Li Tie
Template:Short description Template:For Template:Family name hatnote Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox football biography
Li Tie (Template:Lang-zh; born 18 May 1977) is a Chinese former professional football coach and player.
A defensive midfielder, he represented Liaoning in the Chinese Jia-A League, Everton in the Premier League, Sheffield United in the Football League Championship and Chengdu Blades in the Chinese Super League. At international level, he made 92 appearances scoring six goals for the China national team. He was chosen for the AFC Asian Cup in 2000 and 2007, and for the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
After retirement from playing, he started his coaching career as an assistant coach at Guangzhou Evergrande. He moved to the China national team and then Hebei China Fortune where he gained his first coaching position. In 2024, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for bribery.<ref name="reuters">Template:Cite news</ref>
Club career
Liaoning FC
Li Tie began his football career at the age of fifteen, joining Liaoning's youth academy system in 1992. The following year, he was sent to Brazil for a five-year training programme sponsored by Jianlibao and became the captain of the newly organized youth football team. Li started his professional career by playing for Liaoning and rose to prominence during the 1999 league season when Liaoning finished as runners-up within the league.
Everton
One of the highest regarded Chinese players of his generation, Li secured a loan transfer in a deal brokered between sponsor Kejian and Premier League side Everton in August 2002.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Despite initial skepticism at Merseyside, his first season as an Everton player was a surprising success. Then manager David Moyes played him in twenty-nine league games and started him in most of his appearances where his displays, as a defensive midfielder helped the club achieve a seventh-place finish during the 2002–03 season.
Following Li's successful loan spell, Everton battled with his former club Liaoning to sign him on a permanent basis after the 2002–03 season and the deal was finally negotiated on 12 August 2003 when Li signed a three-year contract. Everton paid £1,200,000 for his transfer with two-thirds of the deal paid by sponsorships. The club's ownership let him move to the Premier League despite higher offers from Chinese clubs.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> At the beginning of the 2003–04 season, Li's start was marred by a sending off against Arsenal on 16 August 2003 after only been substituted on for David Unsworth.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A series of injuries followed which meant that Li only played five league matches that season. The last injury, a broken leg picked up during international duty in February 2004, ruled him out for another twelve months. In January 2005, when Li made his return to the pitch by playing for Everton's reserve side against Bolton Wanderers, he lasted just forty-one minutes and required his leg to be reassessed.
In the summer of 2005, eighteen months since his last game for the Everton first team, Li played the full match against FC Gamlitz in a pre-season friendly. He made a number of other preseason appearances and looked as if he was finally coming back to full fitness. However, he never managed to break back into the first team despite playing regularly for the reserves and even earning another international call-up for the Chinese national team. In March 2006, Li underwent another operation to remove pieces of bone that had grown on his ankle during his time on the sidelines.
Sheffield United
In May 2006, Li was released by Everton and Sheffield United announced his signing on a free transfer in July 2006, agreeing to a two-year contract.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Following his move, Li spent some time training with China League One side Chengdu Blades, which was owned by Sheffield United, while waiting for his visa clearance. On 19 September 2006, Li made his first competitive club start since January 2004 by appearing for Sheffield United in a League Cup match against Bury.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, Li did not make another appearance for Sheffield United afterwards due to his lingering injury.
On 12 October 2007, Li was told he could leave Sheffield United on a free transfer, with then manager Bryan Robson saying: "He's not in my plans and he is free to go wherever he wants on a free transfer." Only two days later though, Sheffield United changed their mind on the decision and stated that he would stay at the club until the end of the season before having his future evaluated.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Back to China
Despite reassurances to the contrary, Li did indeed move in 2008, transferring to Sheffield United's affiliated club Chengdu Blades to reinforce the team after their promotion to the Chinese Super League and made his debut in the opening game of the 2008 season against his former club Liaoning Whowin.<ref name="chengdu debut">Template:Cite news</ref> He scored first league goal in his football career in a 3–1 win against Shenzhen Shangqingyin in October 2008.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
After spending one season with Chengdu, Li decided to return to his hometown club Liaoning Whowin to help them in their promotion push back to the top tier. It proved to be an immediate success when he guided them to the securing the second-tier league title and being promoted back to the top flight after only one season. He suffered an injury in October 2010 which ruled him out for the whole 2011 season. After not fully recovering from his leg injury, Li announced that he had decided to retire from football at the end of the 2011 season.
International career
Li was one of four players called up from the Shenzhen Youth for the final round of 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifiers by Qi Wusheng, along with Li Jinyu, Sui Dongliang, and Zhang Xiaorui.Template:Citation needed He was chosen for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the nation's debut in the tournament.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Recovering from an injury, Li returned to competitive football in June 2006 with substitute appearances for the China national team against Switzerland and France. He was once again called up to play for the national team in a friendly against Thailand on 10 August 2006 and in a 2007 AFC Asian Cup qualifier against Singapore on 16 August 2006. Li remained as a part of the national side and was called up by Zhu Guanghu to play the 2007 AFC Asian Cup, but failed to make an appearance during the tournament.
Managerial career
On 25 May 2012, Li accepted an invitation from Guangzhou Evergrande manager Marcello Lippi to become one of his assistant coaches. He also became the assistant coach of the Chinese national team under Alain Perrin in May 2014.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He resigned from his position as assistant coach on 26 June 2015 after about three seasons with Guangzhou.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Li became the deputy general manager, sports director and assistant coach at China League One side Hebei China Fortune on 14 July 2015.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 18 August 2015, he was assigned as the manager of the club after Radomir Antić's departure.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Li led the club to win promotion to Chinese Super League in the 2015 season by winning eight matches in the rest of nine and finishing the runners-up in the league.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 27 August 2016, Li was replaced by Manuel Pellegrini after winning just one match in the last nine matches.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
On 16 November 2017, Li was appointed as the head coach of China League One club Wuhan Zall.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the 2018 season, he led the club to the Chinese Super after a five-year absence, being confirmed as champions and achieving promotion with three matches remaining in the season.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
He acted as caretaker coach of Chinese national team following the resignation of Marcello Lippi in 2019. On 2 January 2020, Li was appointed as the new manager of China.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 3 December 2021, Li was replaced by fellow 2002 World Cup teammate Li Xiaopeng.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Corruption conviction
On 26 November 2022, Li was placed under investigation for "serious violations of laws" by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the party's internal disciplinary body, and the National Supervisory Commission, the highest anti-corruption agency of China.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was put on trial for "accepting and offering bribes" while manager of the Chinese national team and for being involved in match-fixing while manager of Hebei China Fortune and Wuhan Zall.<ref name=":0" /> He confessed,<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> and on 13 December 2024 was sentenced to 20 years in prison.<ref name="reuters" />
Career statistics
Club
| Club | Season | League | National cupTemplate:Efn | League cupTemplate:Efn | Continental | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Liaoning | 1999 | Chinese Jia-A League | 24 | 0 | – | – | 24 | 0 | ||||
| 2000 | 25 | 0 | – | – | 25 | 0 | ||||||
| 2001 | 26 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | 26 | 0 | ||||
| 2002 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | 7 | 0 | ||||
| Total | 82 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 82 | 0 | ||
| Everton | 2002-03 | Premier League | 29 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 0 |
| 2003-04 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | ||
| 2004-05 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 2005-06 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Total | 34 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 0 | ||
| Sheffield United | 2006-07 | Premier League | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | 1 | 0 | |
| 2007-08 | English Championship | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 | 0 | ||
| Total | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| Chengdu Blades | 2008 | Chinese Super League | 24 | 1 | – | – | – | 24 | 1 | |||
| Liaoning Whowin | 2009 | China League One | 22 | 1 | – | – | – | 22 | 1 | |||
| 2010 | Chinese Super League | 24 | 0 | – | – | – | 24 | 0 | ||||
| 2011 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Total | 46 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 46 | 1 | ||
| Career total | 186 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 193 | 2 | ||
International
- Scores and results list China's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Li goal.
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 29 January 1997 | Kunming Tuodong Sports Center, Kunming, China | Template:Fb | 2–0 | 2–1 | Friendly |
| 2 | 20 April 1997 | Workers' Stadium, Beijing, China | Template:Fb | ?–0 | 5–0 | |
| 3 | 14 January 2000 | Tianhe Stadium, Guangzhou, China | Template:Fb | 1–0 | 1–0 | 2000 Four Nations Tournament |
| 4 | 23 January 2000 | Thong Nhat Stadium, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam | Template:Fb | 8–0 | 8–0 | 2000 AFC Asian Cup qualification |
| 5 | 26 January 2000 | Template:Fb | 14–0 | 19–0 | ||
| 6 | 14 February 2001 | National Stadium, Bangkok, Thailand | Template:Fb | 5–1 | 5–1 | 2001 King's Cup |
Managerial statistics
Template:Updated<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
| Team | From | To | Record | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Template:Tooltip | Template:Tooltip | Template:Tooltip | Template:Tooltip | Template:Tooltip | |||
| Hebei China Fortune | 18 August 2015 | 27 August 2016 | |||||
| Wuhan Zall | 16 November 2017 | 1 January 2020 | |||||
| China | 31 October 2019 | 3 December 2021 | |||||
| Total | |||||||
Honours
Player
Liaoning Whowin
- China League One: 2009<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Chinese FA Super Cup: 1999
Individual
- Chinese Jia-A League Team of the Year: 1999, 2001
Manager
Wuhan Zall
Individual
- China League One Coach of the Year: 2018<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
References
External links
Template:Navboxes Template:Navboxes Template:Navboxes Template:CCPCorruption2022
- 1977 births
- Living people
- Footballers from Shenyang
- Chinese men's footballers
- Men's association football midfielders
- Men's association football forwards
- Liaoning F.C. players
- Everton F.C. players
- Sheffield United F.C. players
- Chengdu Tiancheng F.C. players
- Chinese Super League players
- Premier League players
- China League One players
- 21st-century Chinese sportsmen
- Chinese expatriate men's footballers
- Chinese expatriate sportspeople in England
- Expatriate men's footballers in England
- Footballers at the 1998 Asian Games
- Asian Games bronze medalists for China
- Medalists at the 1998 Asian Games
- China men's international footballers
- 2000 AFC Asian Cup players
- 2002 FIFA World Cup players
- 2007 AFC Asian Cup players
- Chinese football managers
- Guangzhou F.C. non-playing staff
- Hebei F.C. non-playing staff
- Hebei F.C. managers
- Wuhan Yangtze River F.C. managers
- China national football team managers
- Chinese Super League managers
- Match fixing in association football
- Match fixers
- People convicted of corruption
- People convicted of bribery
- Prisoners and detainees of the People's Republic of China
- Sportspeople convicted of crimes
- 20th-century Chinese sportsmen
- Asian Games bronze medalists in football