Background
Zhang Haitao was born on April 11, 1970 in Jinan, Shandong, China.
张海涛, 張海濤
Zhang Haitao was born on April 11, 1970 in Jinan, Shandong, China.
Haitao attended the university.
He would spend his whole career with the Shandong Team before he retired and moved into youth management with the Shandong Luneng Youth team He would then move into senior management with the Chinese Women football team before returning to Shandong where he is the current assistant manager. Born into a respectable family, Haitao was able to go to University while still playing and for the Shandong youth team
After several rough seasons where Shandong spent much of their time in the lower leagues Zhang gained significant playing time which would aid him when Shangdong would eventually become a professional football team in 1994 and allowed entry to the top tier.
With another chance to play in the top tier Zhang helped Shandong to finish the season in a respectable 5th at the end of the 1994 league season despite missing much of it through severe injury to his right knee. Zhang would retire from football by the end of the 1998 league season after being unable to fully recover from his knee damage and was given the chance to manage the Shandong Luneng Youth team in December 1998.
China Women National Soccer Team
After spending several years training as a manager with the Shandong Luneng Youth team where he was considered a talented young coach able to speak fluent English he was offered the chance to be head coach of the China Women"s national team in 2003 ready for 2004 Olympics at Athens. His time as the Head Coach however was not successful as China were unable to get out of the group stages after a heavy defeat to Germany, which saw them lose 8-0.
This effectively saw Zhang Haitao to leave his position as the head coach once the tournament finished.