Timothy Alexander Chow, also known as Chou Tingyang (; born 18 January 1994) is a 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

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 ...

for and

captains Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

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

Chengdu Rongcheng Chengdu Rongcheng Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Chengdu, Sichuan and their home stadium is the Chengdu Phoenix Hill Football Stadium that has a seating capacity of 50,695. The club currently participates in th ...

. Born in England, he has represented

Chinese Taipei "Chinese Taipei" is the term used in various international organizations and tournaments for groups or delegations representing the Republic of China (ROC), a country commonly known as Taiwan. Due to the One-China principle stipulated by th ...

at international level. He has previously played for

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

and Ross County.

Club career

Wigan Athletic

Born in

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

to a father of Chinese descent and an English mother, Chow started his career with his hometown club

, joining the club at the age of nine after being spotted by a Wigan scout whilst playing for Blackbrook JFC. He progressed through the youth system at the club and signed his first professional contract in 2012, signing a two-year deal. On 12 August 2014 he was called up for a matchday squad for the first time, remaining an unused substitute as Wigan lost 1–2 away to

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

club

Burton Albion Burton Albion Football Club is a professional association football club in the town of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club moved its home groun ...

in the first round of the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

at the

Pirelli Stadium Pirelli Stadium is an association football stadium on Princess Way in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. It was built in 2005 and is the current home of Burton Albion FC Burton Albion Football Club is a professional association foo ...

. His next call-up was on 3 January 2015 in the third round of the

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 ...

away to rivals

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

at the

Macron Stadium The University of Bolton Stadium is the home ground of Bolton Wanderers F.C. in Horwich, Greater Manchester, England. Opening in 1997, it was named the Reebok Stadium, after club sponsors Reebok. In 2014, Bolton Wanderers signed a naming righ ...

, again remaining unused as they lost 0–1. He made his debut for the club on his first league call-up on 14 April 2015, appearing as a substitute for

Jermaine Pennant Jermaine Lloyd Pennant (born 15 January 1983) is an English former professional association football, footballer who played as a midfielder#Winger, winger. Pennant made over 350 league appearances for 15 clubs, and scored 25 league goals. Born ...

for the last nine minutes of a

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

game away to

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...

, a 0–2 defeat at

The New Den The Den (previously The New Den) is a football stadium in New Cross, south-east London, and the home of Millwall Football Club. The Den is adjacent to the South London railway originating at , and a quarter of a mile from the Old Den, which i ...

. Four days later, he made his first start on his first appearance at the

DW Stadium The DW Stadium is a stadium in Robin Park, in Wigan, within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The ground is owned and managed by Wigan Football Company Limited, which is 85% owned by Wigan Athletic and 15% owned ...

, against

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

. In the 26th minute, he scored his first professional goal, opening a 2–1 win by heading in Pennant's cross. Earlier in April, Chow had been told by Wigan manager

Malky Mackay Malcolm George Mackay (born 19 February 1972) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player, who is currently the manager of Ross County. Mackay, who played as a defender, began his playing career in Scottish football with Quee ...

that he would be released at the end of the season. However, new manager

Gary Caldwell Gary Caldwell (born 12 April 1982) is a Scottish former professional footballer and coach who is the current manager of Exeter City. Caldwell played for Newcastle United, Darlington, Coventry City, Derby County, Hibernian, Celtic, Wigan Ath ...

gave him a new contract. Chow reflected to

BBC Radio Manchester BBC Radio Manchester is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving Greater Manchester. It broadcasts on frequency modulation, FM, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at MediaCityUK in Salford ...

that "I had a few other options and I was basically looking at a new club for the summer, but it's a funny old game, isn't it?"

Ross County

On 25 August 2016, Chow signed for

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...

club Ross County on a two-year contract. He made his debut for the

Dingwall Dingwall ( sco, Dingwal, gd, Inbhir Pheofharain ) is a town and a royal burgh in the Highland council area of Scotland. It has a population of 5,491. It was an east-coast harbour that now lies inland. Dingwall Castle was once the biggest cast ...

-based team two days later, replacing Christopher Routis in the 59th minute of a 1–0 loss at

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish association football, football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire who currently compete in the Scottish Championshi ...

. On 15 October, he was sent off after 21 minutes of a 4–0 loss at

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

for a foul on

Jonny Hayes Jonathan Hayes (born 9 July 1987) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a winger for the Scottish Premiership team Aberdeen and Republic of Ireland. He began his career in England with Reading, but did not break through to their f ...

. He scored his first goal for the club in a 6–2 win against

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...

in the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,FK Spartak Subotica Fudbalski klub Spartak Ždrepčeva Krv () is a professional football club from Subotica, Serbia, that plays in the Serbian SuperLiga. The club was founded in 1945 and was named after Jovan Mikić Spartak, the leader of the Partisans in Subotic ...

. After successful trials, he asked to delay his signing because of the possibility to sign with Spanish

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 ...

side

Deportivo Alavés Deportivo Alavés, S.A.D. (; ''Sporting Alavés''), usually abbreviated to Alavés, is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the ...

. When Spartak Subotica passed to the third round of the

2018–19 UEFA Europa League The 2018–19 UEFA Europa League was the 48th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 10th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The final was played at the Olympic St ...

after beating

AC Sparta Prague ) but refer to Spartans as "''Rudí''" ( en, The Dark Reds/The Maroons).'' Letenští'' , ground = Generali Česká pojišťovna Arena , capacity = 19,416 , clubname = Sparta Prague , image = Sparta Praha logo.png , image_size = 160px , fu ...

and Alavés move was still unclear, Chow decided to sign with Spartak becoming, by early August, their latest reinforcement along Ukrainian youth international Serhiy Kulynych.

Henan Jianye

In 2019, Tim Chow completed his first season for Chinese club Henan Jianye, scoring 2 goals.

Chengdu Rongcheng

On 25 April 2022, Tim Chow joined

club

International career

After obtaining the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

passport on 30 October 2017, he was called up to the national squad for the 14 November 2017 game against

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...

. Though he started the game, but could not prevent a 2–1 loss which saw Chinese Taipei fail to qualify for the

2019 AFC Asian Cup The 2019 AFC Asian Cup was the 17th edition of the AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It was held in the United Arab Emirates from 5 January to 1 ...

Personal life

Chow is of three quarters English ancestry, and one quarter Chinese ancestry from his grandfather who was from

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 ...

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...

, and moved to

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

before moving again to the United Kingdom. It was proved that Chow has Taiwanese nationality after he went to Ningbo to look for his grandfather's birth certificate. Chow has stated that he would be interested in representing

at international level, which he later did.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chow, Tim 1994 births Living people Footballers from Wigan People with acquired Taiwanese citizenship Taiwanese men's footballers Chinese Taipei men's international footballers English men's footballers Wigan Athletic F.C. players English Football League players Ross County F.C. players FK Spartak Subotica players Serbian SuperLiga players Henan F.C. players Chengdu Rongcheng F.C. players Chinese Super League players Expatriate men's footballers in Serbia Men's association football midfielders Scottish Professional Football League players British Asian footballers English people of Taiwanese descent Taiwanese people of English descent Taiwanese expatriate men's footballers