Liu Ailing (; born 2 May 1967) is a Chinese former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played for the China national team at the

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

and

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school s ...

editions of the

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's international governing bo ...

. She won a silver medal at the

1996 Atlanta Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

and participated at the

2000 Sydney Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug language, Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport ...

. A playmaking midfielder, she played

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

club football in Japan and the United States.

Club career

Born in

Baotou Baotou (; mn, Buɣutu qota, Бугат хот) is the largest city by urban population in Inner Mongolia, China. Governed as a prefecture-level city, as of the 2020 census, its built-up (''or metro'') area made up of its 5 urban districts is ...

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for ...

, Liu excelled in basketball and athletics but did not play football until she was 17 years old. Her parents were initially reluctant to let her play what they saw as a masculine sport. In 1994 Liu joined Japanese second tier club

Tasaki Perule FC was a women's football team which played in Division 1 of Japan's Nadeshiko League The , commonly known as the , is a semi-professional women's association football league in Japan. The Nadeshiko League consists of two divisions that cor ...

. She helped win

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

in her first season and remained with the club until 1997. At the

2000 WUSA Draft The WUSA Inaugural Player Draft, held before Women's United Soccer Association's initial 2001 season, distributed players to the league's eight inaugural teams. The draft occurred on December 10 and 11, 2000. This took place after each team was ...

, Liu was selected by

Philadelphia Charge The Philadelphia Charge was an American women's professional soccer team that played in the Women's United Soccer Association. The team played at Villanova Stadium on the campus of Villanova University near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Histo ...

in the first round, second overall behind compatriot Sun Wen. In the United States Liu experienced a

culture shock Culture shock is an experience a person may have when one moves to a cultural environment which is different from one's own; it is also the personal disorientation a person may feel when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life due to immigration ...

; she bought only raw fruit and vegetables from the supermarket as in China she had been in regimented training camps for so long that she never learned to cook. In the

2001 WUSA season The 2001 Women's United Soccer Association season served as the inaugural season for WUSA, the top level professional women's soccer league in the United States. The regular season began on April 14 and ended on August 12, with the postseason g ...

34-year-old veteran Liu was a success, leading the team on goals (10) and points (22). She was the first woman to win WUSA's Player of the Week in two consecutive weeks, and the first woman to win it three times. Charge

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

Mark Krikorian said of Liu: "She has been one of the greatest center midfielders in the world". In

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains independence from Indonesia and ...

Liu was less effective, contributing two goals and two assists for six points in her 20 regular season appearances (11 starts). She retired at the end of the season.

International career

At the

1991 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup was the inaugural FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for women's national association football teams. It took place in Guangdong, China from 16 to 30 November 1991. FIFA, football's international gov ...

, Liu played the full 80 minutes in all four of China's games. The hosts reached the quarter-finals before losing 1–0 to Sweden. In the first ever

match, Liu scored twice in China's 4–0 win over eventual finalists

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

on 16 November 1991. In 1996 she won the silver medal with the Chinese team. She played all five matches and scored one goal. At the

1997 AFC Women's Championship The 1997 AFC Women's Championship was a women's football tournament held in the province Guangdong, China between 5 and 14 December 1997. It was the 11th staging of the AFC Women's Championship. The 1997 AFC Women's Championship, consisting of el ...

Liu scored four goals in China's 10–0 semi-final win over

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...

and two goals in the 2–0 final win over obdurate

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 Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and ...

. She was named tournament

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

. Liu was named in the 16-player All-Star team at the

1999 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup was the third edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for women's national soccer teams. It was hosted as well as won by the United States and took place from June 19 to July 10, 1999, at ...

. She scored the winning goal in the 2–1 first round win over Sweden and two more in the 5–0 semi-final rout of defending champions Norway, securing China's place in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

, where they lost a controversial

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

to the United States. In 2000, she was a member of the Chinese team which finished fifth in the Olympic women's tournament. She played all three matches. In 2003 Liu took a role as deputy secretary general of the Beijing Football Association. Following the playing retirement of Liu and influential contemporaries like Sun Wen and Zhao Lihong, the Chinese national team went into sharp decline, culminating in an 8–0 defeat by

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

at the

2004 Athens Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

. In June 2007 Liu was running the only girls' football school in Beijing, when it closed through lack of interest.

International goals

Honors

International

; China * World Cup Silver Medal:

* Olympic Silver Medal:

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone on b ...

AFC Women's Championship The AFC Women's Asian Cup (formerly known as the AFC Women's Championship) is a quadrennial competition in women's football for national teams which belong to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It is the oldest women's international football ...

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker ru ...

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

Football at the Asian Games The men's football tournament has been a regular Asian Games sporting event since the 1951 edition, while the women's tournament began in 1990. History The first Asian Games had football tournament. Since the 2002 Asian Games, age limit fo ...

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

Individual

*Asian Player of the Month: December 1997

References

External links

* *
Profile
at

WUSA WUSA or wusa may refer to: * Women's United Soccer Association (defunct), the world's first women's professional association football league, based in the United States * ''WUSA'' (film), a 1970 drama film * WUSA (TV), a television station (chann ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Ailing 1967 births Living people Chinese women's footballers Chinese expatriate footballers China women's international footballers Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of China Olympic silver medalists for China Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics People from Baotou Olympic medalists in football 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup players 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup players 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup players Footballers from Inner Mongolia Asian Games medalists in football Footballers at the 1990 Asian Games Footballers at the 1994 Asian Games Footballers at the 1998 Asian Games Nadeshiko League players Expatriate women's footballers in Japan Women's United Soccer Association players Philadelphia Charge players Women's association football midfielders Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Chinese expatriate sportspeople in the United States Chinese expatriate sportspeople in Japan Tasaki Perule FC players Beijing BG Phoenix F.C. players Asian Games gold medalists for China Medalists at the 1990 Asian Games Medalists at the 1994 Asian Games Medalists at the 1998 Asian Games FIFA Century Club