Li Weifeng

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Li.

Li Wei-Feng (simplified Chinese: 李玮峰; traditional Chinese: 李瑋峰; pinyin: Lǐ Wěifēng; born December 1, 1978 in Changchun, Jilin) is a Chinese football defender, who has represented the Chinese national football team over 100 times. He also played in 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship.

Li is a central defender and is known for his heading ability which earned him the nickname "Da Tou" (Big Head). Aside from his soccer skills, Li is also involved in various off-the-field controversies, such as him earning two red cards for the Chinese team in the 2005 East Asian Invitation, as well as allegedly forcing out manager Chi Shangbin in Shenzhen Jianlibao, earning him the nickname "Qiu Ba" (soccer bully).

Club career

Li has previously played for Shenzhen Ping'an and had a short trial at English side Everton immediately after the 2002 World Cup, as part of an Everton deal with Chinese sponsor Kejian. However, Li was unable to convince the Everton coaching team for a permanent deal and returned to Shenzhen Jianlibao.

In the beginning of 2006, Li Weifeng left Shenzhen Jianlibao due to the club's financial difficulties, and followed many of his fellow stars out of the club. Shanghai Shenhua bought him for 6 million Renminbi Yuan, despite reported interest from Serie A team Fiorentina.

In 2008, Li tranferred from Shanghai Shenhua to Wuhan Guanggu due to a lack of playing time in the Chinese Super League runner-up, reuniting him with manager Zhu Guanghu, who also coached him in the Brazil youth team, Chinese national team, as well as Shenzhen Ping'an. Soon after the 3.5 million transfer, however, Li was involved in an on field incident, which resulted in him being suspended for 8 games by the Chinese Football Association. Already on the verge of relegation, Wuhan Guanggu amounted protests against this ruling, which the club deemed to be unjust and extremely damaging to its chance to survive in the top flight. After its efforts were proven to be futile, Wuhan Guanggu withdrew from the league and was automatically relegated, and Li was without games for the rest of the season.

Because of Wuhan Guanggu's withdrawal, most of its non-local and highly paid players were put on the transfer list at the end of the season, Li among them. Because of his reputation, high wage demand, gigantic transfer fee, and the still unserved 8 game suspension, Li was a hard commodity to move despite being perceived as heads and shoulders above rest of the Chinese defenders. But the new AFC Champions League rule came to his rescue, as it allowed all tournaments participants to have one Asian foreign player. Attracting heavy interests from both the Japanese and Korean league, Li moved to Suwon Samsung Bluewings of K-League in January 2009, for a 2-years contract as reported $400,000 USD^{[citation needed]}, reuniting him with another one of his former manager. Some pundits suggested that Li moved on a free transfer because Wuhan Guanggu's withdrawal made all of its players free agents under FIFA rules (though not under Chinese rules); however, Wuhan Guanggu immediately released statements announcing its intention to obstruct the move if itlef was not at least partly remunerated,and media reports have stated that Li will pay his former club himself in order to play for the Korean outfit^[1][2].

Li was sent-off in his first game for Suwon Samsung Bluewings against Sparta Prague in Hong Kong^[3] Li, however, redeemed himself in his second official game with the Suwon Samsung Bluewings in a AFC Champions League 2009 match against Kashima Antlers by scoring the opening goal. The game ended 4-1 for the Suwon Samsung Bluewings.

International career

Li made his first appearance for the China national football team on 22 November 1998, in a friendly match against Korea Republic^[4].

Li was promoted to team captain by the manager Arie Haan in 2003.

In September 2006, he was thrown of the Chinese national football team for hitting a player and hence earning his sixth red card in 14 months during an AFC Champions League game with Shanghai Shenhua. His captain position in the national team was later assigned to Zheng Zhi.

Club career statistics

As of November 8, 2009.

International goals

Results list China's goal tally first.

Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
December 12, 1998	Bangkok	Oman	1 goal	6-1	1998 Asian Games
January 26, 2000	Ho Chi Minh City	Guam	1 goal	19-0	2000 AFC Asian Cup qualification
September 3, 2000	Shanghai	Iraq	2 goals	4-1	Friendly match
April 22, 2001	Xi'an	Maldives	1 goal	10-1	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
May 13, 2001	Kunming	Indonesia	1 goal	5-1	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
September 7, 2001	Doha	Qatar	1 goal	1-1	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
September 15, 2001	Shenyang	Uzbekistan	1 goal	2-0	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
February 16, 2003	Wuhan	Estonia	1 goal	1-0	Friendly match
November 17, 2004	Guangzhou	Hong Kong	1 goal	7-0	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
February 22, 2006	Guangzhou	Palestine	1 goal	2-0	2007 AFC Asian Cup qualification
October 21, 2007	Foshan	Myanmar	1 goal	7-0	2010 FIFA World Cup qualification
May 25, 2008	Kunshan	Jordan	1 goal	2-0	Friendly match

Honours

Club

Shenzhen Jianlibao

• Chinese Super League Champions: 2004
• Chinese Jia-A League Runners-up: 2002
• CSL Cup Runners-up: 2004,2005

Shanghai Shenhua

• A3 Champions Cup Champions: 2007
• Chinese Super League Runners-up: 2006

Suwon Bluewings

• Korean FA Cup Champions: 2009

Country

China

• AFC Asian Cup Runners-up: 2004
• East Asian Football Championship Champions: 2005

References

External links

• K-League Player Record (Korean)
• Profile FIFA Player Statistics
• Profile Club & Country Statistics

China Squads v • d • e China Squad – 2000 AFC Asian Cup Fourth Place 1 Ou Chuliang • 2 Zhang Enhua • 4 Wu Chengying • 5 Fan Zhiyi • 6 Li Ming • 8 Li Tie • 9 Ma Mingyu • 10 Su Maozhen • 11 Xie Hui • 12 Qu Shengqing • 13 Chen Gang • 14 Li Weifeng • 15 Shen Si • 16 Xu Yang • 18 Li Xiaopeng • 19 Qi Hong • 20 Yang Chen • 21 Xu Yunlong • 22 Jiang Jin • 23 Fu Bin • 27 Shao Jiayi • 29 Huang Yong • Coach: Milutinović v • d • e China squad – 2002 FIFA World Cup 1 An Qi • 2 Zhang Enhua • 3 Yang Pu • 4 Wu Chengying • 5 Fan Zhiyi • 6 Shao Jiayi • 7 Sun Jihai • 8 Li Tie • 9 Ma Mingyu • 10 Hao Haidong • 11 Yu Genwei • 12 Su Maozhen • 13 Gao Yao • 14 Li Weifeng • 15 Zhao Junzhe • 16 Qu Bo • 17 Du Wei • 18 Li Xiaopeng • 19 Qi Hong • 20 Yang Chen • 21 Xu Yunlong • 22 Jiang Jin • 23 Ou Chuliang • Coach: Milutinović v • d • e China Squad – 2004 AFC Asian Cup Runners Up 1 Liu Yunfei • 3 Sun Xiang • 4 Zhang Yaokun • 5 Zheng Zhi • 6 Shao Jiayi • 7 Sun Jihai • 8 Zheng Bin • 9 Hao Haidong • 11 Li Yi • 12 Wei Xin • 13 Xu Yunlong • 14 Li Weifeng (c) • 15 Zhao Junzhe • 16 Ji Mingyi • 18 Li Xiaopeng • 19 Zhang Shuo • 21 Li Ming • 22 Yan Song • 23 Li Jian • 25 Zhou Haibin • 27 Zhou Ting • 29 Li Jinyu • Coach: Haan v • d • e China Squad – 2007 AFC Asian Cup 1 Li Leilei • 2 Du Wei • 3 Sun Xiang • 4 Zhang Yaokun • 5 Li Weifeng • 6 Shao Jiayi • 7 Sun Jihai • 8 Li Tie • 9 Han Peng • 10 Zheng Zhi (c) • 11 Dong Fangzhuo • 12 Zhao Xuri • 13 Zhang Shuai • 14 Zhu Ting • 15 Wang Dong • 16 Ji Mingyi • 18 Zhou Haibin • 19 Zheng Bin • 20 Mao Jianqing • 21 Wang Peng • 22 Yang Jun • 23 Cao Yang • 30 Zong Lei • Coach: Zhu Guanghu v • d • e China squad – 2008 Summer Olympics 1 Qiu Shengjiong • 2 Tan Wangsong • 3 Feng Xiaoting • 4 Yuan Weiwei • 5 Li Weifeng • 6 Zhou Haibin • 7 Hao Junmin • 8 Zheng Zhi • 9 Gao Lin • 10 Han Peng • 11 Chen Tao • 12 Cui Peng • 13 Shen Longyuan • 14 Wan Houliang • 15 Jiang Ning • 16 Zhao Xuri • 17 Dong Fangzhuo • 18 Liu Zhenli • 19 Dai Lin • 20 Zhu Ting • 21 Lü Jianjun • 22 Zhang Lu • Coach: Yin Tiesheng

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