Tao Qianglong (; born 20 November 2001) is a Chinese professional

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 plays as a winger for

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 ...

club

Wuhan Three Towns Wuhan Three Towns Football Club () is a professional football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The club is based in Wuhan, Hubei and their home stadium is the ...

Club career

In 2013, Tao was scouted as a promising youngster and invited to train with the youth teams of Spanish side

Villarreal Villarreal ( ca-valencia , Vila-real) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's ...

. He would return back to China and would play for the

Beijing Guoan Beijing Guoan 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 the Chaoyang District in Beijing and their ho ...

youth teams setup and the various age groups for the Chinese national team, which saw

Hebei China Fortune Hebei Football Club () is a professional Chinese football club that participates in the Chinese Super League division under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Langfang, Hebei and their home stadium is the La ...

interested in his services. Soon after completing his move to Hebei he was promoted to the first team and was handed his debut in a

game by the Head coach Chris Coleman on 2 March 2019 against

Shenzhen F.C. Shenzhen Football Club () is a Chinese professional association football, football club that competes in the Chinese Super League. The team is based in Shenzhen, Guangdong and their home stadium is the Shenzhen Universiade Sports Centre that has ...

where he came on as a substitute for

Yin Hongbo Yin Hongbo (; born 30 October 1989) is a Chinese footballer who currently plays for Meizhou Hakka in the Chinese Super League. Club career Yin Hongbo started his football career with China League Two side Guangdong Sunray Cave in 2007. He pla ...

in a 3-1 defeat. The manager would show considerable faith in Tao by continuing to play him, which saw Tao repay his faith in him by scoring his first goal for the club on 13 April 2019 in a league game against Chongqing Dangdai Lifan that ended in a 2-1 loss. By the end of the season Tao had become a regular within the team and fellow top tier club Dalian Professional signed him on 27 February 2020. On June 6, 2020, the

Chinese Football Association The Chinese Football Association (CFA) is the governing body for association football, beach soccer and futsal in People's Republic of China (Mainland China). The CFA organizes the men's and women's national teams and administers the country's ...

issued Tao a six month suspension from playing professional football as punishment and a 300,000 yuan fine along with several of his team mates for breaking

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

prevention regulation rules while he was with the Chinese U19 team for training. This resulted in him missing the whole 2020 league season. On his return the following season he would finally make his debut on 22 April 2021, in a league game against

Changchun Yatai Changchun Yatai Football Club () is a professional Chinese football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Changchun, Jilin and their home stadi ...

in a 2-1 defeat. On 29 April 2022, it was announced that Tao would join newly-promoted

club

. He would go on to make his debut on 3 June 2022, in a league game against

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...

, which ended in a 4-0 victory. After the game he would go on to be part of the squad that won the

2022 Chinese Super League The 2022 Ping An Chinese Football Association Super League () is the 19th season since the establishment of the Chinese Super League. The league title sponsor is Ping An Insurance. On May 23, the league was confirmed to start from June 3. Affecte ...

title.

International career

On 24 July 2022, Tao made his international debut in a 0-0 draw against

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in the

2022 EAFF E-1 Football Championship The 2022 EAFF E-1 Football Championship was an association football tournament organized by the East Asian Football Federation. It was the 9th edition of the EAFF E-1 Football Championship, the football championship of East Asia. The finals were ...

, as the Chinese FA decided to field the U-23 national team for this senior competition.

Career statistics

Honours

Wuhan Three Towns *

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

Chinese FA Super Cup The Chinese FA Super Cup (), formerly named Chinese Football Super Cup (), is a pre-season association football, football competition held before the season begins in China PR, China. It is a Chinese football championship contested by the winners ...

2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tao, Qianglong 2001 births Living people Chinese men's footballers Chinese expatriate men's footballers China men's youth international footballers Men's association football midfielders Chinese Super League players Villarreal CF players Hebei F.C. players Footballers from Anhui People from Fuyang Chinese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain China men's under-20 international footballers Footballers at the 2022 Asian Games Asian Games competitors for China