Zheng Xiong (; born February 5, 1966, in

Wuhan Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the List of cities in China by population, eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine National cent ...

) is a Chinese

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

. In his youth he experienced organised football training in his hometown of Wuhan, however this would be as far as his playing career would take him before he went off the study to be a police officer. He would return to football in 1995 when he gained the position of deputy general manager for the

Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian mi ...

financially backed club Qianwei Huandao. After leaving the club in 1998 he moved into assistant management and then youth coaching before he received his first senior management position with Hubei CTGU Kangtian and then Wuhan Zall.

Playing career

Zheng Xiong received organised football training in his hometown of Wuhan with their youth team where he was trained as a goalkeeper. By the time he was 17 he was unable to make the transition into professional football after 4 years at Wuhan because his coach believed that he was too short to make it as a goalkeeper at . Deciding to retire he went off to Wuhan Police Vocational College instead to be a police officer, which he became in the late 1980s.

Management career

Zheng returned to football in 1995 when he gained the position of deputy general manager for the

financially backed club Qianwei Huandao. In 1998, the club moved to

Chongqing ChongqingPostal Romanization, Previously romanized as Chungking ();. is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the State Council of the People's Republi ...

and Zheng left them to pursue his dream of becoming a coach when he joined Shanghai Pudong as an assistant coach in 1999. After spending a short time with Shanghai Pudong, he returned to his hometown of Wuhan where he started as an assistant before moving into youth coaching. After gaining a reputation as a rising coach, he joined the China national youth team setup before he went into his first senior coaching position with third-tier club Hubei CTGU Kangtian, whom he guided to a playoff promotion spot at the end of the 2009 China League Two season. Unable to gain promotion with the club, he would soon return into assistant coaching with Hangzhou Greentown until on 14 June 2012 second-tier football club Wuhan Zall needed a caretaker manager for the rest of the

2012 China League One The 2012 China League One was the ninth season of the China League One, the second tier of the Chinese football league pyramid, since its establishment. It began on March 17, 2012 and ended on October 28, 2012. The size of the league has been ex ...

season. His appointment would quickly see the club win promotion at the end of the season and he was offered a permanent contract to guide the club in the

2013 Chinese Super League The 2013 Chinese Super League was the tenth season since the establishment of the Chinese Super League, the 20th season of a professional football league and the 52nd top-tier league season in China. Guangzhou Evergrande won their third consecut ...

season; however, his time in the top tier was not a success and after the club went on a six-game winless streak, Zheng resigned. In April 2014, he was appointed as the caretaker coach of

China national under-20 football team The China national under-20 football team, also known as the China Youth Team (国青队), represents the People's Republic of China in international football competitions in the FIFA U-20 World Cup and the AFC U-20 Asian Cup, as well as any othe ...

for the 2014 AFC U-19 Championship after Li Bing resigned. In October 2014, China was defeated by Qatar in the quarterfinals and failed to qualify for the

2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the twentieth edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup since its inception in 1977 as the FIFA World Youth Championship. The competition took place for the first time in New Zealand, the third time on Oceanian soil after ...

. The managerial competition of the China U-20 team in December 2014 he entered would go to Li Ming. On 15 July 2015, he returned to Wuhan Zall after Zheng Bin resigned from the club.武汉卓尔官方宣布主教练郑斌辞职郑雄重掌教鞭
at sina. 2015-07-15. Retrieved 2015-07-16

References

External links

China PR – Zheng Xiong – Profile with news, career statistics and history
at Soccerway {{DEFAULTSORT:Zheng, Xiong Living people 1966 births Chinese football managers China League One managers Chinese Super League managers Wuhan Yangtze River F.C. managers Zhejiang Professional F.C. managers Chinese police officers Footballers from Wuhan Men's association football goalkeepers Association football players not categorized by nationality