Li Weifeng is a Chinese football defender. He has represented the Chinese national football team over 100 times. He also played in the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship.<\/P>
Li is a central defender and is known for his heading ability, which earned him the nickname "Da Tou" (Big Head). Aside from his soccer skills, Li is also involved in various off-the-field controversies, such as him earning two red cards for the Chinese team in the 2005 East Asian Invitation, as well as allegedly forcing out manager Chi Shangbin in Shenzhen Jianlibao, earning him the nickname "Qiu Ba" (soccer bully).<\/P>
Li has previously played for Shenzhen Ping'an and had a short trial at English side Everton immediately after the 2002 World Cup, as part of an Everton deal with Chinese sponsor Kejian. However, Li was unable to convince the Everton coaching team for a permanent deal and returned to Shenzhen Jianlibao.<\/P>
In the beginning of 2006, Li Weifeng left Shenzhen Jianlibao due to the club's financial difficulties, and followed many of his fellow stars out of the club. Shanghai Shenhua bought him for 6 million Renminbi Yuan, despite reported interest from Serie A team Fiorentina.<\/P>
In 2008, Li transferred from Shanghai Shenhua to Wuhan Guanggu due to a lack of playing time in the Chinese Super League runner-up, reuniting him with manager Zhu Guanghu, who also coached him in the Brazil youth team, Chinese national team, as well as Shenzhen Ping'an. Soon after the 3.5 million transfer, however, Li was involved in an on field incident, which resulted in him being suspended for 8 games by the Chinese Football Association. Already on the verge of relegation, Wuhan Guanggu amounted protests against this ruling, which the club deemed to be unjust and extremely damaging to its chance to survive in the top flight. After its efforts were proven to be futile, Wuhan Guanggu withdrew from the league and was automatically relegated, and Li was without games for the rest of the season.<\/P>
Because of Wuhan Guanggu's withdrawal, most of its non-local and highly paid players were put on the transfer list at the end of the season, Li among them. Because of his reputation, high wage demand, gigantic transfer fee, and the still unserved 8 game suspension, Li was a hard commodity to move despite being perceived as heads and shoulders above rest of the Chinese defenders. But the new AFC Champions League rule came to his rescue, as it allowed all tournaments participants to have one Asian foreign player. Attracting heavy interests from both the Japanese and Korean league, Li moved to Suwon Samsung Bluewings of K-League in January 2009, for a 2-years contract as reported $400,000 USD[citation needed], reuniting him with another one of his former manager. Some pundits suggested that Li moved on a free transfer because Wuhan Guanggu's withdrawal made all of its players free agents under FIFA rules (though not under Chinese rules); however, Wuhan Guanggu immediately released statements announcing its intention to obstruct the move if itlef was not at least partly remunerated,and media reports have stated that Li will pay his former club himself in order to play for the Korean outfit.<\/P>
Li was sent-off in his first game for Suwon Samsung Bluewings against Sparta Prague in Hong Kong Li, however, redeemed himself in his second official game with the Suwon Samsung Bluewings in a AFC Champions League 2009 match against Kashima Antlers by scoring the opening goal. The game ended 4-1 for the Suwon Samsung Bluewings.
Li made his first appearance for the China national football team on 22 November 1998, in a friendly match against Korea Republic.<\/P>
Li was promoted to team captain by the manager Arie Haan in 2003.<\/P>
In September 2006, he was thrown of the Chinese national football team for hitting a player and hence earning his sixth red card in 14 months during an AFC Champions League game with Shanghai Shenhua. His captain position in the national team was later assigned to Zheng Zhi.<\/P>","3FCE1628A9116831":"1","169B71B57B449B15":"24.17","979410D584F5F7FBE52BC514F07CC004":"
Shenzhen Jianlibao
Chinese Super League Champions: 2004
Chinese Jia-A League Runners-up: 2002
CSL Cup Runners-up: 2004,2005 <\/P>
Shanghai Shenhua
A3 Champions Cup Champions: 2007
Chinese Super League Runners-up: 2006 <\/P>
Suwon Bluewings
Korean FA Cup Champions: 2009 <\/P>
China
AFC Asian Cup Runners-up: 2004
East Asian Football Championship Champions: 2005 <\/P>","61CD9DEED77E23E3":"http:\/\/www.gzrffc.com.cn\/","DAF99DFE86B9D49B":"","e_index":7};