September 8: Zheng Zhi Leads Qingdao West Coast to Draw with Wuhan Three Towns, Grand Slam Player Stays in CSL Relegation Fight, Son Chooses Chinese Football Path as Midfielder

On September 7, 2026, the 26th round of the Chinese Super League concluded, with Qingdao West Coast drawing 2-2 away with Wuhan Three Towns. Head coach Zheng Zhi once again stood at the forefront of the CSL relegation battle in his coaching role.

Few people would connect the current coach standing on the sideline, devoting all his energy to the relegation task, with the young player more than two decades ago who almost left professional football early.

From being promoted to the Olympic team by Horton in 1999, to becoming the only Grand Slam player in Chinese football history to win the AFC Champions League, CSL, China League One, FA Cup and Super Cup titles, and now taking root in the CSL relegation battle as a head coach, Zheng Zhi's career is a sample spanning a quarter-century of Chinese football's professional era.

Before the match against Wuhan Three Towns, the game had already been labeled a six-point relegation battle.

Wuhan Three Towns had previously beaten Qingdao Hainiu 5-1 away and remained unbeaten in their previous five matches with two wins and three draws. With a clear morale advantage at home and a five-foreign-player attacking group, many believed they would secure three points on home soil.

Qingdao West Coast, led by Zheng Zhi, also started with a fully foreign-player attacking line and did not choose a conservative approach against a relegation rival. Just two minutes into the match, former player Davidson opened up his old club's defense with a counterattack to give Qingdao West Coast the lead, completely disrupting Wuhan Three Towns' pre-match plans.

The two teams maintained a high-intensity attacking rhythm throughout the match, and the final score was fixed at 2-2. Both sides took one point, and the tight situation in the relegation standings remained unchanged.

Many fans' impression of Zheng Zhi remains tied to his national team days. At the 2019 Asian Cup, the 38-year-old captain played the full match, battled until both legs cramped, and said afterward in an interview that his biggest regret was failing to lead the national team to the World Cup. The scene remains a deep memory for many longtime fans.

However, few people have fully reviewed the several major identity changes in his career: he joined the Liaoning youth team at age 10 as a right-back and won the national youth league title, but was trapped in the China League Two due to club ownership disputes and nearly retired before turning 20; in 1999 Horton directly called him into the Olympic team while he was still playing in the China League Two, giving him a chance to remain in professional football; in 2001, after joining Shenzhen Ping'an on loan, Zhu Guanghu moved him from full-back to midfield, a positional change that fully unlocked his potential, and he won the Jia-A assist title and Chinese Footballer of the Year at age 22, becoming the youngest winner in Jia-A history.

His later career path gradually confirmed the importance of that positional change: in 2004 he helped Shenzhen win the inaugural CSL title as a core player and scored three goals at the home Asian Cup that year, earning a place in the tournament's best XI; in 2005 he transferred to Shandong Luneng and helped the team win a double the following year, winning Chinese Footballer of the Year for the second time; at the end of the year he moved to Premier League club Charlton and later played for Scottish club Celtic, leaving the mark of a Chinese midfielder in top European leagues.

In 2010, he returned to China and joined Guangzhou, then in China League One. Over the following eight years, he won eight CSL titles and two AFC Champions League titles with the team, collecting all available domestic honors. In 2013, he was named Asian Footballer of the Year, becoming the second Chinese player after Fan Zhiyi to receive this highest individual honor in Asian football.

Away from the pitch, Zheng Zhi has maintained a stable lifestyle highly consistent with that of a professional player.

He met his wife Shao Na at a gathering of friends in 2004 and registered their marriage that year. By 2026, they had been together for 22 years, and almost no public scandals emerged throughout his career.

During years of training camps and competitions away from home, Shao Na took care of the elderly family members and their two children. Zheng Zhi has repeatedly thanked his family's support publicly, saying that without stable support behind him, he could not have maintained long-term focus on the pitch.

His son Zheng Ziyi was born in the United Kingdom in 2008, when Zheng Zhi was playing for Premier League club Charlton. Under local rules, the child could directly obtain British citizenship, but Zheng Zhi and his wife chose to give it up, and he clearly stated at the time that if his son played football in the future, he would represent the Chinese national team.

Now 18, Zheng Ziyi has followed his father's path into a midfield role. He has been selected for the national youth team and officially appeared on the Guangzhou team's new-season roster in the Guangdong Super League in March 2026. Instead of entering a CSL powerhouse directly under the spotlight of being a second-generation footballer, he has started from lower-level leagues and accumulated experience step by step.

Zheng Zhi himself has completed the full transition from player to coach. In the 2026 season, he officially became head coach of Qingdao West Coast. The club strengthened its squad comprehensively at the start of the season, with new signings including Memisevic and Resende joining, alongside retained players Nelson Luz, Aziz and Davidson. Several U21 players were also promoted to complete the transition between old and new generations, significantly improving squad depth.

At the start-of-season departure ceremony, Zheng Zhi told fans that he would lead the team to give their all in every match and display the spirit of Qingdao as a football city.

The 2-2 draw with Wuhan Three Towns was just one of many tough relegation battles in his coaching career.

From the young right-back who nearly retired in the China League Two to the head coach standing on the CSL relegation sideline today, his entire career reflects one of the most winding periods since Chinese football became professional. Now in a new role, he continues to stay on the pitch, carrying his understanding of football into every training session and every match he coaches.