Tao Qianglong (; born 20 November 2001) is a Chinese professional

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 lea ...

who plays as a winger for

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 ...

club Zhejiang FC.

Club career

In 2013, Tao was scouted as a promising youngster and invited to train with the youth teams of Spanish side

Villarreal Villarreal (officially, in ) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's capital ( ...

. He would return to China and would play for the

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 ...

youth teams setup and the various age groups for the Chinese national team, which saw Hebei China Fortune interested in his services. Soon after completing his move to Hebei he was promoted to the first team and was handed his debut in a

game by the Head coach Chris Coleman on 2 March 2019 against

Shenzhen F.C. 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 came on as a substitute for

Yin Hongbo Yin Hongbo (; born 30 October 1989) is a Chinese football midfielder who currently plays for Henan FC in the Chinese Super League. Club career Yin Hongbo started his football career with China League Two side Guangdong Sunray Cave in 2007. He ...

in a 3-1 defeat. The manager would show considerable faith in Tao by continuing to play him, which saw Tao repay his faith in him by scoring his first goal for the club on 13 April 2019 in a league game against

Chongqing Dangdai Lifan Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic () was a Chinese professional football club based in Chongqing. The club was founded in 1995 as Wuhan Qianwei before making their debut in the newly developed fully professional Chinese football league system where t ...

that ended in a 2-1 loss. By the end of the season Tao had become a regular within the team and fellow top tier club Dalian Professional signed him on 27 February 2020. On 6 June 2020, the

Chinese Football Association The Chinese Football Association (), abbreviated as CFA (), is the governing body for association football, beach soccer and futsal in the People's Republic of China (Mainland China). The CFA organizes the men's and women's national teams an ...

issued Tao a six month suspension from playing professional football as punishment and a 300,000 yuan fine along with several of his team mates for breaking

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

prevention regulation rules while he was with the Chinese U19 team for training. This resulted in him missing the whole 2020 league season. On his return the following season he would finally make his debut on 22 April 2021, in a league game against

Changchun Yatai Changchun Yatai Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Changchun, Jilin, that competes in . Changchun Yatai plays its home matches at the Changchun Stadium, located within Nanguan District. The club's founder and main ...

in a 2-1 defeat. On 29 April 2022, it was announced that Tao would join newly-promoted

club

Wuhan Three Towns Wuhan Three Towns Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Wuhan, Hubei, that competes in . Wuhan Three Towns plays its home matches at the Wuhan Sports Center, located within Caidian District. Wuhan Three Towns had remar ...

. He would go on to make his debut on 3 June 2022, in a league game against

Hebei Hebei is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...

, which ended in a 4-0 victory. After the game he would go on to be part of the squad that won the

2022 Chinese Super League The 2022 Ping An Chinese Football Association Super League () was the 19th season since the establishment of the Chinese Super League. The league title sponsor is Ping An Insurance. Shandong Taishan were the defending champions. On May 23, the le ...

title. On 12 February 2025, Tao signed

club Zhejiang FC.

International career

On 24 July 2022, Tao made his international debut in a 0-0 draw against

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

in the

2022 EAFF E-1 Football Championship The 2022 EAFF E-1 Football Championship was an association football tournament organized by the East Asian Football Federation. It was the 9th edition of the EAFF E-1 Football Championship, the football championship of East Asia. The finals were ...

, as the Chinese FA decided to field the U-23 national team for this senior competition.

Career statistics

Honours

Wuhan Three Towns *

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Chinese FA Super Cup The Chinese FA Super Cup (), formerly named Chinese Football Super Cup (), is a Chinese football super cup competition that takes place every year before the start of the new season. It is contested between the champions of the previous Chinese Su ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tao, Qianglong 2001 births Living people Chinese men's footballers Chinese expatriate men's footballers China men's youth international footballers 21st-century Chinese sportsmen Men's association football midfielders Chinese Super League players Villarreal CF players Beijing Guoan F.C. players Hebei F.C. players Dalian Professional F.C. players Wuhan Three Towns F.C. players Zhejiang Professional F.C. players Footballers from Anhui People from Fuyang Chinese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain China men's under-20 international footballers Footballers at the 2022 Asian Games Asian Games footballers for China