Li Yi (footballer)

Li Yi
李毅

Personal information
Date of birth	June 20, 1979 (1979-06-20)
Place of birth	Bengbu, Anhui, China
Height	1.84 m (6 ft 0.4 in)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Unattach
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1997-1998	Tianjin Locomotive
1999	Beijing Guoan (Loan)	18	(4)
2000-2006	Shenzhen Kingway	148	(51)
2007-2010	Shaanxi Chanba	57	(4)
National team‡
2001-2006	China	30	(2)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of December 1, 2010. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of February 7, 2010

Li Yi (Chinese: 李毅), born June 20, 1979, is a retired Chinese soccer player and coach. He was a striker on the China national football team and last played for Shaanxi Chanba.

His critical and pretentious off-field comments often overshadow his soccer skills. Some unconfirmed comments on the internet about Li such as saying his ball shielding is similar and comparable to Thierry Henry, makes him a target for much criticism from home fans. He earned a nickname Imperator Li Yi the Great, and eventually became an Internet meme among Chinese netizens similar to Chuck Norris in the United States. But in fact, Li never said such words. He did mention Thierry Henry after a 2005 AFC Champions League group stage match which Shenzhen Jianlibao beat Suwon Samsung Bluewings 1-0 at home. He said that he shielded the ball in the corner flag area in the injury time to ensure the victory, just like Thierry Henry did. The medium misrepresented his meaning because they believed that saying Li's ball shielding was comparable to Thierry Henry can be more attracting.

Club career

Li Yi rose to prominence with Shenzhen Pingan (currently known as Shenzhen Football Club) at the end of the 2000 football season after scoring 9 goals from 21 appearances. During his time at Shenzhen he experienced significant success winning the Chinese Super League in 2004 as well as playing a significant roll in the Shenzen team that reached the semi-finals of the 2005 AFC Champions League by scoring two critical goals in-game and a the third goal in over time, for a 3-1 win against Al-Ahli (Jeddah) of Saudi Arabia and being their top goalscorer with 5 goals Yi. However during the 2005 season the Shenzhen manager Zhu Guanghu was appointed the new manager of the China national football team and left Shenzen. Zhu Guanghu was considered an influential manager and after his departure there was a mass exit of senior and influential players which included Li Weifeng, Yang Chen and Li Leilei. Li Yi would eventually follow these player by transferring to Shaanxi Chanba at the beginning of the 2007 season.

International career

Li Yi started his senior international career in 1999 after some impressive displays for Beijing Guoan, however he did not make his debut until after his impressive displays for Shenzhen in 2001. Li Yi was called into the national team that played in 2004 AFC Asian Cup which China were hosting and eventually finished runners up in. During this tournament Li Yi would scored his second goal against Indonesia in a 5-0 win in the group stages. He played in the final as substitute for Hao Haidong, however China still lost the game 3-1 to Japan.

After the 2004 AFC Asian Cup Li Yi found it increasingly more difficult to be named within the national team. Despite being named for several other friendlies Li Yi could not score within any games. Li Yi was completely dropped from the squad for the 2007 AFC Asian Cup and has since not played for the national team.

2003 East Asian Cup Controversy

The 2003 EAC game opened in the face of heated political bitterness on both sides as Korea and China were bitterly embroiled over geographical claims over Goguryeo.

Also, two other factors added a great deal to apprehension between players during this match. The first was the enormous overseas expectation that China was no match for Korea and thus would not be able to put up a good fight out of fear of losing, a phenomenon coined in China as "Koreaphobia." This was because the Korea Republic national football team and the Chinese team had played 26 matches as of 2006 which resulted in 15 Korean wins and 11 draws. The 2003 East Asian Cup was thus heralded as a prime opportunity for China to end the losing streak against Korea.

As for Korea, the Korean team was embittered over the string of frequent rule violations during previous Korean games and how in 1998, a Chinese player had severely injured Korea’s star forward, Hwang Sun-Hong and thus preventing him from playing in the 1998 World Cup in France.

Unsurprisingly, this game was played in a passionate manner on both sides. Tensions during the match peaked when South Korea closed the first half, leading by one point. In the second half of the game, Li Yi, playing forward, kicked Lee's right shin after Lee completed a pass. Recently recovering from ankle injury, Lee, upset at Li's violent play, slapped Li on the back of his head, after which Li Yi started rolling on the ground grabbing his head in apparent exaggeration. The field violence quickly simmered down as the referee awarded a yellow card for Li for exaggeration and red card for Lee for violence though Yi's acting on the field was far from forgotten. Within weeks amused Internet surfers launched a flurry of photoshopped parodies of various TV and movie villains looming over Li Yi's writhing figure.

Honours

Shenzhen Pingan

• Chinese Super League: 2004

External links

• "China names squad for soccer friendly", China Daily, May 27, 2005.
• "China Crushes Indonesia 5-0 in Asian Cup", July 22, 2004.
• "Li Yi's forum".
• Li Yi (footballer) at National-Football-Teams.com
• Player profile at 163.com (In Chinese)
• Player profile at sina.com.cn (In Chinese)