China: Premier League Nations
The next destination of our alphabetical world tour is China. According to the Premier League website, seven players have represented China in the Premier League, including two former England youth internationals.
First Player – Li Tie/Sun Jihai (Everton; 2002-06/Manchester City; 2002-08)
As teams prepared to kick off the 2002/03 Premier League season, two different Chinese players lined up for their clubs, simultaneously becoming the first Chinese players in the history of the Premier League at 2pm on August 17th.
Sun Jihai, a defender, made 123 appearances for Manchester City between 2002 and 2008. Sun scored the first Premier League goal by a Chinese player in October 2002, notching against Birmingham City in a 2-0 away win.
Li Tie played for Everton between 2002 and 2006. After making 29 appearances in his first season at Goodison Park; while on loan, much of the rest of his career in England was blighted by injury. Tie joined Sheffield United in 2006, but failed to make a league appearance.
Records
- Most Appearances – Sun Jihai (302)
- First appearance – Li Tie/Sun Jihai (EVERTON 2-2 Spurs, August 17th 2002/Leeds 3-0 MAN CITY, August 17th 2002)
- Most goals – Sun Jihai (3)
- First goal – Sun Jihai (Birmingham 0-2 MAN CITY, October 26th 2002)
Current/Most Recent Players
The most recent player to represent China in the Premier League was Nico Yennaris. After making one league appearance for Arsenal and several for England at three youth age groups, Yennaris moved to China in 2019, becoming a naturalised citizen and appearing for the national team later that year. Yennaris’ Chinese name is Li Ke.
Trivia
- China are one of eight AFC nations to have featured in the Premier League.
- Three of the 10 most capped Chinese internationals of all time have appeared in the Premier League. Li Weifeng holds the current record (112), but made only one Premier League appearance, for Everton in 2002.
- Three of the seven Chinese Premier League players made just one appearance.