Chinese naturalized footballers are

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

players originally from another country who changedChinese nationals cannot have

dual nationality Multiple/dual citizenship (or multiple/dual nationality) is a legal status in which a person is concurrently regarded as a national or citizen of more than one country under the laws of those countries. Conceptually, citizenship is focused on t ...

according to the law. their nationality to

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 ...

(

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

) via

naturalization Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

History

Born in 1990 in

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 ...

to a

Tanzanian Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

father and Chinese mother,

Eddy Francis Eddy Juan Francis, Aidi Fulangxisi (; born 17 December 1990, in Shanghai) or simply Aidi, is a Chinese professional footballer who currently plays for Chinese Super League club Shanghai Shenhua. Club career Aidi's mother is Chinese Hakka and his f ...

made one appearance for the China national under-14 football team in 2004. This was the first time a

multiracial Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...

player has appeared for a Chinese national football team of any level. Since 2019,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

had begun a series of

on foreign-based players in order to improve the China national team's fortunes, with the naturalization of

Nico Yennaris Li Ke (; born Nicholas Harry Yennaris, 24 May 1993) is a British-born Chinese professional footballer formerly known as "Nicholas Harry Yennaris" who plays as a defensive midfielder for Beijing Guoan and the China national team. He began his ca ...

, an English-born Cypriot and Chinese player. After the naturalization of Yennaris, China continued its naturalization process, with

Tyias Browning Tyias Charles Browning (born 27 May 1994), also known as Jiang Guangtai (), is a professional footballer who plays as a defender for Chinese Super League club Shanghai Port. Born in Liverpool, England to a mother of Cantonese descent, he has ...

, another English-born player with Chinese ancestry, being naturalized. Subsequently,

Elkeson Elkeson de Oliveira Cardoso (born 13 July 1989), known as Elkeson or Ai Kesen (), is a professional footballer who plays for Brazilian club Grêmio FBPA and formerly the China national team as an attacking midfielder or forward. Starting ou ...

, a Brazilian player with no Chinese ancestry, was naturalized to become the 90th Brazilian who chose to represent another team outside Brazil.

List of naturalized footballers

The following is a list of notable Chinese naturalized footballers. Footballers who have non-Chinese descent but likely had Chinese nationality at birth (e.g.

) or who are not notable, do not appear in the list. If the player has previously participated in official matches on behalf of other national teams, he will still not be able to play for the Chinese national team after acquiring or restoring Chinese nationality. However, he can participate in Chinese football competitions as a domestic player.

Notes

References

{{Association football players Naturalized

Naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

China naturalized

Footballers 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 ...

Naturalised association football players

History

List of naturalized footballers

See also

Notes

References