Li Tie ( zh, s=李铁, t=李鐵, p=Lǐ Tiě; born 18 May 1977) is a Chinese former professional

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 player. A

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

, he represented

Liaoning ) , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = Clockwise: Mukden Palace in Shenyang, Xinghai Square in Dalian, Dalian coast, Yalu River at Dandong , image_map = Liaoning in China (+all claims hatched).svg , ...

in the Chinese Jia-A League, Everton in the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

, Sheffield United in the

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Betting & Gaming, Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, i ...

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 The AFC Asian Cup is the primary association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), determining the continental champion of Asia. It is the second-oldest c ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

and

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

, and for the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

. 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.

Club career

Liaoning FC

Li Tie began his football career at the age of fifteen, joining

'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

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

side Everton in August 2002. Despite initial skepticism at

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

, 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

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. At the beginning of the 2003–04 season, Li's start was marred by a sending off against

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

on 16 August 2003 after only been substituted on for David Unsworth. 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 Bolton Wanderers Football Club ( ) is a professional association football, football club based in Horwich, Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the Englis ...

, 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. 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. 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 Bryan Robson (born 11 January 1957) is an English association football, football manager and former player. He began his career with West Bromwich Albion F.C., West Bromwich Albion in 1972, where he amassed over 200 appearances and was club ca ...

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.

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 Liaoning Football Club (), officially known as Liaoning Hongyun (), was a professional association football club with a long history in Chinese football. The club can predate their formation to 1953, when Shenyang government sports body joined ex ...

. He scored first league goal in his football career in a 3–1 win against Shenzhen Shangqingyin in October 2008. After spending one season with Chengdu, Li decided to return to his hometown club

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. He was chosen for the

, the nation's debut in the tournament. Recovering from an injury, Li returned to competitive football in June 2006 with substitute appearances for the China national team against

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

and

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. He was once again called up to play for the national team in a friendly against

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

on 10 August 2006 and in a 2007 AFC Asian Cup qualifier against

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

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 Marcello Romeo Lippi (; born 12 April 1948) is an Italian former professional association football, football player and manager, who led the Italy national football team, Italy national team to victory in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He was appoin ...

to become one of his assistant coaches. He also became the assistant coach of the Chinese national team under Alain Perrin in May 2014. He resigned from his position as assistant coach on 26 June 2015 after about three seasons with Guangzhou. Li became the deputy general manager, sports director and assistant coach at China League One side Hebei China Fortune on 14 July 2015. On 18 August 2015, he was assigned as the manager of the club after Radomir Antić's departure. 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. On 27 August 2016, Li was replaced by

Manuel Pellegrini Manuel Luis Pellegrini Ripamonti (; ; born 16 September 1953) is a Chilean professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who is the head coach of Real Betis. As a coach, he has managed clubs in S ...

after winning just one match in the last nine matches. On 16 November 2017, Li was appointed as the head coach of China League One club Wuhan Zall. 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. He acted as caretaker coach of Chinese national team following the resignation of

in 2019. On 2 January 2020, Li was appointed as the new manager of

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 ...

. On 3 December 2021, Li was replaced by fellow 2002 World Cup teammate Li Xiaopeng.

Corruption conviction

On 26 November 2022, Li was placed under investigation for "serious violations of laws" by the

Central Commission for Discipline Inspection The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) is the highest supervisory organ of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCDI is elected and supervised by the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, CCP National Congress. ...

(CCDI), the party's internal disciplinary body, and the

National Supervisory Commission The National Supervisory Commission is the highest supervisory and anti-corruption authority of the People's Republic of China. Formed in 2018 by an 2018 amendment to the Constitution of China, amendment to the Constitution of China, Constitut ...

, the highest anti-corruption agency of China. 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. He confessed, and on 13 December 2024 was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list China's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Li goal.''

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Liaoning Whowin * China League One:

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

* Chinese FA Super Cup: 1999 Individual * Chinese Jia-A League Team of the Year:

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

Manager

Wuhan Zall * China League One:

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

Individual *China League One Coach of the Year:

中甲联赛颁奖典礼在京举行共颁出各类共17大奖项
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References

External links

* *
Sohu.com profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Tie 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 medalists in football 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