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Personal
Fullname: Zheng Zhi (Zheng is his surname)
aka: Zhi Zheng
Born: 20 August 1980
Birthplace: Shenyang, China
Signed: 5 September 2009
Left: 1 July 2010
Position: Midfielder
Debut: Rangers 2-1 Celtic, League, 4 Oct 2009
Squad No.: 27
Internationals: China
International Caps: 108
International Goals: 15
Biog
China captain Zheng Zhi arrived at Celtic Park in early September 2009 after agreeing a two-year-deal with the Bhoys.
Hoops boss Tony Mowbray had been a long time admirer of the player who was snapped up on a free transfer. In the summer of 2008 Mowbray had been keen to bring the Chinese ace to West Brom from Charlton Athletic but the deal stalled when the Baggies failed to meet the financial requirements of the player. However on September 4th 2009 Mowbray, now Celtic manager, finally got his man when Zheng was granted the work permit which sealed his switch to Glasgow.
Zheng was able to sign after the close of the transfer window due to now being a free agent. He had refused to extend his three-year stay at Charlton following the London club’s relegation into England’s League One.
Usually operating in midfield the versatile Zheng can also play in defence and up front. Before his £2 million switch to Charlton in 2007 Zheng had previously played in his homeland for Liaoling Chuangye, Shenzhen Jianlibao, and Shandong Luneng.
Twice Player of the Year in the Chinese Super League, Zheng worked his way through the youth ranks of the China national set-up before winning his first full cap in 2002. A major star in his homeland Zheng is one of his native country’s most popular sportsmen.
Stepping into Celtic under the new manager was never going to be easy, but Zheng Zhi had a good debut in a 2-1 defeat from Rangers, unlucky not to score, he came out well from the match with many believing we were going to see better from him. Comfortable on the ball and making passes, he was though too lightweight and some good early form never continued. In time he was dropped from the first team having made sporadic appearances (a number from the bench), but he never made enough impact in a side that was going downhill. Mowbray’s reign was out of control and Zheng Zhi was a passenger. Not being in the first team meant he was able to escape the worst of the wrath from the support.
After Mowbray’s sacking, there were few who felt that Zheng Zhi had much chance of returning to the first team as a regular, but he was given two final games late on. In the last game of the season, he managed to score his first goal for the club, a superb 61st-minute volley from 16 yards out, but it was too little too late. At the end, he had amassed a total of just the one goal and overall impressed nobody.
Described surprisingly (for the Celtic support) by PersianFootballDaily as :
“… the engine room of the China national team and is a master of set-pieces. He was not part of the Chinese team who qualified for the 2002 World Cup and time may be running out for one of China’s best players.”
Most Celtic fans would disagree with the first part of that assessment if it was to be applied to his time at Celtic. It was hoped he’d be an entertaining player and a good addition to the squad but to little avail and the ‘master of set-pieces‘ is hyperbole in overdrive. You’d have expected more and better from a player who was the captain of their country than what Celtic had. It was a good opportunity to show all what he could do. Mowbray couldn’t use him to the best of his ability or get that out of him. His sparse use of Zheng Zhi makes you wonder why he did bring him to the club, and maybe it was Mowbray to blame more than Zhi. Possibly a good run in the first team to help him settle in better would have made a difference.
On 1 July 2010, Zheng Zhi left to go back to China to Guangzhou Evergrande for CNY5m. A further drop down as it was then a second division outfit. Could have done well with Celtic in the Champions League or played with China in the World Cup (2010) but neither Celtic or China made it past the group stages of either of these competitions respectively. From what we saw he was far from the quality a team needs for either of the tournaments. Maybe luck was never on his side, and he could have got better with the self-confidence if either Celtic or China had qualified from either of the big international tournaments (Celtic were in the Europa League, but that can be a damp squid until after January).
We wished him the best. Never blew off any steam to the press and did try whenever he was on. We respect him for that in a difficult season for both himself and the club, but his career had taken a hit. However, in 2012 his career took a turn for the better and he was one of the three nominees for the Asian football of the year award (but didn’t win it), although this was in light of the repeated failure by the Chinese national team to qualify for the next World Cup, a very sore point for a country with an administration desperate to make a mark in the game.
In 2013, he led his side [Guangzhou Evergrande] to victory in the Asian Champions League equivalent at the spritely age of 33 and is regarded as having played a vital part in the revival of the Chinese game, described as “a ray of light in the gloom of Chinese football“, and “Few who have featured in Chinese football, now or at any stage of the country’s history, will have deserved it more than Zheng Zhi“. On 26 November 2013, Zheng was named the Asian Footballer of the Year by the Asian Football Confederation, becoming the second Chinese footballer to win the award.
His side once again won the Asian Champions League in 2015, and his side were to be perennial champions in the domestic league over the decade.
Appears to have hung up his boots at the end of the annual Chinese football season in 2019.
Despite the lack of success at Celtic, we are happy that he managed to gain success from his return to Asia, that is much to admire and respect.
Post-football playing career
In the same year as he hung up his boots, in October 2019, Zheng Zhi became the caretaker of Guangzhou Evergrande when the team’s manager Fabio Cannavaro was temporarily relieved of his position and sent for “corporate culture training“. Zheng Zhi in 2022 became the permanent manager for Guangzhou FC (the new successor club to Guangzhou Evergrande) but was replaced in 2023 after a brief reign. The team had been going through a turbulent time, with the problems of the Evergrande Group causing the financial collapse of the club. After losing several key players, the team was relegated from the Super League in 2022, ending their twelve-season stay in the top flight.
Playing Career
| Club | From | To | Fee | League | Scottish Cup | League cup | Other | ||||
| Celtic | 05/09/2009 | 01/07/2010 | Free | 9 (7) | 1 | 1 (1) | 0 | 1 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 |
| Charlton | 09/08/2007 | 05/09/2009 | £ 2,000,000 | ||||||||
| Charlton | 01/01/2007 | 14/05/2007 | Loan | ||||||||
| Shandong Luneng | 01/07/2005 | 09/08/2007 | No appearance data available | ||||||||
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||||
| 2009/10 Statistics | |||||||||||
| TEAM | Competition | GS | SB | G | A | SH | SG | FC | FS | YC | RC |
| Celtic | Scottish CIS Insurance Cup | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Celtic | Scottish Cup | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Celtic | Scottish Premier League | 9 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 9 | 13 | 11 | 1 | 0 |
GS: Games Started, SB: Used as Substitute, G: Goals, A: Assists, SH: Shots, SG: Shots on goal,
YC: Yellow Cards, RC: Red Cards, FC: Fouls Committed, FS: Fouls Suffered, SV: Saves, OF: Offsides,
W: Wins, D: Draws, L: Losses
Honours with Celtic
none
| KDS Honours | ||
| MOTM Winners 2009-10 | ||
| 04-Oct-09 | Rangers 2-1 Celtic | SPL |
| 09-May-10 |
Hearts 1-2 Celtic |
SPL |
| May-10 |
Joint Player of the Month for May ’10 |
|
Pictures
KDS
Articles
China seeks ‘gold’ from World Cup
By Yang Xinwei (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-06-30 11:03
Despite on-pitch disappointments and off-pitch corruption, China’s soccer market remains a gold mine. That was further proved on Monday after Guangzhou Evergrande, a second division outfit, announced their signing of China international Zheng Zhi, also known as China’s ZZ, for a reported sum of about 5 million yuan ($736,000).
On Sept 1, 2009, Zheng became the second Chinese player, after Du Wei, to sign for Glasgow Celtic after penning a two-year contract. One more season and the Chinese captain would have been eligible to become a British citizen and many believed he would do that. But an annual salary of 5 million and a possible contract term of three years made up his mind to adopt a “best way to contribute to China’s soccer development” strategy, as it was termed by Liu Yongzhuo, president of Evergrande Football Club, which took over the club earlier this year and vowed to invest 100 million yuan ($14.6 million) to revive the side.
It is true that internationals returning to play in the domestic leagues will help the sport in the aspects of experience and advanced skills and knowledge as they are the pioneers of Chinese players going abroad. However, it is a double-edged sword. Most of the time, the overseas clubs sign the Chinese mainly because they are targeting the China market, instead of the actual abilities of the players.
From Su Maozhen at Manchester United to Fan Zhiyi at Crystal Palace, from Zhou Haibin and Sun Xiang at PSV Eindhoven and to Zheng at the Celtic, most of the time they sat on the bench and had few impressive displays. What they did most for the club was to bring a large number of fans to their respective teams and that could very well be the outcome the club managers loved to see.
In China, soccer investors are not taking it as an industry but mainly as a means of corporate brand management and a strategy of winning support from society and the government. Besides adopting a bona-fide professional way of running the clubs, the investors should make building up young soccer talents and professional ethics the core of our soccer culture.
Soccer can easily establish a company’s or a person’s fame, as long as you have money. Investing in a second division club has shot Evergrande’s name sky high. More fan will come to the sport here if Brazilian great Ronaldo signs with Evergrande, as has been reported. His simple presence would be a coup for the real estate development company, let alone the goals he would score. By the way, don’t let Ronaldo live in a posh hotel. Put him in a local residential quarter. The developer could make millions.
Zheng Zhi – Brief Profile
Posted on March 6, 2012
Source: TicTacTic Blog
Link: http://tictactic.co.uk/2012/03/06/zheng-zhi/
This post has been done as a request, so strictly speaking wouldn’t normally have been available. Written basically in 10 minutes and off the top of my head, I’d appreciate any corrections or any views you might add. Cheers.
Towards the end of the noughties, the Asian market for players had proven to be a mixed bag for Celtic. Highly rated young Japanese winger Koki Mizuno never had the guile to usurp Shunsuke Nakamura as chief creative genius. South Korean internationalist Ki Sung-Yeung was (and is) considered a success, yet former China Captain Du Wei was an embarrassing disaster.
All, to varying extents were signed with marketing in mind, yet the only real disappointments – Mizuno and Du Wei – cost next to nothing. A low-cost gamble.
Tony Mowbray’s signing of Zheng Zhi back in September 2009, therefore, hardly set the imagination of fans on fire. An English Championship toiler signed on a free, there was also this damaging suspicion of being merely a shirt-selling device.
Mowbray was quick to dismiss such cynicism, pointing out that Celtic’s commercial employees had never heard of Zhi, that he was signed because “he’s a good football player”. And with respect, it’s difficult to imagine such an unfashionable, old-fashioned style player would have such a money-spinning following abroad. Charlton certainly didn’t feel that way.
Furthermore, Mowbray had tried to signed Zhi for £2 million back during his time with West Bromwich Albion. So what is it that Zhi brings to a side?
His debut for Celtic was a baptism of fire – the first Old Firm derby of the season that Celtic lost 2-1 at Ibrox. Somehow, in his first match for the club, he had shrugged off the challenge of team-mates Georgios Samaras and fan favourites Marc Crosas and Paddy McCourt to start as the fifth midfielder, playing behind the striker.
Tactically, it made perfect sense. The Glasgow Derby tends to bring out the more conservative styles of managers, and Mowbray needed somebody to bridge the gap between midfield and attack, while also offering defensive sensibility.
As the freest Celtic player, he was also revealed as the player central to most possession moves, and his energy and willingness to make space was invaluable – arguably Celtic’s best performer. Indeed, it was an ambitious burst forward into the Rangers penalty area that forced an illegal challenge, winning a penalty that Aiden McGeady tucked away.
He was withdrawn after 70 minutes, with his side 2-1 down, in favour of a more eccentric, attack-minded midfielder in Paddy McCourt. This trait of being more function and hassling energy over attacking flair turned out to be decisive in Zhi’s remaining days in Glasgow.
Mowbray’s Celtic quickly lost pace in the Scottish Premier League, with most matches being an exercise in gradually ramping up the attacking options in order to chase matches. An extraordinary 4-2-4 system became the norm – with up to 4 strikers on the pitch, though usually 3 with McGeady.
This left the more cautious, defence minded Zhi in a difficult situation – even with club Captain Scott Brown out injured for much of the season, Zhi could only muster 16 appearances with Landry N’Guemo, Barry Robson and Marc Crosas further ahead in the pecking order.
Zhi came to Celtic and justified his reputation as being tactically flexible. Though he only played either as a second striker or in midfield, he can apparently play in any position barring goalkeeper. His lack of appearances fuels the aforementioned cynical “marketing” suspicion, but as backup, he was never likely to feature heavily. It would be fairer to recall his time at the club as simply a mature, experienced backup to what turned out to be a disappointing squad.
Celtic’s Zheng Zhi and Dundee’s Fan Zhiyi:
Few Chinese footballers have left such an indelible mark on British football
It was early November 1933 when the Dundee-based Evening Telegraph became one of the few newspapers to take an interest in Frank Soo, the first person of Chinese descent to ever step onto a professional football pitch in the United Kingdom.
By Franco Ficetola
Sunday, 27th March 2022, 7:00 am
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/celtic/celtics-zheng-zhi-and-dundees-fan-zhiyi-few-chinese-footballers-have-left-such-an-indelible-mark-on-british-football-3628690
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Their report, inauspiciously titled “Chinese player to turn out in England”, was typical of the coverage reserved for the man born in Buxton to an English mother and a father hailing from China’s southern province of Guangdong, as it relied heavily on details of his ethnic background to make the most normal of debuts into headline news.
The short piece didn’t ooze any racial hostility though; instead, it looked like an expression of genuine astonishment at what was perceived to be a huge novelty and something of a landmark for football on the British Isles.
The unusual headline must have drawn the attention of quite a few patrons of the pubs on and around Nethergate; perhaps someof them, their curiosity piqued by an unexpected addition to a game still far from today’s cosmopolitanism, were even keen to find out that Soo’s Stoke City was bulldozed 6-1 by Middlesbrough on the following Saturday.
Chinese Internationalist Fan Zhiyi signs for Dundee in November 2001.
Chinese Internationalist Fan Zhiyi signs for Dundee in November 2001.
Certainly none of them imagined that, more than half a century down the line, their sons and grandsons would live to see Dundee itself become the gateway for Chinese players into the Scottish Premier League, the starting point of a story which may not be studded with glory or paved with unforgettable moments but is still intriguing nonetheless.
Much of what you need to know about Fan Zhiyi is superbly condensed into a 2021 commercial for the Vans China footwear company, where the former centre-back gets teleported back to 1981 after hitting his head on the ground, only to find out that a younger version of himself has fallen in love with skateboarding.
In an attempt to make the kid change his mind, today’s Fan shows off his unrefined touch with a short sequence of wonky keepy-uppies, before pursuing an inelegant chase of his young self down the bumpy alleys of his hometown, somewhat reminiscent of the way he used to run every time his improvable on-field positioning had given his opponent a chance to take flight behind his back.
The commercial eventually ends with the two sitting on the bank of a river, the old Fan finally persuading the younger that, all in all, football isn’t such a bad idea, in a display of that same stubbornness that allowed him to carve out a respectable career in the beautiful game. Ask Michael Owen and Emile Heskey for references.
When Liverpool showed up at Selhurst Park for the first leg of the 2000-01 English League Cup’s semi-finals, they certainly expected a simple task. If neither of the two English internationals managed to get on the scoresheet that day, it was mainly thanks to the heroic efforts of a Chinese 31-year-old who, between one hectic rush and another, efficiently marshalled Crystal Palace’s rearguard and lived up to the nickname of ‘Fan Jiangjun’ (General Fan).
His remarkable performance unsurprisingly attracted the interest of Liverpool themselves and Newcastle, with the Reds manager Gérard Houllier directly approaching the agent of the centre-back in a pub. However, what would have been the opportunity of a lifetime for most wasn’t seen as such by an ardent patriot like Fan.
“The most important thing is that if you go to Liverpool or Newcastle, you can’t play for the national team,” he recalled years later. “They put it in the contract.” That’s exactly the reason why he ended up on the Firth of Tay instead, wearing the dark blue strip of Dundee FC for the 2001-02 campaign. Or at least for a part of it.
Fan Zhiyi was a trailblazer. Upon being signed by Crystal Palace in 1998, he and fellow countryman Sun Jihai had achieved immense popularity in their homeland for being the first two Chinese nationals to play in the English league. When the former moved to Scotland, Dundee instantly enjoyed a fair share of the glow emanating from him, delivering them a cult following in the world’s most populated country.
Back in China, millions tuned in for his unveiling, which was aired on television; newly-acquired fans stormed the club’s website, so much so that Dundee deemed it necessary to launch a Chinese version of the site in early 2002. The craze even led to Dundee and Abertay Universities receiving hundreds of applications from Chinese students following the Asian star’s arrival.
The impression made by Fan on the pitch wasn’t bad either, although his debut wasn’t as sweet as he might have hoped. Desperate to start his spell at Dens Park on a high, General Fan showed up for the derby against Dundee United on week one ready to unleash all of the impetuosity that was such a distinctive feature of his game.
As a result, he was shown a yellow card early in the game for a foul on Jim Hamilton. Then, shortly after the hour mark, the official had no hesitation in issuing another caution, this time claiming that the Chinese player had dived under pressure from Jamie Fullarton to win a free-kick. And yet, his lack of half measures eventually turned into an asset for the Dees, as he often proved a reliable option at both ends of the park – having played at centre-forward in his early career days – and three goals in 18 appearances by the time spring came round were a more than decent contribution.
Quite unsurprisingly, Chinese media outlets proved diligent in covering every bit of Fan’s life in Scotland, never failing to add a triumphalist sheen to whatever he did. A good example is an article run by bi-weekly publication Soccer News in April 2002 headlined “Dundee bows in front of the distinguished Chinese: Fan Zhiyi’s popularity in Scotland is skyrocketing”, and reporting a scene from the home game versus Kilmarnock when he was subbed off and all the home fans stood up and bowed to him, “probably for the first time in the club’s history”.
China News Weekly went as far as sending a whole crew to Dundee in order to record a day in the life of General Fan. The resulting article, although quite dull, was complimented by a remarkable photo shoot of the Shanghai-born and bred player doing things: Fan slaloming through the poles at Caird Park; Fan standing in front of the kitchen sink with anapron covered in Chinese characters; Fan sleeping on a chequered couch with his shoes still on and his feet on the backrest.
He didn’t exactly look like the most socially active man on earth, and the same was confirmed by his former teammates in London, who were always puzzled at his refusals to follow them to the nearest pub for a customary pint. And yet, what he declared to his country’s press appeared in stark contrast with the idea most people in this part of the world had of him.
“There’s absolutely no nightlife in Dundee,” he told the Nanfang Daily in June 2002. “When night comes, there’s nobody on the street, and you won’t find a pub open after 9PM. Compared with Shanghai, here’s simply countryside.”
Fan then went on to rank Scotland’s urban centres by stating that: “Even if it’s exciting, Glasgow is too noisy, it looks like a huge bazaar. Edinburgh’s not bad, I always take the plane from there so I know it a little better. It’s a famous and ancient medieval city, full of places with historic significance. Previously, all I knew was inferred from ‘Braveheart’, so I didn’t have a real knowledge of Scottish culture and history, but wandering through Edinburgh allowed me to expand my horizons.”
After that, Fan restored Dundee’s honour by praising its laid-back atmosphere and slow rhythms, which suited both his parents (who were living with him most of the time) and himself, as a professional footballer. The telephone interview took an even more grotesque turn towards the end, when the defender spoke of Ibiza as a relatively unknown yet dreamy place far from the UK’s climatic toughness, where “all of the world’s ravers converge, making for an unforgettable atmosphere.” Definitely not what you would expect from an old-school, 32-year-old centre-back living with his parents and never described as the life of the party by anyone.
Whether he was just trying to brag to Chinese readers, or his old Crystal Palace teammates had completely misunderstood his sobriety, is not for us to know. What’s certain is that Fan saw the 2001-02 SPL campaign as little more than a long preparation for what he really had at heart: the Chinese national team, whom he’d just captained to their first ever World Cup qualification. Accordingly, Dundee didn’t oppose a loan move to Shanghai COSCO in March, so allowing him to inspire his country in the build-up to what was, and still is, China’s biggest footballing achievement to date.
And yet the move did not pay off, as the Chinese squad coached by Bora Milutinović conceded nine goals without scoring one themselves in the group stage. Fan played only a single game due to an injured left foot, yet it proved enough for him to be involved in claims of match-throwing. But things got even trickier when the General went back to Tayside. And here’s where the story splits in two.
In the Dundee version, the club was about to appoint him official ambassador in an attempt to build on their new-found popularity in China, and had offered him a contract on the same terms as he’d enjoyed before the loan spell, which the player refused to sign. The other version was related by the player himself to Nanfang Daily reporter ShenPeng, when the two caught up in a Glasgow coffee shop in late August, and it goes pretty much as follows.
According to the Chinese, Dundee was in a very tense financial situation and wanted to force him to pen a new deal under the threat of not letting him play if he didn’t. All thisdespite the old contract being still in place and the new one coming with a lower salary. To ensure he didn’t break character, Fan ended the chat by addressing his beloved supporters: “Tell all the fans back in China not to worry about the fact that I haven’t been playing here in Dundee. Even if I stumbled upon such an annoying problem, I’ll sort everything out and get back on the turf at the earliest.”
He was a man of his word. He reported Dundee’s allegedly unfair practices to the FA, then flew out to Cardiff City and never set foot on Scottish soil again, leaving a taste as bittersweet as Shanghai’s famous pork ribs in the mouth of the dark blue supporters. Nevertheless, his Scotland shenanigans hardly undermined Fan’s fame on the Asian continent, where he had claimed the Asian Footballer of the Year prize earlier in 2002.
China would have to wait until 2013 to see another fellow countryman walk on that same stage with that trophy in his hands. Once again, it would be one with a past north of the Cheviots: Zheng Zhi, at Celtic in the 2009-10 season.
To be precise, ‘China’s Becks’ (or simply ZZ, if you prefer) wasn’t the second player from his country to ply his trade in Scotland. Indeed he wasn’t even the first to do so with the Hoops. He was preceded by Zhengzhou-born Du Wei, who joined Celtic in 2005 on a loan deal from Shanghai Shenhua. Unfortunately, his ill-fated European spell consistedof just a single appearance. Or should we say half an appearance.
On 8 January 2006, the centre-back was finally given his first start in a Scottish Cup tie away to Clyde, on what was supposed to be Roy Keane’s big day. After the first 45 minutes the Celts had already conceded two goals, Du had been embarrassingly outmuscled by former Rangers youngster Tom Brighton, and Gordon Strachan couldn’t help but cut his debut short at the half-time break. He never stepped onto a football pitch in the Old Continent again.
“Du might have looked very sturdy, but there was a patent disparity between him and the Scottish players in terms of strength,” says Li Hui, the founder of Shanghai Celtic Supporters’ Club. “Probably, he just wasn’t suited to that kind of football. Had he been given more chances, he still wouldn’t have performed much better. ZhengZhi, on the other hand, fared a little better. He was nimble, had good technique and knew how to create goal-scoring opportunities. He even scored a belter at Celtic.”
The goal Li refers to is the winner beautifully volleyed home by the Chinese midfielder in the season’s last game, away to Hearts, when mathematics had already condemned Celtic to an inescapable second place. Resolutely pursued by manager Tony Mowbray, ZZ joined Celtic in what was inevitably seen as yet another commercial move aimed at breaking into the remunerative Asian market.
The Celts boss strongly denied such allegations, pointing out how the purchase of the 29-year-old had been justified by the departure of Paul Hartley and Shunsuke Nakamura of Japan. In fact, Zheng was more similar to the former, but you can guess whom the perfunctory eyes of public opinion decided to liken him to. And so, while rumours spread of theCeltic board taking advantage of him for photo shoots and PR gigs in view of the opening of a megastore in Beijing, the Chinese player was instantly touted as the heir to someone whose talent he simply couldn’t match.
Interestingly enough, the name of the Japanese star was also ubiquitous in much of the stuff Chinese fans had to say about the transfer. In September 2009, Chinese website NetEase Sports ran an article which drew upon the opinion of The Herald’s Michael Grant about Zheng as a replacement for ‘The King of Japan’; the comment section below it is as exemplary as you may imagine. “Who does Nakamura think he is?” reads one. “Look at our ZZ, so many hotshots got a broken leg when they faced him. Long live the Chinese football kung-fu!” Another commenter went even further by stating that “Zheng Zhi knows the technique for breaking legs painlessly! He can bring Chinese kung-fu to Celtic. Zheng Zhi, the Chinese missionary!”
Despite such expectations – or perhaps because of them – Zheng’s hard-working ethos and rough yet technical style went largely unnoticed at Parkhead. After a promising debut in a 2-1 defeat to Rangers, his form gradually dipped, partly courtesy of a side that was going downhill, and partly thanks to his being probably a little too lightweight for such a league.
Moreover Mowbray, despite his declared liking for the captain of the Chinese national set-up, used him rather sparsely and, with the title race virtually over for Celtic as early as January, followed by the manager’s sacking in March, ZZ’s chances of returning to the first team as a regular grew even flimsier. Ultimately, Nakamura’s supposed successor left for Guangzhou Evergrande with 19 caps to his name (a number of which were from the bench), a practically useless stunner on a May afternoon, and the lingering impression that, under better circumstances, the qualities that made him into a legend of Chinese football would have shone a little brighter.
Zheng’s lacklustre stint in Glasgow didn’t tarnish his reputation back in China. And yet, contrary to what one may think, he was influential if not instrumental in the emergence of Celtic as the Scottish club with the most fans in Asia’s biggest country. With supporters’ clubs in Beijing, Zhengzhou, Shenzhen and, obviously, Shanghai (with epicentres at The Blarney Stone on Yongkang Road and The Camel Sports Bar down at Weifang West Road), the Celts can count on quite a passionate Chinese fan base, though not as numerous as those of the powerhouses from Europe’s big five leagues.
“Actually, compared with the number of Premier League fans in China, Scottish football enthusiasts are just not as many,” Li points out. “The main part of we Bhoys is made up of Chinese who studied in Glasgow. There are also some who started following the team not more than three years ago, but Celtic is by no means their favourite club. They just have some sort of interest towards it, or even just think that the jersey looks cool. I’ve been supporting Celtic for 19 years now, but there aren’t many like me here. When Du and Zheng joined the club, it grabbed the attention of some more Chinese, but it wasn’t real support. Recently, after China women’s national team player Shen Mengyu joinedCeltic, many female students living in Scotland have grown interested. They turn up at the stadium almost every weekend.”
While the influx of the two Chinese signings can’t be totally downplayed, it certainly didn’t match the expectations Celtic might have harboured despite what Mowbray declared, and it’s safe to assume that the love of the most loyal supporters in the country has little or nothing to do with their two illustrious compatriots. “I love Henrik Larsson,” admits Li. “I grew fond of him at USA 94 and, when he moved to Celtic, I kept rooting for him. That’s how I became a Celtic fan. Then, in the second half of 2018, I founded Shanghai CSC along with two Scots and an Irishman.”
For its part, Celtic doesn’t overlook all the affection coming from the Far East either. “They now have an official Weibo account, set up in 2017,” the founder of Shanghai CSC explains. “There’s a Chinese employee at the club, he’s in charge of marketing initiatives and the development of the Chinese market. I’m fairly satisfied with that, there’s quite alot of interaction and they update us with the club’s news on a daily basis.”
That news is edited, translated and pipelined through an apparatus of optical fibre cables running all the way to the other side of the planet, in order to feed the passion of a group of like-minded people who regularly come together inside cheap facsimiles of the British or Irish pubs to cheer on footballers playing some 9,000 kilometres away.
Such a scene is the result of a long process of globalisation and changing migration routes, not just for professional football players. It’s the latest chapter in a story that covers the almost 90 years which stretch between the day when an old newspaper put the words “China” and “football” near each other for the first time in Scotland, and now.This piece first appeared in Nutmeg, Issue 23. Franco Ficetola is an Adjunct Professor at Yantai University and a freelance football writer from Rome, Italy. He’s worked with The Guardian, These Football Times and many others