Li Tie

Li Tie (simplified Chinese: 李铁; traditional Chinese: 李鐵; pinyin: Lǐ Tiě; born 18 May 1977) is a Chinese former professional football coach and player.

A defensive midfielder, he represented Liaoning in the Chinese Jia-A League, Everton in the Premier League, Sheffield United in the Football League Championship and Chengdu Blades in the Chinese Super League. At international level, he made 92 appearances scoring six goals for the China national team. He was chosen for the AFC Asian Cup in 2000 and 2007, and for the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

After retirement from playing, he started his coaching career as an assistant coach at Guangzhou Evergrande. He moved to the China national team and then Hebei China Fortune where he gained his first coaching position. In 2024, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for bribery.

Li Tie began his football career at the age of fifteen, joining Liaoning's youth academy system in 1992. The following year, he was sent to Brazil for a five-year training programme sponsored by Jianlibao and became the captain of the newly organized youth football team. Li started his professional career by playing for Liaoning and rose to prominence during the 1999 league season when Liaoning finished as runners-up within the league.

One of the highest regarded Chinese players of his generation, Li secured a loan transfer in a deal brokered between sponsor Kejian and Premier League side Everton in August 2002. Despite initial skepticism at Merseyside, his first season as an Everton player was a surprising success. Then manager David Moyes played him in twenty-nine league games and started him in most of his appearances where his displays, as a defensive midfielder helped the club achieve a seventh-place finish during the 2002–03 season.

Following Li's successful loan spell, Everton battled with his former club Liaoning to sign him on a permanent basis after the 2002–03 season and the deal was finally negotiated on 12 August 2003 when Li signed a three-year contract. Everton paid £1,200,000 for his transfer with two-thirds of the deal paid by sponsorships. The club's ownership let him move to the Premier League despite higher offers from Chinese clubs. At the beginning of the 2003–04 season, Li's start was marred by a sending off against Arsenal on 16 August 2003 after only been substituted on for David Unsworth. A series of injuries followed which meant that Li only played five league matches that season. The last injury, a broken leg picked up during international duty in February 2004, ruled him out for another twelve months. In January 2005, when Li made his return to the pitch by playing for Everton's reserve side against Bolton Wanderers, he lasted just forty-one minutes and required his leg to be reassessed.

In the summer of 2005, eighteen months since his last game for the Everton first team, Li played the full match against FC Gamlitz in a pre-season friendly. He made a number of other preseason appearances and looked as if he was finally coming back to full fitness. However, he never managed to break back into the first team despite playing regularly for the reserves and even earning another international call-up for the Chinese national team. In March 2006, Li underwent another operation to remove pieces of bone that had grown on his ankle during his time on the sidelines.

In May 2006, Li was released by Everton and Sheffield United announced his signing on a free transfer in July 2006, agreeing to a two-year contract. Following his move, Li spent some time training with China League One side Chengdu Blades, which was owned by Sheffield United, while waiting for his visa clearance. On 19 September 2006, Li made his first competitive club start since January 2004 by appearing for Sheffield United in a League Cup match against Bury. However, Li did not make another appearance for Sheffield United afterwards due to his lingering injury.