Yuan Lin

Yuan Lin started his career at Guangzhou Apollo youth team at the age of 12, however he was unable to graduate into the senior team at the end of the 1996 league season. At the beginning of the 1997 league season he moved to Shenzhen Ping'an who were in the second tier and fighting for promotion to the top tier of the Chinese league system. While Shenzhen were promoted after coming second in the league Yuan Lin spent the majority of the season in the reserves that trained in Italy. It was not until the 1999 league season that Yuan Lin established himself within the team playing as a versatile centre-back or left-back. With Yuan Lin firmly established in the squad Shenzhen continued to progress to a higher position each season within the league until they surprised many by winning the Chinese Super League in the 2004 league season. However, despite Shenzhen's success influential manager Zhu Guanghu and several major players left the club at the end of the 2005 season. Yuan Lin remained at the club and become an unsung spiritual leader in the team throughout six consecutive relation survivals. However, in 2011 season Yuan Lin's legendary career at Shenzhen died in vain. After kindly making a tactical suggestion to new manager Philippe Troussier during a pre-season friendly, Yuan Lin was constantly dropped out of teamsheet possibly as a set-up example to establish youngsters refreshingly into the 1st team, despite the defensive line clearly needing an experienced…

Shenzhen

Chinese Super League: 2004