Dong Fangzhuo

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Dong Fangzhuo
董方卓
Personal information
Date of birth January 23, 1985 (1985-01-23) (age 23)
Place of birth    Dalian, China
Height 1.84 m (6 ft +1⁄2 in)
Playing position Striker
Club information
Current club Manchester United
Number 21
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
2002
2002–2004
2004–
2004–2006		 Dalian Saidelong
Dalian Shide
Manchester United
→ Royal Antwerp (loan)		 014 0(20)
008 00(0)
001 00(0)
070 0(34)   
National team2
2004– China 013 00(1)

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only and
correct as of 19:55, 18 May 2008 (UTC).
2 National team caps and goals correct
as of 14 August 2007.
* Appearances (Goals)
This is a Chinese name; the family name is Dong.

Dong Fangzhuo (董方卓) (born January 23, 1985 in Dalian, China) is a Chinese football forward who plays for Manchester United and the China national football team.

Contents

[edit] Professional career

[edit] China

Dong first came to prominence in 2000 when he was named Player of the Tournament in an U-17 football competition. He signed for Dalian Saidelong FC and helped them to finish as runners-up in the Chinese B League in 2002. This earned him selection to the Chinese U-23 national team, and a move to Dalian Shide, the most successful club team in China. Dong scored his first goal for Dalian Shide in the second match of the qualifying stages of AFC Champions League.

[edit] Europe

Dong signed for Manchester United from Dalian Shide in January 2004, for an initial fee of £500,000 which may eventually rise to £3,500,000 depending upon appearances.[1] He thus became the first Chinese player to sign for Manchester United. The transfer fee could potentially become a record for any Chinese football player.

After signing for Manchester United, he was unable to immediately play for the senior team because he was ineligible for a work permit. Due to these legal issues, Dong was immediately loaned out to get first-team experience at Royal Antwerp FC in Belgium where the employment laws were less strict.

In his first season he scored 1 goal in 9 appearances as he began to get used to his new environment. His second season (2004-05) began promisingly as he found the net in 6 of his first 7 appearances of the season (all as substitute). However, disrupted by injury and international duty with the Chinese youth team, his form fell away in the latter half of the season as he finished with 7 goals in 22 appearances in all competitions. At the beginning of the following season, he was called up to join Manchester United on their 2005 pre-season tour of Asia and given squad number 43. He was given his unofficial debut for Manchester United in a friendly against a Hong Kong XI and capped it off with a goal in a 2-0 victory.

In the 2005-06 season for Royal Antwerp, Dong impressed as he finished as the top scorer for both his team and the Belgian Second Division with 18 goals including two hat-tricks. In 2006, he again joined Manchester United on a pre-season tour which this time was in South Africa. He scored the winner in a 1-0 win over Kaizer Chiefs. Sir Alex Ferguson remarked that Dong had the "speed and physicality" to play for United and hoped that he would be eligible for Manchester United in December 2006.[2] It was reported that Dong could obtain Belgian citizenship. However this option would cause Dong to lose his Chinese citizenship and was never considered.

He began the 2006-07 season in fine form for Antwerp scoring 11 goals in 15 appearances. On 15 December 2006, almost three years after his original signing, Dong was finally given a UK work permit[3] having made enough appearances for the China national football team in the preceding two years. With his eligibility confirmed, he was recalled from Antwerp, given a new contract until 2010[4] and added to Manchester United's first-team squad on 17 January 2007. He was given squad number 21.

Dong made his Old Trafford debut for Manchester United in a friendly charity match against Europe XI on 13 March 2007. He substituted Alan Smith at the 72nd minute in the 4-3 victory. He is a regular for Manchester United Reserves, and on 9 May 2007, Dong made his Premiership debut for United against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, partnering Ole Gunnar Solskjær up front.[5]

On 12 December 2007 Dong made his first UEFA Champions League appearance as a substitute in United's last match of the qualifying stages against AS Roma, replacing fellow striker Wayne Rooney. With that appearance, Dong became the second Chinese to participate (first being Sun Xiang) in UEFA Champions League. However, it was one of his only appearances for the club during the 2007-08 season and he rarely even made the bench despite the fact that United only had 3 strikers on the senior squad, leading to widespread criticism that he is only with the club to build club support in China.

[edit] National team

Dong was in the Chinese youth team that participated in the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship. He came off the bench to play in 3 out of the 4 matches China played.

Dong scored his first goal for the senior Chinese national team in a 4-1 loss to Switzerland in a friendly pre-2006 World Cup warm-up match. He was also part of the China squad for the 2007 AFC Asian Cup qualification tournament.

[edit] Club career stats

Last update: 20 May 2008

Season Team Country Division League Apps League Goals Cup Apps Cup Goals
2002 Dalian Saidelong Flag of the People's Republic of China China 2 14 20 2 5
2003 Dalian Shide Flag of the People's Republic of China China 1 8 0 0 0
03/04 Royal Antwerp Flag of Belgium Belgium 1 9 1 0 0
04/05 Royal Antwerp Flag of Belgium Belgium 2 19 6 3 1
05/06 Royal Antwerp Flag of Belgium Belgium 2 28 18 1 0
06/07 Royal Antwerp Flag of Belgium Belgium 2 14 9 1 2
06/07 Manchester United Flag of England England 1 1 0 0 0
07/08 Manchester United Flag of England England 1 0 0 2 0
Total 93 54 9 8

[edit] International goals

# Date Venue Opponent Score Competition
1 3 June 2006 Zürich, Switzerland Flag of Switzerland Switzerland 1-4 Friendly

[edit] Name spelling

The correct spelling of Dong's name is "Dong Fangzhuo", and not "Dong Fangzhou". The Chinese character 卓 in Pinyin is zhuó. The Pinyin zhou may refer to one of a number of different Chinese characters – 周 (zhōu), 軸 (zhóu), 肘 (zhǒu) or 宙 (zhòu). The error is commonly made by Western news agencies, such as the BBC, and even the Premier League, in the squad list before the match.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Man Utd sign Shide striker Dong Fangzhuo", CHINAdaily, 2004-01-13. Retrieved on 2007-02-28. 
  2. ^ "Dong close to Man Utd clearance", BBC Sport, 2006-07-19. Retrieved on 2007-02-28. 
  3. ^ "Man Utd gain work permit for Dong", BBC Sport, 2006-12-16. Retrieved on 2007-02-28. 
  4. ^ "New United deal for Dong", Sky Sports, 2007-01-17. Retrieved on 2007-02-28. 
  5. ^ Chelsea 0-0 Man Utd BBC Sport, 2007-05-09. Retrieved on 2007-08-23

[edit] External links

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Persondata
NAME Fangzhuo, Dong big
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fangzhuo, Dong
SHORT DESCRIPTION footballer
DATE OF BIRTH 1985-1-23
PLACE OF BIRTH Dalian, China
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH