Razor Sports, June 12, 2011 - According to the official microblog of Soccer Daily, there will be a special retirement ceremony to honor the national team's former captain Zheng Zhi in the upcoming national football team's match against Myanmar. It is reported that this retirement ceremony will be held on the 16th."
Soccer Daily detailed in the article, "The re-centralized Chinese national team began a new training session in Dalian on the 11th. According to the plan, the national soccer team will face Myanmar and Palestine on the 16th and 20th at the Barracuda Bay Professional Soccer Stadium in Dalian, a training and warm-up session set against the backdrop of the first 36 matches of the 2026 Asian Cup qualifiers. According to our reporter, the national soccer team will hold a retirement ceremony for Zheng Zhi during the match between the national soccer team and Myanmar on the 16th."
Statistics show that Zheng Zhi has now played 108 games for the national team. In the league, Zheng Zhi's last game was the 21st round match between Guangzhou and Changchun Yatai on January 1, 2022 in the 2021 season. Although Zheng remained on the team roster for the 2022 season, he did not play. Zheng Zhi served as an assistant coach for the Chinese national team after Jankovic took over the national soccer team in 2023."
There are a number of reasons why retirement ceremonies are now taking place. Soccer Daily explains, "In recent years, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) has insisted on holding retirement ceremonies or awarding retired players who played for the national team with retired jerseys, in order to increase the sense of ceremony and honor for international players who played for the national team. Unfortunately, the impact of the epidemic has resulted in the national soccer team's most recent international match at home dating back to May 2021 in Suzhou against Guam in the Asian Zone Top 40 of the World Qualification Tournament. At that time, Zheng Zhi was still serving as a player. The national soccer team has never played at home after Zheng became a coach, so it was not possible to hold a ceremony in his honor."
