Happy Lunar New Year!: Palace's Chinese trailblazers

Club

17 Feb 2026

It's Lunar New Year 2026 – so a Happy Year of the Horse to all celebrating! On this landmark day, we look back on two influential Chinese footballers in Palace's, England's - and the global - development of the game...

On 14th August 1998, it was announced that Fan Zhiyi and Sun Jihai had officially signed for Crystal Palace, becoming the first-ever Chinese footballers to play in the English leagues.

China captain Fan had put pen-to-paper on a permanent deal from Shanghai Shenhua, while his compatriot Sun had signed on loan from Dalian Shide.

Interest in Palace from China boomed to the extent that the clamour to watch Palace games was unprecedented, with the club even running a Chinese-language version of its website for a brief while.

And while Jihai had made his Palace bow and suffered an injury in a rather more low-key League Cup defeat to Bury the previous week – Zhiyi would debut in the return leg – it was another month before Jihai took to the Selhurst Park pitch.

As demand grew and grew, interest culminated in Palace's match against Sheffield United on 27th September 1998: the first-ever English league game broadcast on live national television in China.

This coincided with the home debut of Fan – and as a result yielded one of the club's largest-ever audiences.

While there were around 18,000 fans inside Selhurst Park to watch the Eagles beat the Blades 1-0, some publications cite the international viewing figures as high as 500 million-strong.

The exact figure is understandably unknown, and other publications suggest a more reasonable – if no less surreal – range of 100 to 300 million people tuned in, as Sasa Curcic's 74th-minute goal settled a hard-fought Division One contest.

While international interest has understandably inflated greatly in the Premier League era, the figure at the time was simply remarkable.

Fan had already been a trailblazer at club level after he and compatriot Sun sprang to the attention of Terry Venables during China’s friendly against England ahead of Euro 96, and two years later he recruited the pair during the start of his second spell as Palace manager, with an estimated 100 million fans in Asia watching the pair’s early English exploits.

While Sun only remained at the club during the 1998/99 campaign, Fan stuck around for much longer and would become a fan favourite in south London, making 102 appearances and scoring six goals as well as being voted the Eagles’ Player of the Year in 2001.

He would later summarise his south London stint as featuring "lots of good memories," albeit with one low point: the almost-comical moment he received his first career red card.

"Sometimes for me, I’m not professional. That’s my wrong."

Palace were facing West Bromwich Albion in an eventual 3-2 defeat at the end of 1998. In an incident he would later receive a one-game ban and £750 fine for, Fan appeared to push referee Terry Heilbron as the pair crossed paths towards the end of the match.

Despite this, Fan would go on to captain the Eagles, playing through administration and turning down moves to both Newcastle United and Liverpool to stay in South London.

"You can cut my salary," he says. "I just want to play for the fans.

"I want to stay, I want to finish the season, finish my football and go back to China."

So when the club decided to accept an offer from Dundee for the in-demand international, Fan met an unhappy departure.

He reflects: "[Former Chairman, Simon Jordan,] said: ‘Fan, we can’t keep you at Palace.’

"I talk to my family, I talk to my friends. It’s a difficult option, I didn’t want to go to Dundee. My kids were born in England, they kept their British passports. I started a new life, new football. Everything started at Palace. I just wanted to finish at Palace.

"I saw a lot of fans just standing there with small bits of paper saying: ‘Fan, don’t go. Don’t go.’ I cried. It's the difference."

While his Palace journey came to an end, Fan's commitment to his country’s cause was never in question, regularly undertaking long-haul flights in a quest to help China finally reach their footballing potential.

During 2001, that moment finally arrived when after nine years of service, he achieved his dream when a solitary goal from Yu Ganwei claimed a 1-0 win over Oman; their fifth victory from six qualifiers ensuring they made the short trip to the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea the following summer.

"It was a success that went beyond football itself," recalled Fan. "When the game was over and we qualified for World Cup for the first time, I got so excited that I even couldn't hear the wild celebrations around me.

"For the nation, it was mission accomplished after 44 years of hard work and for me, it was a dream come true having failed in the previous two attempts."

Having starred for club and country, Fan was rewarded by being named AFC Asian Player of the Year.

However, sadly, he got injured a pre-World Cup friendly, limiting his participation to a solitary appearance in the opener against Costa Rica, which proved to be his 106th and final cap while China were swept aside, failing to score or register a point in the competition.

Last year, Fan returned to South London, visiting training and Selhurst Park, reuniting with old friends and colleagues, and reflecting on his remarkable journey – and the profound connection he still enjoys with the club and its supporters today.

He also was present to watch Palace defeat old rivals Brighton & Hove Albion 2-1 at Selhurst Park – completing a first-ever top-flight league double in the process.

Fan smiled: “All the Palace fans, staff, players. We are a family. Because it was my first time coming to here. They are really close to me.

"When you do something on the pitch, the fans are always watching. So, concentrate 100%. For the fans. I'm really touched. Because after 28 years, there are still a lot of us.

"Now, in China, a lot of the fans speak football. They always say: Palace! Palace!”

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