Li Gang (;

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

: ''Li Gāng''; born 27 August 1981) is a Chinese football player as a

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

Li Gang would start his career in 2002 with one of the local football clubs in

Dalian Dalian () is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China. Located on the ...

Dalian Sidelong Shanghai United F.C (Simplified Chinese: 上海联城足球俱乐部) was a Chinese professional football club based in Shanghai, who last played in the 16,000 seater Yuanshen Sports Centre Stadium in the Chinese Super League. The club was founde ...

in the second tier where he would go on to establish himself as a regular within the team by playing in twenty three league games within the 2003 league season. He would then see the club move to

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

and rename themselves

Shanghai United Shanghai United F.C (Simplified Chinese: 上海联城足球俱乐部) was a Chinese professional Association football, football club based in Shanghai, who last played in the 16,000 seater Yuanshen Sports Centre Stadium in the Chinese Super Leagu ...

at the end of the 2004 league season when the club also won promotion to 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 ...

after coming second within the league. Li Gang would help establish himself and his team the following season when his team came eleventh in the league. However at the beginning of the 2007 league season Shanghai United and Shanghai Shenhua merged with Shanghai Shenhua keeping their name. At Shanghai Shenhua Li Gang would make his debut on March 7, 2007 against

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was fo ...

in the 2007

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 ...

group game that saw Shanghai Shenhua lose 2-1. With the former Shanghai United coach

Osvaldo Gimenez Osvaldo may refer to the following people: Given name *Osvaldo Alonso, Cuban football player *Osvaldo Ardiles (born 1952), an Argentine football player and coach *Osvaldo Bagnoli, an Italian football coach *Osvaldo Brandão, a Brazilian football c ...

managing the team Li Gang would quickly established himself as a regular within the first team despite the significantly large squad and played in fifteen league games within the season as well as also winning the

2007 A3 Champions Cup The fifth edition of the A3 Champions Cup took place between June 7 and June 13, 2007, at the Shandong Stadium in Jinan. Participants * Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma - 2006 K-League champions. * Urawa Red Diamonds - 2006 J. League champions. * Sh ...

, which was a mini tournament held during the summer break sanctioned by the

East Asian Football Federation The East Asian Football Federation (EAFF), founded on 28 May 2002, is an international governing body of association football in East Asia. History Competitions Current title holders Presidents Member associations EAFF has 10 member a ...

. At the beginning of the 2008 league season

Wu Jingui Wu Jingui (; ; born January 10, 1961, in Shanghai) is a Chinese football manager who is currently head coach of Chinese Super League club Shanghai Shenhua. Playing career While Wu Jingui played for the Shanghai youth football team, he never gr ...

was already brought back as Shenhua's manager and despite the large the exist of players at the beginning of the season Li Gang lost favour within the Shanghai team and saw his playing time significantly limited to only five league appearances throughout the season. After losing his place within the Shenhua team Li Gang would join Chengdu Blades on loan during the 2009 league season where he quickly established himself as a regular within the team and played in ten league games for the club. Before the start of the 2010 league season it was discovered that several years before Chengdu Blades had fixed several league games and were punished with relegation to the second tier. Despite this Li Gang would make his loan move permanent and would play in seventeen league games to help push the club to win promotion at the end of the 2010 league season when he aided the club to a runners-up position. Back in the top tier Li Gang was named the club's captain during the

2011 Chinese Super League Eleven or 11 may refer to: *11 (number), the natural number following 10 and preceding 12 * one of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011, or any year ending in 11 Literature * ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn *''El ...

season, however he was unable to lead the team to safety and the club were relegated at the end of the season. In March 2016, Li transferred to

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 ...

club Hainan Seamen.

Honours

Shanghai Shenhua * A3 Champions Cup:

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

Jiangxi Liansheng Jiangxi Beidamen Football Club () is a professional Chinese football club that currently participates in the China League One division under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team was founded in Jiujiang, Jiangxi, and thei ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

References

External links

*
Player profile
at Sodasoccer.com
Player profile
at Chengdu Blades website

at Shanghai Shenhua website {{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Gang 1981 births Living people Chinese footballers Footballers from Dalian Shanghai Shenhua F.C. players Chengdu Tiancheng F.C. players Wuhan F.C. players Jiangxi Beidamen F.C. players Chinese Super League players China League One players Association football midfielders