This is a Chinese name; the family name is Dong.

Dong Fangzhuo (Chinese: 董方卓; pinyin: Dǒng Fāngzhuō; born 23 January 1985 in Dalian, Liaoning) is a Chinese football forward who plays for Dalian Haichang and the Chinese national team.

[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 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 2002-03.

[edit] Europe

Dong signed for Manchester United from Dalian Shide in January 2004, for an initial fee of £500,000 which could have risen to £3,500,000, depending upon appearances.^[1] He thus became the first Chinese player to sign for Manchester United.^[2] The transfer fee could have potentially become a record for any Chinese football player.^{[citation needed]}

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

In his first season, he scored one goal in nine appearances as he began to get used to his new environment. His second season (2004-05) began more promisingly, finding the net in six of his first seven appearances of the season (all as a 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 seven 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 début for Manchester United in a friendly against a Hong Kong team 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. 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.^[3] It was reported that Dong could obtain Belgian citizenship. However, this option would have caused 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^[4] 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^[5] and added to Manchester United's first-team squad on 17 January 2007. He was given squad number 21.

Dong made his Old Trafford début for Manchester United in a friendly charity match against a European XI on 13 March 2007. He came on as a substitute for Alan Smith in the 72nd minute of the 4-3 victory. He was a regular for Manchester United Reserves, and on 9 May 2007, Dong made his Premier League début for United against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, partnering Ole Gunnar Solskjær up front.^[6]

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 Roma, replacing fellow striker Wayne Rooney. With that appearance, Dong became the second Chinese player to participate in UEFA Champions League (the first being Sun Xiang). However, he made only one further appearance for the club during the 2007-08 season, playing the full 90 minutes of the 2-0 League Cup defeat to Coventry City. He was able to score four goals in three matches in the reserves before suffering from injury.

Prior to the start of the 2008-2009 season, Dong was not given a squad number, with the number 21 shirt given to Rafael da Silva. On 28 August 2008, Dong and Manchester United mutually agreed that his contract should be terminated in order for him to find first team football elsewhere.^[7]

[edit] Back to China

On 27 August 2008, Chinese online media sina.com reported that Dong Fangzhuo would join Chinese Super League club Dalian Haichang. He was handed the No.9 shirt which was previously worn by famous Chinese striker Hao Haidong.^[8]

[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 three out of the four 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.

Dong was named to the 18-man Chinese national team that competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics.^[9] In China's opening match against New Zealand, Dong replaced Han Peng in the 79th minute. He went on to score China's first Olympic goal in the 88th minute, securing a draw and a point for the home nation.^[10]

[edit] Club career stats

Season	Club	Country	League	League		Cup		Total
				Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
2002	Dalian Saidelong	China	Jia-B League	14	20	2	5	16	25
2003	Dalian Shide	China	Jia-A League	8	0	0	0	8	0
2003–04	Royal Antwerp	Belgium	First Division	9	1	0	0	9	1
2004–05			Second Division	19	6	3	1	22	7
2005–06				28	18	1	0	29	18
2006–07				14	9	1	2	15	11
2006–07	Manchester United	England	Premier League	1	0	0	0	1	0
2007–08				0	0	2	0	2	0
2008	Dalian Shide	China	CSL	6	1	0	0	6	1
Total				94	55	9	8	108	63

[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] References

[edit] External links

• Dong Fangzhuo career stats at Soccerbase

China squads v • d • e China Squad – 2007 AFC Asian Cup 1 Li Leilei • 2 Du Wei • 3 Sun Xiang • 4 Zhang Yaokun • 5 Li Weifeng • 6 Shao Jiayi • 7 Sun Jihai • 8 Li Tie • 9 Han Peng • 10 Zheng Zhi (c) • 11 Dong Fangzhuo • 12 Zhao Xuri • 13 Zhang Shuai • 14 Zhu Ting • 15 Wang Dong • 16 Ji Mingyi • 18 Zhou Haibin • 19 Zheng Bin • 20 Mao Jianqing • 21 Wang Peng • 22 Yang Jun • 23 Cao Yang • 30 Zong Lei • Coach: Zhu Guanghu v • d • e China squad – 2008 Summer Olympics 1 Qiu Shengjiong • 2 Tan Wangsong • 3 Feng Xiaoting • 4 Yuan Weiwei • 5 Li Weifeng • 6 Zhou Haibin • 7 Hao Junmin • 8 Zheng Zhi • 9 Gao Lin • 10 Han Peng • 11 Chen Tao • 12 Cui Peng • 13 Shen Longyuan • 14 Wan Houliang • 15 Jiang Ning • 16 Zhao Xuri • 17 Dong Fangzhuo • 18 Liu Zhenli • 19 Dai Lin • 20 Zhu Ting • 21 Lü Jianjun • 22 Zhang Lu • Coach: Yin Tiesheng