Zeng Xuelin (; 2 December 1929 – 11 February 2016) was a Chinese football manager and player. As a player he represented Guangzhou, Southwest Military Region,

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 ...

and

Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...

while internationally he played for what is now known as the China under-23 football team. After retiring as a player he moved into coaching where he had successful reigns at

and

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 ...

where he won several league titles before managing the China national team. After leaving the China national team he would mainly move away from management except for a brief spell when he joined Shenzhen Ping'an on a caretaker bases.

Playing career

While Zeng Xuelin was born in

Siam 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 ...

(now Thailand), he moved back with his family to China and settled in Meixian in the

Guangdong Province ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

at the age of seven. After finishing high school, he joined the

Chinese People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four Military branch, services—People's Liberation Army Ground Force, Ground Force, People's ...

and played for the Guangzhou Army team where he played amateur football in the regional leagues before going to university where he played for the Southwest Military Region football team while he was studying. As part of the Liberation Army he was selected for their top football club

and studied football in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. When his time ended with Bayi, he was selected to be a part of the China national white team (as Chinese B national team), which was allowed to participate in the league game during that time. In 1957, the White Team had moved to

, and eventually became Tianjin F.C.; he was the team captain for two seasons, and helped the team to win second place of the first

Chinese National Games The National Games of the People's Republic of China is the highest-level comprehensive multi-sport event of China. It is hosted by the General Administration of Sport of China. The games is held every four years, usually in the summer or au ...

in 1959 before he officially retired.

Managerial career

Before Xuelin retired from Tianjin he became the player-coach in February 1959, and officially became the team manager in 1960, where he achieved considerable success early within his reign when he won the 1960

Chinese Jia-A League The National Football Jia A League (simplified Chinese: 全国足球甲A联赛), commonly known as Jia-A, was the highest tier of professional football in the People's Republic of China, during 1994 through 2003, operating under the auspices of th ...

league title and

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 ...

in the same year. The club were constant title contenders throughout his reign despite seeing the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

severely stunting the team's development. Nevertheless, despite there not being any major tournaments held within China the club held on to Zeng when they also made him a consultant within the club. This lasted until 1972 when

football club offered him the youth coach position before he would soon take over the senior side. Once again Zeng was quick to achieve success when he won the 1973 league title in his first season. He continued to make Beijing constant title contenders throughout his reign, which lasted close to ten years and despite not adding more silverware towards the club he would make sure his reign at the club would end on a high when the club won the 1982 league title before taking the

China 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 ...

management position. With the national team the team easily qualified for the

1984 AFC Asian Cup The 1984 AFC Asian Cup was the 8th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were hosted by Singapore between 1 December and 16 December 198 ...

where he led the team to a runner-up position within the tournament. After a successful campaign the Chinese public were expecting more from the national team and after a good start in qualification for the 1986 FIFA World Cup the Chinese team were unexpected knocked out from qualification when they lost to

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

who beat them 2-1 on 19 March 1985 in a game that would see Zeng fired.

Death

On 11 February 2016, Zeng died at his home in

Shenzhen Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...

, aged 86.

Honours

Manager

: 1960

: 1973, 1982

References

External links

Profile
at Sodasoccer.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Zeng, Xuelin 1929 births 2016 deaths Chinese football managers 1984 AFC Asian Cup managers Chinese men's footballers Bayi Football Team players Tianjin Jinmen Tiger F.C. players Hakka people People from Meixian District Men's association football goalkeepers Beijing Guoan F.C. managers China national football team managers