Li Jianbin

Li Jianbin was born on 19 April 1989 in Binzhou, China. When Li was twelve, he began his career with Qingdao Beilaite where he studied to play football and featured for the youth team of the club from 2001. In 2006 the footballer joined Shanghai Starts as a loan player. However Li failed to play a single game with the first team. In 2006, when the loan contract expired, Jianbin moved to Qingdao Hailifeng where he played for the reserve and youth teams of the club.

In May 2007 Li Jianbin started his professional career playing for Chengdu Blades. Soon the player was farmed out to Sheffield United from Hong Kong where he netted once in 5 matches. When Li returned from loan, he made his debut for Chengdu Blades on 5 June 2009. The club’s manager pinned his hopes on the young promising player. Li did his best to establish himself as a squad regular. He featured in 49 matches for Chengdu Blades overall.

On 26 December 2011 Li Jianbin changed his club moving to Guangzhou Evergrande. The footballer made his debut for this Chinese side on 11 May 2012. In November he was farmed out to Shanghai Shenhua.

In 2010 Li Jianbin gained three caps for the China U-23 national football team. In 2011 the footballer was called up to the senior side to prepare for the AFC Asian Cup. In spite of the fact that he lacked the experience of playing football at the international level, he was included into the national squad instead of his injured team-mate and took part in a match against Iraq on 2 January 2012.