Yang Chen (footballer, born 1974)


Yang Chen is a Chinese football coach and a former professional player.
As a player he represented Beijing Guoan, SV Waldhof Mannheim, Eintracht Frankfurt, FC St. Pauli, Shenzhen Jianlibao and Xiamen Lanshi. He is the first Chinese player to play and score in the Bundesliga while internationally he represented the Chinese football team in the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

Club career

Beginning his professional football career with Beijing Guoan he would gradually establish himself within their team during his time with them, however it was only once he had a short loan period with lower league German SV Waldhof Mannheim in 1998 did he show his potential as a striker. This saw Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt interested in him and were willing to make a transfer of 1,000,000 DEM for his services. Being the first Chinese footballer to play in the Bundesliga he would personally thrive within the league and score eight goals to helped the team to avoid relegation to 2. Bundesliga. Yang Chen would go on to be viewed as a trailblazer for Chinese footballers for his ability to score in one of the five major European football leagues and would personally go on to win the Chinese Footballer of the Year in 2000. While his time with Frankfurt was viewed as a success when new manager Felix Magath came in during the 2000–01 season Yang Chen did lose favour within the team and would have to fight back for his position before deciding to move to 2. Bundesliga team FC St. Pauli to ensure his place within the Chinese football team in preparation for the FIFA World Cup.
Yang Chen went back to his home country to play for Shenzhen Jianlibao where under the manager Zhu Guanghu his career would thrive once more and he would go on to win the 2004 Chinese Super League title. Once Zhu Guanghu left to take over the Chinese national team and Chi Shangbin came in to replace him Yang Chen and several other players immediately took a disliking to him. Throughout the 2005 league season there were numerous accusations between the management and the players. The club would decide to let the management go and several players including Yang Chen were sold off. He would go on to join Xiamen Lanshi until they disbanded in 2007 and he decided to retire.

International career

Yang Chen also played for China at the 2002 FIFA World Cup. He is the Chinese player to have come closest to scoring in the World Cup when his volley ricocheted off the post in the 3–0 loss to Turkey in group stage.

Management career

In 2009 Yang Chen would obtain his coaching certificate and would join top tier club Jiangsu Sainty as an assistant coach. In 2010 he would leave the club to go back to Germany to study and complete his international A-level coaching badges before returning to Jiangsu Sainty as an assistant coach and team leader under Dragan Okuka.
In December 2013 Yang Chen joined Guizhou Renhe F.C. as an assistant coach and team leader, however he decided to leave them in January 2015 when he accepted the invitation of returning to his hometown of Beijing to join Beijing Enterprises Group F.C. to become their guidetrainer and an assistant coach.

Career statistics

International goals

GoalDateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
12 December 1998Bangkok, Thailand4–11998 Asian Games
22 December 1998Bangkok, Thailand4–11998 Asian Games
32 December 1998Bangkok, Thailand4–11998 Asian Games
410 December 1998Bangkok, Thailand6–11998 Asian Games
57 October 2000Amman, Jordan1–01–1Friendly International
616 October 2000Tripoli, Lebanon3–04–02000 AFC Asian Cup
723 October 2000Beirut, Lebanon3–03–12000 AFC Asian Cup
826 October 2000Beirut, Lebanon2–12–32000 AFC Asian Cup
922 April 2001Xi'an, China7–010–12002 FIFA World Cup qualifier
1013 May 2001Kunming, China2–15–12002 FIFA World Cup qualifier
1110 December 2003Kanagawa, Japan3–03–12003 EAFF East Asian Cup

Honours

Shenzhen Jianlibao

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