Career
Li Yuanyi started his football career when he received organized football training at Mingyu Football School, later joining Tianjin Teda's youth academy in 2007. He was deemed as a player with significant potential and soon moved to Premier League side Arsenal's academy for further training under a cooperation project between Nike and The Football Association in 2010. Afterwards, Li went to Portugal as a part of the Chinese Football Association's 500.com Stars Project in 2011.
He arrived in Portugal on 16 December 2011 and played for Real SC's youth academy alongside Ruan Yang. In July 2012, Li transferred to Segunda Divisão side Casa Pia. He made his debut on 28 October 2012 for the club in a 2-1 loss against Oriental Lisboa, coming on as a substitute for André Oliveira.
However, he was sent off after receiving two successive yellow cards in his debut match. He gradually became a starter within the team and scored his first goal for the club on 13 January 2013 in a 1-1 draw against A.D. Carregado. On 23 August 2013, Li transferred to another Segunda Divisão club Boavista on a free transfer.
However, former club Tianjin Teda claimed that Li was still under the contract with Tianjin and refused to acknowledge the transfer, but the dispute was quickly resolved. On 7 August 2014, after Boavista returned to the Primeira Liga, Li was loaned out to Segunda Liga side Leixões. He extended his loan deal with Leixões for one season on 6 July 2015.
On 16 July 2015, Li transferred to Chinese Super League side Guangzhou Evergrande. However, he remained with Leixões to fulfill his loan deal before joining Guangzhou in January 2016.
