Fan Zhiyi, 54, is a famous player in the national football team. As a player, he represented the national football team in 108 games and scored 15 goals. After retiring, Fan Zhiyi did not leave football and engaged in football youth training for more than ten years. In 2010, he served as the coach of Shanghai East Asia and in 2020, he became the technical director of Genbao Football Base.
Now Fan Zhiyi has decided to try the position of head coach of a professional team again. According to media person Ding Xu, the coaching staff of Gao Mingqi and Duan Xin of the Chinese League One team Liaoning Ironman have dismissed get out of class. Former national team captain Fan Zhiyi will serve as the coach, with assistants Sun Wei and Xiao Zhanbo, while Fan Zhiyi is still Will play the role of team leader. This will be the first time in 14 years that Fan Zhiyi will serve as the head coach of a professional team. Whether he can help the Liaoning Ironmen, currently ranked 11th in the Chinese Premier League, get out of the slump will attract much attention.
It is worth mentioning that Fan Zhiyi has frequently participated in meetings organized by the Football Association in the past few years. In December 2022, Fan Zhiyi and several other national football stars Yang Chen, Li Tie and others attended an internal meeting of the Football Association. In the end, Li Tie He was taken away by people from the State Sports General Administration in the middle of class and has never returned. At that time, Fan Zhiyi was still confused and wondered why Li Tie never returned.
As the two core figures of the former national football team that reached the World Cup, contrary to Li Tie who will spend many years behind bars, Fan Zhiyi's current life is extremely colorful. Before he became the coach and leader of the Chinese League One team, Fan Zhiyi was doing well in China. First of all, he has been working in the youth training camp. Secondly, he entered the entertainment industry during this period, filming multiple variety shows and the TV series "Flowers", and contributed many wonderful performances and interpretations.
Taken together, Fan Zhiyi's career is very prosperous. He relies on his own efforts and characteristics to continuously realize commercial value, and there is no football-related corruption problem. This means that Fan Zhiyi's career will not be hindered in any way. He and Li Tie are devoted to money. Whether or not there is no bottom line is completely different.
Considering Fan Zhiyi’s rich resume as a player and his experience studying abroad, I believe Fan Zhiyi has enough experience to help the Liaoning Iron Man out of the predicament. However, Fan Zhiyi’s performance in coaching Shanghai East Asia in 2010 was not good, and he was eventually dismissed in a hurry.
As a senior Chinese football star, Fan Zhiyi naturally knows the current situation of Chinese football. I hope he can use more efforts to help Chinese football become better, cultivate more talents, and pay more attention to football youth training. Looking forward to Fan Zhiyi’s coaching performance!
(Lin Xiaoshi)
