Chengdong Zhang

Zhang Chengdong left home young, joining Liaoning Whowin's academy at ten and working through to a first-team debut in 2006. Two years later, relegation ended that spell and sent him abroad on a free transfer to Portugal, where he signed for C.D. Mafra in September 2009. Loan spells followed at União de Leiria and S.C. Beira-Mar, and in August 2010 he became the first Chinese player to appear in the Primeira Liga. A loan to Eintracht Braunschweig in Germany's 2. Bundesliga added a season in the Bundesliga's second tier before he returned to China.

Beijing Guoan paid around €1.5 million for him in July 2013, and it was from there that he was loaned to Rayo Vallecano for the 2015–16 season. His debut for Rayo on 30 December 2015 made him the first Chinese player to appear in La Liga.

In January 2017, Hebei China Fortune paid a then-record domestic fee of around €20.4 million to sign him from Beijing Guoan, making him the most expensive Chinese player in history at the time. He stayed with the Hebei club, later renamed Hebei FC, until 2021, making 106 league appearances and scoring eight goals, before a free transfer took him back to Beijing Guoan for a second spell that ran to 2024.

Zhang won the Chinese Super League title with Liaoning Whowin in 2007 and has earned 32 caps for China, making his international debut in October 2011 against the United Arab Emirates and featuring at the 2015 and 2019 AFC Asian Cups. He joined Qingdao Youth Island, now known as Qingdao West Coast, on a free transfer in January 2025.