Yan Song () is a Chinese former 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 played 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 ...

. He began his senior career with Dalian Shide F.C. where he won several Chinese league titles before he was called up to represent the Chinese senior team and help guide them to a runners-up spot in the

2004 AFC Asian Cup The 2004 AFC Asian Cup was the 13th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international association football, football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It was held from 17 July to 7 August 2004 in China. ...

. He also played for

Hangzhou Greentown Zhejiang Professional Football Club (), commonly referred to as Zhejiang FC or simply Zhejiang, is a professional Chinese football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under license from the Chinese Football Association (C ...

Jeju United FC Jeju United Football Club (Hangul: 제주 유나이티드) is a South Korean professional football club based in Jeju Province that competes in the K League 1, the top division in South Korea. In the past, the club has been known as the ''Yuko ...

, Shanghai Shenhua and

Dalian Transcendence Dalian Transcendence Football Club () is a Chinese football club based in Dalian, Liaoning. Founded in 2013, the club played in the Chinese professional league between 2014 and 2018. They quit from the professional league and turn as amateur in Ja ...

Club career

Yan Song started his professional football career with Dalian Shide F.C. in the 1999 league season and made an immediate impact in establishing himself within the team by playing in twenty league games and scoring four goals. The following season under a new manager in

Milorad Kosanović Milorad Kosanović ( sr-Cyrl, Милорад Косановић, ; born 4 January 1951) is a Serbian former football player and manager. During his playing career, Kosanović represented Proleter Zrenjanin, Vojvodina, Kikinda and Novi Sad, compe ...

Yan's career within the club thrived; he went on to win his first league title with the club. Over the next several seasons Yan continued to establish himself as the team's attacking left-winger, winning four league championships and twice winning the

Chinese FA Cup The Chinese FA Cup (, abbreviated as CFA Cup) is the national knockout cup competition in China organized by the Chinese Football Association. Its current holders are Shandong Taishan, having beaten Shanghai Port in 2021 for a record seventh titl ...

with Dalian Shide overall. Yan Song transferred to Zhejiang Lücheng at the beginning of the 2008 Chinese Super League season where he established himself as a regular playing in twenty-six league games and scoring four goals. In February 2010 Yan moved to South Korea to join K-League club

Jeju United Jeju United Football Club (Hangul: 제주 유나이티드) is a South Korean professional football club based in Jeju Province that competes in the K League 1, the top division in South Korea. In the past, the club has been known as the ''Yukon ...

, becoming the fourth Chinese footballer in K-League history. The move itself turned out to be a personal disaster, while Jeju United had a relatively successfully season Yan was completely dropped from the squad and the manager Park Kyung-Hoon only played in one

Korean FA Cup The Korean FA Cup is a national football cup knockout competition of South Korea, held annually by the Korea Football Association (KFA). Before the FA Cup was established in 1996, two predecessor competitions named All Joseon Football Tournament ...

. The following season Yan returned to Dalian Shide at the beginning of the 2011 league season, however his return was not very successful and he only made a handful of games before he moved to top-tier club Shanghai Shenhua halfway through the 2012 league season. In February 2014, Yan transferred to

International career

Yan Song made his international debut on 12 December 2002 when the Head coach Arie Haan included him in the starting line-up against

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

in a friendly game that ended in a 2–2 draw. He was called into the national team throughout 2004 playing in several

Fifa world cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

qualifiers and

AFC Asian Cup The AFC Asian Cup is the primary association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), determining the continental champion of Asia. It is the second oldest cont ...

squads. Since 2007 he has lost his position within the national team to

Mao Jianqing Máo Jiànqīng (; born August 8, 1986) is a former Chinese international football player. Club career Mao Jianqing started his professional football career in 2004 with Shanghai Shenhua after graduating from their youth team. He made his deb ...

and

Du Zhenyu Du Zhenyu (; born February 10, 1983 in Shenyang) is a retired Chinese people, Chinese international footballer. Club career Du Zhenyu started his career in 2001 with Changchun Yatai, where in his first season he made eighteen appearances, scori ...

preferred within the subsequent squads.

Honours

Club

Dalian Shide *

Chinese Jia-A League The National Football Jia A League (simplified Chinese, commonly known as Jia-A, was the highest tier of professional football in the People's Republic of China, during 1994 through 2003, operating under the auspices of the Chinese Football Associ ...

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 ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

Country

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

(Runners-up)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yan, Song 1981 births Living people Chinese men's footballers Footballers from Dalian China men's international footballers Dalian Shide F.C. players Zhejiang Professional F.C. players Shanghai Shenhua F.C. players Dalian Transcendence F.C. players Men's association football wingers Jeju United FC players Chinese Super League players K League 1 players Expatriate men's footballers in South Korea Chinese expatriate men's footballers Chinese expatriate sportspeople in South Korea 2004 AFC Asian Cup players Footballers at the 2002 Asian Games Asian Games competitors for China