Li Weifeng

Li Weifeng is a Chinese defender, born on 1 December 1978 in Changchun, China.

In 1990 Li joined the youth football academy of the FC Tianjin Locomotive, where he mastered his football skills for the next five years. In 1996 he joined the academy of FC Shenzhen Youth, where he finished his football education two years later and signed a professional contract with FC Shenzhen Ping’an in 1998. There he stayed for the first four years of his professional career, being regularly used during the first-team fixtures despite his young age.

The talented youngster soon got onto the radar of FC Everton scouts and joined the English Premier League side in 2002. However, he failed to break through to the first team of the club and returned to China next year, making just one appearance in a Toffees shirt. In 2003 the player got back to his first professional club, which was renamed to FC Shenzhen Jianlibao. There he once again rediscovered his talent and regularly featured with the first-team, before left the club in January 2006.

His next destination was FC Shanghai Shenhua, where he established himself as a regular first team member and made 49 appearances for the side, scoring 8 goals, before moving to FC Wuhan Guanggu in 2008. Weifeng left the club the next year after the side lost its relegation battle and joined the Korean club FC Suwon Bluewings. There he managed to make his mark during his second appearance for the squad, when he scored an opening goal during a 4-1 AFC Champions League victory against FC Kashima Antlers.

The footballer returned to China in 2011, joining FC Tianjin Teda. There he immediately became an indispensable part of the club’s backline and one of the leaders of the first-team squad.

At the international level, Li started to represent his national side in 1998, making more that 114 appearances for the China squad.