Mai Chao (born on March 9, 1964 in Guangzhou, Guangdong) is a Chinese football coach and a former international football player. He spent his whole playing career for Guangzhou Apollo as an attacking left-back. After retiring, he moved into management, where he went on to manage Guangzhou twice as well as Shenzhen Xiangxue Eisiti.

Playing career

Mai Chao spent his whole playing career with Guangzhou Apollo as an attacking left-back and saw the team rise through the Chinese pyramid before being called up to the Chinese national team where he would make his debut appearance against

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in friendly on May 11, 1986 in a 2–0 defeat. He would become a regular within the team and score his debut goal against

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on August 25, 1986 in a 3–0 win before being called up to the Football at the 1986 Asian Games and then the 1988 AFC Asian Cup. Unfortunately he was part of the squad that narrowly missed out of reaching the

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after losing the final group game to Qatar in the dying minutes during qualification. Mai, however would end his international career as the countries top goalscoring defender while also seeing Guangzhou move into full professionalism before he retired.

International goals

Management career

After retiring Mai would move into training and due to high regard within Guangzhou Apollo he would rejoin them in 1997 as their new manager. His time as manager was not successful and he was gone by the end of the 1998 league season, which also saw the club relegated after they finished bottom of the league. Out of management he would go on to form a youth football school before Guangzhou once again asked for his services. This time he was asked to achieve promotion back into the top tier, however while his second reign was considerably more successful he was unlucky in achieving this goal in his first attempt when he narrowly missed out on promotion through head-to-head results with Henan Construction in the 2003 league season. Despite coming close through the next two seasons Guangzhou decided to allow Mai to leave, however he wouldn't have to wait long before he took a position at Shenzhen Xiangxue Eisiti on January, 2007 where he would later become their head coach on December 14 of the same year during the off season where during this period he took on the training sessions and lead the team out at the beginning of the 2008 Chinese Super League before his contracted finished and he left the club.

Honours

Player

Guangzhou Apollo *

Chinese Jia-A League The National Football Jia A League ( simplified Chinese, commonly known as Jia-A, was the highest tier of professional football in the People's Republic of China, during 1994 through 2003, operating under the auspices of the Chinese Football Asso ...

: 1992,

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(Runners-up) *

Chinese FA Cup The Chinese FA Cup (, abbreviated as CFA Cup) is the national knockout cup competition in China organized by the Chinese Football Association. Its current holders are Shandong Taishan, having beaten Shanghai Port in 2021 for a record seventh title ...

: 1991 (Runners-up)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mai, Chao 1964 births Living people Chinese footballers Footballers from Guangzhou Chinese football managers Guangzhou F.C. players Footballers at the 1988 Summer Olympics 1988 AFC Asian Cup players Olympic footballers of China China international footballers Guangzhou F.C. managers Footballers at the 1986 Asian Games Shenzhen F.C. managers Footballers at the 1990 Asian Games Association football defenders Asian Games competitors for China