Premier League's first Chinese footballer now worth £20million after switching careers
Premier League's first Chinese footballer now worth £20million after switching careers
Sun Jihai made history as the first Chinese player in the Premier League and he remains a cult hero with Manchester City fans for his displays during his six-year spell with the club
Sun Jihai closes down Paul Scholes during a Manchester derby
(Image:)
A former Manchester City favourite is now worth a whopping £20million after becoming a business mogul.
Sun Jihai made history during his six-year City career, becoming the first player from China to play in the Premier League and then the first player from East Asia to score in the English top flight when he netted against Birmingham City in October 2002.
That came months after his arrival at the club, who won promotion to the Premier League under Kevin Keegan that year. It wasn't long before Jihai won over supporters with his total commitment on the pitch, clocking in 151 appearances before his exit in summer 2008, coinciding with Sheikh Mansour's takeover.
The full-back's last City game was the infamous 8-1 thrashing by Middlesbrough at the end of 2007/08 season. A brief spell at Sheffield United followed before he returned to China in 2009, playing for several clubs and retiring in 2016.
He elected not to go down the route of coaching and management. Instead, Jihai became a successful businessman, co-founding HaiQui [HQ] Sports, a sports data company, which set out to provide "datatainment" to fans.
The tech company's other projects included a talk show that Jihai appeared on, a sports app called MiaoHi and a match prediction tool called Jihai App.
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Sun Jihai with former Prime Minister David Cameron and Chinese President Xi Jinping during an engagement at the City Football Academy in 2015
(Image: Getty Images )
Jihai has turned his venture into a roaring success, attracting major investments from huge companies, including China Media Capital (CMC), which purchased a 13% stake in City back in 2015.
Intrigued by the MiaoHi app – a sports video platform that enables stars and fans to connect – CMC, a company worth £60billion, chose to invest in the business. That investment, along with burgeoning interest in his other projects, has propelled Jihai's net worth to over £20million, according to PeopleWorthWiki.
Despite his stratospheric rise in the business world post-retirement, Jihai still remembers his City days with great affection. Reliving an iconic goal against Birmingham in conversation with ex-colleagues Nedum Onuoha and Paul Dickov on City's website last year, he said the memory still triggers "goosebumps."
Jihai has fond memories of his time in English football
(Image: Manchester City FC )
On his move to City, he said: "Before I came to City, I didn't know the club. I only knew about United.
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"City were in the second division, now the Championship. The agent told me we will go to the Premier League very soon. There were only two months of the season left. I was thinking, 'OK, second division, no problem, I'll join then.'
"I had spent a season at Crystal Palace [in 1998/99] and I was always thinking I would like to go back to England. The Premier League, that was the league I wanted to play in."
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