gnin² poq⁷'' , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises 6 urban districts, 2 sate ...

, rename themselves Ningbo Yaoma while ending the campaign in a disappointing 11th-place finish before Gong left the team. After several years out of management Gong returned as an assistant coach to top tier club Shaanxi Chanba in 2007 before becoming the caretaker manager after the club's manager

Cheng Yaodong Cheng Yaodong (; born June 6, 1967 in Shanghai) is a Chinese football manager and a former international football player. As a player, he won the Chinese league and Cup with Shanghai Shenhua before ending his career with Shanghai COSCO Huili. ...

resigned from the team. Gong's return to Head coaching was brief and

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 of ...

was soon brought in while he returned to his assistant duties. Gong would work with several further managers and stayed with the club as they moved to

Guizhou Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to t ...

and renamed themselves Guizhou Renhe before the owners asked him to be the caretaker manager once again while the club looked for a new manager before the start of the 2013 league campaign. The club did not bring anyone in before the start of the season and results under Gong improved over the course of the campaign, which resulted him guiding the club to their first ever

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 ...

when they beat

Guangzhou Evergrande F.C. Guangzhou Football Club, formerly known as Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao Football Club, is a professional Chinese football club that participates in the Chinese Super League under the license of the Chinese Football Association. The team is based ...

in the

final. On 3 June 2016, Gong Lei was named as vice-president of Suning Sports which its parent company,

Suning Holdings Group Suning Holdings Group Co., Ltd. () is a Chinese privately held company. The company shared the same founder Zhang Jindong with the listed company Suning.com, but Suning Holdings was the unlisted portion of Zhang's unincorporated Suning Group. Acc ...

, acquired a controlling stake in

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Football in Italy, Italian professional Association football, football ...

Honours

Player

Club

Beijing Team *

: 1984 *

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

: 1985 AS Pirae *

Tahiti Division Fédérale The Tahitian Ligue 1 is the top division of the Fédération Tahitienne de Football in French Polynesia. The league is currently named Ligue 1 Vini for sponsorship reasons. Competition format Competition is divided into a regular season and play ...

: 1991, 1993, 1994 * Tahiti Coupe des: 1996 *

Tahiti Cup The Tahiti Cup (also known as Coupe de Polynésie or Coupe de Tahiti Nui) is the premier football knockout tournament in French Polynesia. It was created in 1938, and gives the winner of the tournament a berth in the Coupe de France. Between th ...

: 1994, 1996 * Coupe de Polynésie: 1994, 1996 Toronto Olympians *

Open Canada Cup The Open Canada Cup was an annual knock-out cup competition in Canadian Soccer. The competition was first held during the 1998 season as the CPSL League Cup. It was organized by the Canadian Soccer League (formerly the Canadian Professional So ...

: 1998 * Canadian Professional Soccer League Regular Season: 1998

International

China U-20 national football team *

AFC U-19 Championship The AFC U-20 Asian Cup, formerly known as the AFC Youth Championship and AFC U-19 Championship, is a biennial international association football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-20 national teams ...

: 1985

Individual

Golden Boot awardee: 1994, 1995 *

Player of the Year: 1994, 1995

Manager

Guizhou Renhe *

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

References

External links

Why can Gong Lei nominate Mr. World Football? True horizontal exposure
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gong, Lei 1965 births Living people Chinese footballers Footballers from Beijing Expatriate footballers in French Polynesia Expatriate soccer players in Canada Chinese expatriate footballers Chinese expatriate sportspeople in Canada South China AA players Expatriate footballers in Hong Kong Chinese expatriate sportspeople in Hong Kong Chinese football managers Chinese association football commentators Chinese expatriate sportspeople in French Polynesia Beijing Renhe F.C. managers Canadian Soccer League (1998–present) players Toronto Lynx players Toronto (Mississauga) Olympians players A-League (1995–2004) players Association football midfielders