Liu Cheng (footballer, born 1983)

Liu Cheng
刘成

Personal information
Full name	Liu Cheng
Date of birth	(1983-10-23) 23 October 1983
Place of birth	Changsha, Hunan, China
Height	1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position(s)	Defender
Youth career
1995–1998	Shanghai Oriental Pearl Youth
1998–1999	Sichuan Quanxing
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2000–2004	Sichuan Quanxing	48	(0)
2005	Hunan Billows	?	(?)
2006	Dalian Shide	8	(0)
2007–2009	Chengdu Blades	46	(3)
2010–2014	Guangzhou R&F	52	(0)
International career‡
2001	China U-20
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 4 November 2013 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 4 November 2013

In this Chinese name, the family name is Liu.

Liu Cheng (simplified Chinese: 刘成; traditional Chinese: 劉成; pinyin: Liú Chéng, born 23 October 23 1983 in Changsha, Hunan) is a retired Chinese footballer.

Club career

Liu Cheng began his professional football career with Sichuan Quanxing in 2000 as a highly regarded seventeen-year-old youth player who made ten league appearances in his debut season. He would eventually go on to gradually establish himself as a regular within the team until the 2005 league season saw second tier side Hunan Billows willing to pay 3.8 million RMB for him. Liu Cheng left after only one season to go on to join reigning league champions Dalian Shide F.C. where he struggled to hold down a regular place within the team. In the 2007 league season he would go on to join second tier side Chengdu Blades and quickly see them win promotion when they came second within the league. With Chengdu he would go on to establish himself as their first choice right-back and see the team become mid-table regulars until the team were relegated at the end of the 2009 league season after it was discovered that the club had fixed a game in their 2007 promotion.

While none of the players were implicated with match fixing, Liu Cheng decided to leave the club and at the beginning of the 2010 league season he joined top tier club Changsha Ginde, which brought him back to his hometown of Changsha on a swap deal with Song Zhenyu and the club quickly made him their first choice right-back. His initial time at the club was not a success and in his debut season he saw the club relegated at the end of the season. Liu Cheng stayed with the club as they eventually moved to Guangzhou and rename themselves Guangzhou R&F, which seemed to revive the club's fortunes and saw them win promotion at the end of the 2011 China League One season.

Liu retired from football in January 2016.

International career

In 2000 Liu Cheng was the surprise choice of Chinese Head coach Bora Milutinović's first squad despite the player having little to no first team experience. Liu did not go on to make his debut and after injury as well as a lack of form the following seasons saw his international career all but end until 2010 when Chinese Head coach Gao Hongbo recalled into the squad.