Ma Lin (; born on July 28, 1962 in

Qiqihar Qiqihar () is the second-largest city in the Heilongjiang province of China, in the west central part of the province. The built-up (or metro) area made up of Longsha, Tiefeng and Jianhua districts had 959,787 inhabitants, while the total populat ...

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang () formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province ...

) is a Chinese football manager and a former international football player. As a player, he was a striker who represented

Liaoning FC Liaoning Football Club (), officially known as Liaoning Hongyun (), was a professional association football club with a long history in Chinese football. The club can predate their formation to 1953, when Shenyang government sports body joined ex ...

where he won six league titles and three

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 tit ...

s as well as the 1989-90 Asian Club Championship. As a manager he gained his first Head coach appointment at his former club Liaoning FC. He has since gone on to manage

Chongqing Lifan Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic () is a defunct Chinese football club. The team was based in Chongqing. The club was founded in 1995 as Wuhan Qianwei before making their debut in the newly developed fully professional Chinese football league syst ...

, Jiangsu Sainty and returned to Liaoning FC on two further occasions.

Playing career

Ma Lin began his football career playing

where he would show excellent ball control, skill and shooting ability as well a threatening heading ability for his height at an early age, which would soon see him win his first league title in the 1985 league season. He wouldn't have to wait long before he was called up to the national team where he was included in the

1986 Asian Games The 1986 Asian Games ( ko, 1986년 아시아 경기대회/1986년 아시안 게임, Cheon gubaek palsip-yuk nyeon Asia gyeonggi daehoe/Cheon gubaek palsip-yuk nyeon Asian Geim), officially known as the 10th Asian Games and the X Asiad ( ko, 제10� ...

and would establish himself as China's first choice striker throughout the tournament. His international career would see him play in the

1988 AFC Asian Cup The 1988 AFC Asian Cup was the 9th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international association football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held in Qatar between 2 December and 18 Decembe ...

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

and narrowly miss out on qualification for the 1990 FIFA World Cup. In the domestic league Ma Lin with Liaoning FC would dominate the Chinese game where they won several league, cup as well as 1989-90 Asian Club Championship. After winning everything with Liaoning Ma Lin would try his hand in a foreign league and play in the

Japan Soccer League , or JSL, was the top flight association football league in Japan between 1965 and 1992, and was the precursor to the current professional league, the J.League. JSL was the second national league of a team sport in Japan after the professional ...

with NKK S.C. on loan, however when the loan period was finished he returned to Liaoning until the 1995 league season when he joined Dalian Wanda FC for one season before retiring as a player.

International goals

Management career

After he retired Ma Lin would take up coaching where he started off with Dalian Yiteng F.C. as an assistant before joining Liaoning once more as one of their assistants. After the team's head coach

Dimitar Penev Dimitar Dushkov Penev ( bg, Димитър Душков Пенев, born 12 July 1945) is a Bulgarian football coach and former player and central defender of CSKA Sofia. He played 90 games for Bulgaria national football team and scored two goals. ...

left during the 2003 league season Ma Lin would go on to be promoted as the team's manager where he would lead them to a mid-table sixth-place finish. He would then be given a full season to manage the squad and go on to lead the team to an improved fourth-place finish, however despite this improvement Ma Lin was allowed to leave and was replaced by the experienced coach

Wang Hongli Wang Hongli (born 31 August 1997) is a Chinese speed skater. He competed in the 2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , ...

. He would take over the management position at

at the beginning of the 2005 league season where he was unable to improve the team's fortunes as a lowly club within the top tier and left after one season. He would then take the management position at second tier side Jiangsu Sainty F.C. where he unable to aid them in their promotion push and resigned during the league season. After a short period outside management Ma Lin returned to Liaoning after

Werner Lorant Werner Heinz Erich Lorant (born 21 November 1948) is a German former football player who played as a defender or as a defensive midfielder. He later became a manager, notably managing TSV 1860 Munich for nine years between 1992 and 2001. Playin ...

was sacked and was brought in to help the team in their relegation battle during the 2008 league season. Unable to achieve this the club stuck with Ma Lin and he immediately repaid their loyalty by winning the division title and re-promotion back to the top tier after only one season. On 26 November 2017 Ma Lin was appointed the new manager at Dalian Yifang. On 20 March 2018, he was relieved of duty as manager of Dalian Yifang and replaced by

Bernd Schuster Bernd Schuster (born 22 December 1959) is a German former professional footballer of the late 1970s through early 1990s, who won club titles playing for the Spanish sides FC Barcelona (1980–1987) and Real Madrid (1988–1990). He played as a m ...

Honours

Player

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 Asso ...

: 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1993 *

: 1984, 1986 *

Asian Club Championship The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competitio ...

: 1989–1990

Manager

China League One The Chinese Football Association China League (), also known as China League One or Chinese Jia League (中甲联赛), is the second level of professional football in China. Above League One is the Chinese Super League. Prior to the formation of ...

: 2009

References

External links

Profile
at sodasoccer.com
Profile
at news.nen.com.cn
International stats
at teamchina * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ma, Lin 1962 births Living people Sportspeople from Qiqihar Chinese football managers Chinese footballers Footballers from Heilongjiang China international footballers Liaoning F.C. players Dalian Shide F.C. players Chinese expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Japan Footballers at the 1988 Summer Olympics 1988 AFC Asian Cup players Olympic footballers of China Jiangsu F.C. managers Liaoning F.C. managers Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic F.C. managers Footballers at the 1986 Asian Games Footballers at the 1990 Asian Games Association football forwards Asian Games competitors for China Chinese Super League managers