Yang Xu (; born 12 February 1988) is a former Chinese professional footballer who last played 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

Shanghai Shenhua Shanghai Shenhua Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Shanghai, that competes in . Shanghai Shenhua plays its home matches at the Shanghai Stadium, located within Xuhui District. The owner of Shanghai Shenhua is ...

Club career

Liaoning Whowin

Yang Xu started his football career when he made his debut for

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 ...

on 16 April 2005 in a 1–0 loss against

. He scored his first goal for the club on 5 May 2005 in a 3–1 win against Shenzhen Jianlibao. By the end of the 2005 season, Yang scored three league goals in 11 appearances and saw his club finish in a tenth-place position. The following season would see Yang continue to establish himself with the squad by making a further 20 league appearances and scoring three goals; however, most of his appearances came from the bench. By the 2008 season, he was still a squad player trying to establish himself as the main striker within the team; however, he was unable to help Liaoning avoid relegation at the end of the season. Staying with the club, Yang was promoted to first-choice striker at the start of the 2009 league season and he would repay them with 15 league goals in 22 appearances, making him the second best goalscorer in the league. His goals would aid Liaoning to win the division title and immediate promotion back to the top flight.

Shandong Luneng

On 27 February 2013, Yang transferred to fellow

side

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 ...

. In July 2014, he was loaned to

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 ...

for the rest of the 2014 season.

Tianjin Quanjian

On 26 February 2017, Yang transferred to fellow top-tier side Tianjin Quanjian and was immediately loaned to his former club Liaoning Whowin for one season. He made his first appearance since returning to the club on 3 March 2017 in a 1–1 draw against Guizhou Zhicheng. He returned to Quanjian ahead of the 2018 season, scoring 18 goals in 62 appearances across 2 seasons.

Shanghai Shenhua

On 15 July 2020, Yang joined

on a free transfer following the disbandment of Tianjin Tianhai. On 18 September 2020, he scored his first goal for the club, a penalty in a 1-1 draw against

Guangzhou R&F Guangzhou City Football Club () was a Chinese professional football club which last competed in the Chinese Super League. The team was based in Guangzhou, Guangdong. The club's name between 2011 and 2020 was Guangzhou R&F, which was short for ' ...

in the first round of 2020 Chinese FA Cup, and Shenhua subsequently lost 5-3 in the penalty shootout. As a prolific centre forward throughout his career, Yang suffered from goal drought in his first 2 seasons at Shenhua. On 8 June 2022, Yang finally scored his first league goal for the club in a 2-0 win over derby rivals Shanghai Port. On 11 April 2023, Yang announced his retirement from professional football via livestream.

International career

Yang was called up to the Chinese national team and made his international debut on 30 September 2009 in a 4–1 win against

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

. Despite playing for a second-tier side he would be tried out in several friendlies before he was given his chance to play in a qualifying match 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 ...

in a 2–1 win against

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

on 17 January 2010 where he also scored his debut goal. On 30 March 2011, he scored twice in a 3–0 win against

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

and on 23 July 2011, he scored a hat-trick in a 7–2 win against

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

Career statistics

Club statistics

International statistics

International goals

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

Honours

Club

China League One The Chinese Football League 1 (), also known as China League One or Chinese Jia League (), is the second level of professional football in China, under the Chinese Super League. The league is under the auspices of the Chinese Football Association ...

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 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 ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

International

China national under-17 football team The China national under-17 football team, also known as the China Junior Team (国少队), represents the People's Republic of China in international football competitions in the FIFA U-17 World Cup and the AFC U-17 Asian Cup, as well as any oth ...

* AFC U-17 Championship:

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 ...

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:

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 ...

References

External links

Player stats at sohu.com
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yang, Xu 1988 births Living people Chinese men's footballers Footballers from Dalian China men's international footballers 21st-century Chinese sportsmen Liaoning F.C. players Shandong Taishan F.C. players Changchun Yatai F.C. players Tianjin Tianhai F.C. players Shanghai Shenhua F.C. players Chinese Super League players China League One players 2011 AFC Asian Cup players 2015 AFC Asian Cup players Men's association football forwards