Shao Jiayi (; born 10 April 1980) 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, rugb ...

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 represented

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 hom ...

(two spells),

TSV 1860 Munich , commonly known as TSV 1860 München (; lettered as ) or 1860 Munich, is a sports club based in Munich. The club's football team currently plays in the 3. Liga, the third tier of German football. 1860 Munich was one of the founding members ...

Energie Cottbus FC Energie Cottbus ( Lower Sorbian: ''Energija Chóśebuz'') is a German football club based in Cottbus, Brandenburg. It was founded in 1963 as SC Cottbus in what was East Germany. After the reunification of Germany, Energie played six seasons i ...

and MSV Duisburg as well as the China national team with which he participated in the

2000 AFC Asian Cup The 2000 AFC Asian Cup was the 12th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held in Lebanon between 12 and 29 October 2000. Japan def ...

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

and

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

Club career

Shao Jiayi started his football career in the 1999 league season playing for top-tier side

where then manager

Shen Xiangfu Shen Xiangfu (; ; born May 27, 1957 in Beijing) is a Chinese football coach who is the joint manager of The Regional Preferente de la Comunitat Valenciana side Atlético Museros as well as also being a former international football player. As ...

promoted him to the first team. Despite a change in management with

Milovan Đorić Milovan Đorić (Serbian Cyrillic: Милован Ђорић; born 6 August 1945) is a Serbian football manager and former player. He is often referred to by his nickname Bata Đora. Đorić last coached in 2011 when he was head coach of the S ...

and

Wei Kexing Wei Kexing (; born 13 February 1963) is a Chinese former footballer who most recently was interim manager for Beijing Guoan in the Chinese Super League. Playing career After progressing through the youth team at Beijing, Wei made his debut for ...

coming in the following season, Shao gradually started to establish himself as regular within the team and due to his commanding presence in centre midfield, he was touted as one of the most exciting players in Chinese football. He then helped guide the club to the 2000

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 title ...

final where they lost 4–2 on aggregate against

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 ...

. After his breakout 2000 season, Shao became a vital member of the team's midfield and once again helped guide the club to another Chinese FA Cup final in 2001 where this time they faced

Dalian Shide Dalian Shide was a professional Chinese football club based in Dalian, Liaoning province, China who played in China's football league system between 1955 and 2012. Their home stadiums were the 55,843 capacity Dalian People's Stadium and then late ...

, losing 4–1 on aggregate. After playing in the

, Shao gathered enough attention to impress

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footb ...

side

1860 Munich , commonly known as TSV 1860 München (; lettered as ) or 1860 Munich, is a sports club based in Munich. The club's football team currently plays in the 3. Liga, the third tier of German football. 1860 Munich was one of the founding members ...

, who signed him on four-year loan deal from Beijing. A permanent transfer was made on 14 January 2003, reported to be approximately €1.3 million. Shao played there for three-and-a-half seasons before transferring to

, signing a three-year contract on 13 July 2006. He scored his first goals for Energie Cottbus at home against

Hertha BSC Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC (), and sometimes referred to as Hertha Berlin, Hertha BSC Berlin, or simply Hertha, is a German professional football club based in the locality of Westend of the borough of Charlo ...

and away to

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...

after coming on as a substitute in both matches. After extending his stay with Energie Cottbus for two more seasons, on 30 June 2011, Shao signed with

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

side MSV Duisburg and made his debut for the club on 17 July 2011 in a 3–2 loss against

Karlsruher SC Karlsruher SC is a German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg that currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football. Domestically, the club was crowned German champion in 1909, and won the ...

. On 13 December 2011, Shao returned to the

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 ...

to rejoin his former club Beijing Guoan after playing nine years in Germany. On 29 October 2015, Shao announced that he had decided to retire from football.

International career

Shao's performances with

led to him being called up by then manager

Bora Milutinović Velibor "Bora" Milutinović ( sr-Cyrl, Велибор Бора Милутиновић; born 7 September 1944) is a Serbian former professional footballer and manager. He has managed at five editions of the FIFA World Cup, tied for the record a ...

to the Chinese national team and was included in the squad that placed fourth in the

. Shao found more success with the national team when he was included in the squad that secured qualification for the

. At the tournament, he played in two games – receiving a red card against

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

– while China were knocked out of the group stage. Shao was also a key player for the national team in the

where he scored three goals during the tournament which led China to finish as runners-up.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list China's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Shao goal''.

Honours

Individual

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 ...

All-Star Team:

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 ...

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 ...

Team of the Year:

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 ...

* AFC Asian Cup Fans' All Time Best XI: 2018

References

External links

Our 2010 target
Shao Jiayi, FIFA, 29 October 2007 * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shao, Jiayi 1980 births Living people Chinese footballers Footballers from Beijing China international footballers Association football midfielders 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2000 AFC Asian Cup players 2004 AFC Asian Cup players 2007 AFC Asian Cup players Expatriate footballers in Germany Chinese Super League players Beijing Guoan F.C. players TSV 1860 Munich players FC Energie Cottbus players MSV Duisburg players Chinese expatriate footballers Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Chinese expatriate sportspeople in Germany Beijing Guoan F.C. non-playing staff