Cao Xiandong (; born 19 August 1968) is a Chinese

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and a former international

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. In his career, he represented

Beijing Guoan Beijing Guoan Football Club (), known in AFC competitions as Beijing FC, is a Chinese professional football club based in Beijing, that competes in . Beijing Guoan plays its home matches at the Workers' Stadium, located within Chaoyang Distr ...

where he won two

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. The current holders are Shanghai Port, having beaten Shandong Taishan in 2024 for their first title. H ...

s along with

Qingdao Etsong Hainiu Qingdao Hainiu Football Club () is a Chinese professional Association football, football club based in Qingdao, Shandong, that competes in . Qingdao Hainiu plays its home matches at the Qingdao Youth Football Stadium, located within Chengyang, Q ...

and Beijing Kuanli. Internationally he played for the Chinese team that took part in the

1996 Asian Cup The 1996 AFC Asian Cup was the 11th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held in the United Arab Emirates between 4 and 21 Decembe ...

. Since retiring he moved into assistant management and then gained his first head coaching position with Beijing BIT.

Playing career

Cao Xiandong was considered a talented

and was soon called up to the Chinese under-17 team that took part in the

1985 FIFA U-16 World Championship The 1985 FIFA U-16 World Championship, the first edition of the tournament, was held in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Dalian in People's Republic of China from July 31, 1985, to August 11, 1985. Players born after August 1, 1968, ...

where China were knocked out in the quarter-finals to

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

in a 4-2 defeat. He eventually went on to graduate to the senior team of

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

and once he started to become a regular he was given his debut for his country in a friendly against

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

on August 31, 1992 in a 0-0 draw. He soon established himself as a regular for the national team and went to the

Football at the 1994 Asian Games Football at the 1994 Asian Games was held in Hiroshima, Japan from 1 to 16 October 1994. The Asian Football Confederation suggested that only under-23 teams should be entered, which meant that all the players had to be born after January 1, 197 ...

where China came runners-up to

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

in a 4-2 defeat in the final. Cao Xiandong soon gained his first piece of silverware when Beijing won the 1996 and then 1997

.China List of Cup Winners
at rsssf.org 22 Oct 2009 Retrieved 2012-08-08 After this success Cao Xiandong decided to join

for a brief period before joining second-tier club Beijing Kuanli in 1999 where he soon ended his playing career with them.

Career statistics

International goals

:''Scores and results list China's goal tally first.''

Honours

Player

Club

Beijing Guoan *

: 1996, 1997

International

China *

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

(Silver)

References

External links

* *
Player profile
at sodasoccer.com
Team China Stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cao, Xiandong 1968 births Living people Chinese football managers Chinese men's footballers Footballers from Beijing China men's international footballers Beijing Guoan F.C. players Qingdao Hainiu F.C. players Asian Games silver medalists for China Men's association football midfielders Footballers at the 1994 Asian Games Medalists at the 1994 Asian Games 20th-century Chinese sportsmen Asian Games silver medalists in football