Junling Yan

Yan Junling came through Shanghai's own youth system, joining the Genbao Football Academy in 2001 and staying there until 2006 before being promoted into the senior squad a year later. He spent two years as a backup, then took over as first-choice goalkeeper in 2010 and has not left the club since — his entire senior career has unfolded at the same address, with no transfer fee ever attached to his name.

His best individual years came in a cluster: named Goalkeeper of the Year by the Chinese Football Association in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and included in the Chinese Super League Team of the Year for all three seasons. 24 clean sheets, the most of any goalkeeper in the league that year, were part of a season that also brought the CSL title. Further league championships followed in 2023, 2024 and 2025, alongside the Chinese FA Cup in 2024 and the FA Super Cup in 2019, where he was also named the match's Most Valuable Player. Earlier in his career he won China League Two in 2007 and China League One in 2012, steps on the way up before Shanghai's top-flight years.

One record belongs to him outright: since the Chinese Super League began keeping official statistics in 2012, no goalkeeper has saved more penalties than Yan Junling, with 12. He sits third on the league's all-time clean sheet list, behind Wang Dalei.

Internationally, he made his senior debut for China against Haiti in March 2015 and has gone on to earn 62 caps. He was the starting goalkeeper at the 2023 AFC Asian Cup and through the 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign, and played at the 2025 EAFF E-1 Football Championship, where China finished third.