Li Leilei (; born June 30, 1977, in

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 ...

) is a

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

former football

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

and current goalkeeping coach.

Club career

Li Leilei started his career with second tier club

Bayi Football Team The Bayi or August First Football Team (), known fully as the People's Liberation Army Bayi Football Club (), was a football team under the sport branch of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) that played in China's football league system between 19 ...

in the 1999 Chinese league season and would go on to become their first choice goalkeeper. With them he would gain promotion at the end of 2000, however after three seasons in the top tier the club were relegated at the end of the 2003 league season and disbanded due to financial difficulties brought about by professional football. This saw Li Leilei join another top tier club in

Shenzhen Jianlibao Shenzhen Football Club () was a Chinese professional football club based in Shenzhen, Guangdong. Shenzhen played its home matches at the Shenzhen Universiade Sports Centre and the Shenzhen Stadium. Their majority shareholder was the Kaisa Group, ...

where he was immediately made the club's first choice goalkeeper by the team's Head coach

Zhu Guanghu Zhu Guanghu (; born 25 September 1949, in Shanghai, China) is a Chinese football coach and a former player. As a player, he was predominantly remembered for his time at Shanghai Football Team before going into management where he started of ...

and had an extremely successful debut season with them by winning the 2004

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Super League (), commonly known as the Chinese Super League or the CSL (), also known as the China Resources Beverage Chinese Football Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Ch ...

. The following season wasn't to prove as successful for Li Leilei, however he still drew the interests from

Shandong Luneng Shandong Taishan Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Jinan, Shandong, that competes in . Shandong Taishan plays its home matches at the Jinan Olympic Sports Center Stadium, located within Lixia District. Their c ...

who he transferred to for 5 million yuan at the beginning of the 2006 league season. At Shandong he was the first choice goalkeeper of the league and cup 2006 double winning campaign. By now Li Leilei had also established himself as

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

's main goalkeeper and by the 2008 league season he would continue his pivotal role for the club by again winning the Chinese Super League title. By the end of the 2009 league season the Shandong Head coach

Ljubiša Tumbaković Ljubiša Tumbaković (, ; born 2 September 1952) is a Serbian professional football manager. He is the most successful coach in the history of Serbian powerhouse Partizan which he led to six national championship titles and three national cup w ...

had left the club after a disappointing season and was replaced by

Branko Ivanković Branko Ivanković (; born 28 February 1954) is a Croatian association football, football manager (association football), manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He was most recently the head coach of the China national football team ...

who decided to promote the youngster Yang Cheng as first choice goalkeeper, which saw Li Leilei limited to a single appearance throughout the 2010 campaigned as he watched Shandong win another league title. At the end of the 2011 league season he did not make a single appearance for Shandong and with his contract having finished Li Leilei retired from football.

International career

Li Leilei was given the chance to make his senior debut on May 29, 2005, against

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

by the recently appointed Chinese Head coach Zhu Guanghu in a match China lost 1–0. During this period he was playing understudy to Liu Yunfei until the sudden retirement of Liu Yunfei in 2006 established Li Leilei as first choice goalkeeper in the run up to the

2007 AFC Asian Cup The 2007 AFC Asian Cup was the 14th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held from 7 to 29 July 2007. For the first time in its h ...

. Within the tournament Li Leilei would play the first two group games before injury ruled him out for the final group game.

Coaching career

Li became the goalkeeping coach of his hometown club

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 ...

in December 2012.

Personal life

Li Leilei's father, Li Songhai (), was also a football goalkeeper.

Honours

Club

;

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

;

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

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 ...

International

China PR national football team The China national football team ( zh, s=中国国家足球队, t=中國國家足球隊, p=Zhōngguó guójiā zúqiú duì), recognised as China PR by FIFA, represents China in men's international association football and is governed by the Ch ...

East Asian Football Championship EAFF E-1 Football Championship, known as the East Asian Football Championship from 2003 to 2010, and the EAFF East Asian Cup for the 2013 and 2015 editions, is a men's international football competition in East Asia for member nations of the East ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

References

External links

*
Player stats
at football-lineups website {{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Leilei 1977 births Living people Men's association football goalkeepers Chinese men's footballers Bayi Football Team players China men's international footballers Footballers from Beijing Shandong Taishan F.C. players Shenzhen F.C. players 2007 AFC Asian Cup players Chinese Super League players Association football goalkeeping coaches Beijing Guoan F.C. non-playing staff