Zuo Shusheng (; born 13 April 1958 in

Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...

) is a former Chinese international soccer player and manager. As a player, he played for Tianjin City FC (currently known as

Tianjin Teda F.C. Tianjin Jinmen Tiger Football Club (), previously Tianjin TEDA (), is a Chinese professional football club based in Tianjin, that competes in . Tianjin Jinmen Tiger plays its home matches at the TEDA Soccer Stadium, located within Binhai. The f ...

) and Dutch team

FC Zwolle Prins Hendrik Ende Desespereert Nimmer Combinatie Zwolle, commonly known as PEC Zwolle, is a Dutch professional football club based in Zwolle, Netherlands. They play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football. They have played in the Ered ...

before he retired. As a manager, he returned to his former club in Tianjin where he has twice managed them in his career, with his greatest achievements being taking the club to a fourth-place finish in the

2008 Chinese Super League The 2008 Chinese Super League (known as the Kingway 2008 Chinese Super League for sponsorship reasons) was the 5th season since the establishment of the Chinese Super League and the 15th season of the professional football league in China. This s ...

and a chance to play in the

2009 AFC Champions League The 2009 AFC Champions League was the 28th edition of the top-level Asian club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 7th under the current AFC Champions League title. The final was held at the Nati ...

for the first time.

Club career

Zuo Shusheng started his football career when he played for Tianjin City FC (currently known as

) in the 1978 league season. With them he helped them win the 1980 as well as the 1983 league title (which they shared with Guangdong Provincial Team in 1983). After begin an integral member of the Tianjin squad for ten years he would be given the opportunity join

of the Netherlands in 1988.

International career

Zuo Shusheng would make his debut against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

on 29 December 1978, in an

Asian Cup The AFC Asian Cup is the primary association football competition contested by the senior list of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), determining the contin ...

qualifier which China lost 1–0. Despite the defeat he would still be included in the squad that took part in the

1980 AFC Asian Cup The 1980 AFC Asian Cup was the 7th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international association football, football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were hosted by Kuwait between 15 and 30 S ...

and while the tournament saw China play disappointingly Zuo Shusheng would nevertheless start to become an integral member of the Chinese team. By the time of the

1984 AFC Asian Cup The 1984 AFC Asian Cup was the 8th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were hosted by Singapore between 1 December and 16 December 198 ...

arrived Zuo Shusheng would now captain the team to a runners up position, however he retired from international football in 1985 after China lost a crucial

1986 FIFA World Cup qualification 121 teams entered the 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds, competing for 24 places in the final tournament. Mexico, as the hosts, and Italy, as the defending champions, qualified automatically, leaving 22 spots open for competition. The draw ...

game against

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Management career

After he retired Zuo Shusheng was allowed to become the head coach of Tianjin City FC for a short period when they didn't compete in the 1992 league season. Later he became assistant coach for Tianjin while completing his management training. After finishing his management training Zuo Shusheng would officially become the new head coach of Tianjin Teda when he replaced

Lin Xinjiang LIN or LIN may refer to: People *Lin (surname) (normally ), a Chinese surname * Lin (''The King of Fighters''), Chinese assassin character *Lin Chow Bang, character in Fat Pizza *Lin (NouerA) (Chinese name Lin Hanzhong Korean name Lim Hanjung), a ...

(蔺新江) in the second half of 1996 league season to help Tianjin fight against relegation from the top tier and he would eventually help them to a respectable eighth in the league. The 1997 league season was to be far more difficult for Zuo Shusheng when Tianjin struggled to get results at the beginning of the season and this led Zuo Shusheng to resign as the head coach during the middle of the league season. He would join Chengdu Wuniu and Gansu Tianma as a trainer until 2007 when Tianjin Teda would bring back Zuo Shusheng to the club but this time as the head coach of reserve team. Zuo Shusheng would once again return to Tianjin senior team as head coach in 2008 when Jozef Jarabinský was sacked during the 2008 league season. The appointment would see Tianjin quickly move up the table and end the season in fourth place as well as a position within the

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

for the first time. During the

Tianjin struggled within the competition while also being unable to improve upon last years final league position, this saw the club replace him with

Arie Haan Arend "Arie" Haan (; born 16 November 1948) is a Dutch Association football, football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He scored 6 goals in 35 matches for the Netherlands national football team, Netherlands national team of ...

at the beginning of the 2010 league season.

References

External links

*
International statsProfile at Tianjin Teda official website
(Chinese) {{DEFAULTSORT:Zuo, Shusheng 1958 births Living people Chinese men's footballers Chinese expatriate men's footballers Footballers from Tianjin Chinese football managers China men's international footballers Tianjin Jinmen Tiger F.C. players PEC Zwolle players Eredivisie players Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands 1980 AFC Asian Cup players 1984 AFC Asian Cup players Footballers at the 1982 Asian Games Men's association football midfielders Tianjin Jinmen Tiger F.C. managers Asian Games footballers for China Chinese expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands 20th-century Chinese sportsmen