Hou Yu (; born 30 December 1990) is a Chinese

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who currently plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for Meizhou Hakka

Club career

Hou Yu would start his career with

Guangdong Sunray Cave Shaanxi Wuzhou Football Club () was a Chinese professional football club based in Xi'an, Shaanxi which last played in the China League One division. The club was originally formed on February 5, 2007 as Guangdong Sunray Cave F.C. and was once own ...

in the 2007 league season and was part of the squad that won promotion with the team at the end of the

2008 China League Two The 2008 China League Two started in April 2008 and ended in December 2008. Guangdong Sunray Cave and Shenyang Dongjin finished top-2 and promoted to China League One 2009. Final league tables Southern Group Northern Group Rules for classific ...

season. He was often used as a substitute goalkeeper and was loaned out to Hong Kong football club Sun Hei where he had a successful period with them going on to establish himself as their first choice goalkeeper as they went on to win the

2011–12 Hong Kong Senior Challenge Shield 2011–12 Hong Kong Senior Challenge Shield is the 110th season of one of the Asian oldest football knockout competitions, Hong Kong Senior Challenge Shield. Starting from this season, the format will change into a two-legged home-and-away ties c ...

cup with the club. Within the match he would personally win the MVP award as Sun Hei won 5–3 on penalties against

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 ...

. On his return to Guangdong, Hou was unable to go on to establish himself at his parent club and he joined third tier side Meizhou Hakka along with his teammate and fellow goalkeeper Li Weijun. At Meizhou, Hou was used as the substitute goalkeeper behind Li Weijun as the club went on to win the

2015 China League Two The 2015 Chinese Football Association Division Two League season was the 26th season since its establishment in 1989. It was divided into two groups, North and South. There were 16 teams participating in the league, 8 teams in North Group and 8 t ...

division and promotion into the second tier. Li Weijun would retire at the end of the 2016 season and Hou was promoted to the clubs first choice goalkeeper where he quickly established himself as an integral member of the team as well as eventually becoming their captain. He would then go on to lead the team that gained promotion to the top tier after coming second within the division at the end of the

2021 China League One The 2021 China League One ( zh, 2021中国足球协会甲级联赛) is the 18th season of the China League One, the second tier of the Chinese football league pyramid, since its establishment in 2004. Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic The 2021 Chi ...

campaign.

Career statistics

Honours

Club

Sun Hei * Hong Kong Senior Challenge Shield: 2011–12 Meizhou Hakka *

China League Two The Chinese Football Association Division Two League (Simplified Chinese: 中国足球协会乙级联赛), or China League Two, is the third tier league of the People's Republic of China. The league is under the auspices of the Chinese Football As ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hou, Yu 1990 births Living people Chinese men's footballers Chinese expatriate men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Hong Kong Premier League players China League Two players China League One players Sun Hei SC players Meizhou Hakka F.C. players Chinese expatriate sportspeople in Hong Kong Expatriate men's footballers in Hong Kong