Chinese football clubs' shareholders play as substitutes in competitive matches

Don't let your dreams be dreams.

Sulaiman Daud | May 20, 2021, 01:20 PM

What do you do if you love football but never made it as a professional player?

There might be another way.

On May 4, Titan Sports tweeted that He Shihua, the principal shareholder of Chinese second-division club Zibo Ciju, played in a match a few minutes before the end of the game.

It finished 0-0.

An Uproxx article about the incident claimed that He also ordered the team coach to play his son, citing this tweet:

However, the guy in blue isn't his son, and he doesn't play for Zibo Cuju.

Instead, according to an article by South China Morning Post (SCMP), this fellow is Xu Guangnan, a shareholder of League Two Side Jilin Baijia.

Calling him "visibly overweight", SCMP said this occurred in 2019, in the final match of the season.

He played 15 minutes against the Xi'an Wolves, in a 2-1 losing effort.

Top image from Titan Sports Plus Twitter.