Shen Xiangfu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shen Xiangfu (Simplified Chinese: 沈祥福) (born May 27, 1957 in Beijing, China) is a Chinese football coach.

As a player, Shen distinguished himself as a left winger. He was one of the key players in China national football team during his career. However, China failed to qualify for the World Cup both times when Shen was a member of the China National Football Team. Later, he was chosen by the Football Association of China to go to Japan and joined the Fujitsū Football Team first as a player, then assistant coach and head coach.

Shen was back to the spotlight of Chinese football when he joined Beijing Guoan and served under Jin Zhiyang as an assistant coach in 1997. Shen took over most of the coaching in the middle of the season, since Jin was summoned to the China National Football Team to assist Qi Wusheng. In 1998, Shen was named the head coach of Beijing Guoan and Jin left the club to assist the newly installed head coach of the China National Football Team Bobby Houghton. Shen was able to lead the club to finish third in the 1998 Jia A, but the next year Beijing Guoan showed a poorer quality and finished sixth in the league. The result was the worst one for the club since 1995. Shen was replaced at the end of the season.

Fortunately for Shen Xiangfu, the Football Association of China was looking to secure a younger generation native coach for the China National U-19 Football Team. Shen accepted the new head coach job and occasionally he would also assist Bora Milutinović who was invited by the Football Association of China as the new head coach of the National Football Team. The U-19 team of Shen Xiangfu was expected to be a very promising generation of Chinese football and in the beginning the team had indeed shown many positive signs. In the end, the team could not qualify the 2004 Summer Olympics and Shen was dismissed.

Meanwhile, Beijing Guoan was also not in a good shape in the recently formed Chinese Super League. The club despite a short revival in 2002 did not progress as much the fans and the investors expected. In 2005, Shen re-joined the club and was named head coach again. The club finished sixth at the end of 2005 season, slightly better than the previous year. In the following year, Shen directed the club into a very defensive style. In spite of some angry fans who saw defense as a sign of weakness, the club finished third at the end of the season. Nevertheless, Shen was under a lot of pressure and was exhausted. After the last match, he resigned.

[edit] Career as Football Player

1973-1974 Beijing Youth Football Team
1974-1977 Beijing Football Team (Later became Beijing Guoan)
1977-1984 China National Football Team (Quit briefly after losing to Hong Kong on May 19)
1984-1986 China National Football Team
1988-1995 Japan Fujitsū Football Team (First as a player, then assistant coach and head coach)