Tan Kaiyuan

Tan Kaiyuan (born 19 August 2001) is a Chinese footballer currently playing as a midfielder for Qingdao West Coast.

Early life
As a child, Tan took an interest in kung fu, before enrolling in a football class in order to keep fit. He started playing as a goalkeeper, but instead of catching the ball like most goalkeepers, he would opt to header it instead.

He studied at the Yiyang Road Primary School in Qingdao, where he found that he preferred scoring goals to saving them, and in 2012 he finished second-top scorer, and was named "Campus Football Hope Star", at a youth tournament.

Club career
After noticing his son's footballing ability, Tan's father signed him up to Shandong Luneng Taishan's Luneng Football School. However, due to the lack of opportunities to showcase his talent in competitions, he moved to the Evergrande Football School in 2012. During his time in the Evergrande Football School, he was sent to Spain on a three-year study programme in 2014.

On his return to China in 2018, he was named Most Valuable Player of the Chinese under-17 league, and was promoted to the Guangzhou Evergrande senior squad from the Guangzhou Football School. He was eventually given his debut on 25 July 2020, in a 2–0 win against Shanghai Shenhua. He scored his first goal for the club in a 2–0 Chinese FA Cup win over Henan Jianye on 18 September of the same year. However, he also suffered a torn ligament injury during the game, and was side-lined for over a year.

His return to the first team for the 2021 Chinese Super League season was very successful, and despite only featuring in 179 minutes of football spread over ten games, he managed to score three goals. Following the expiration of his contract at the conclusion of the 2021 season, Tan travelled to Serbia to trial with Vojvodina as a free agent. The trial was successful, and Tan was even included in the squad photo for the season, however Guangzhou reportedly requested ¥300,000 (€43,000) for youth training compensation, which Vojvodina were unwilling to pay. He returned to China, and was welcomed back by his former club, going on to feature at the end of the 2022 Chinese Super League season.

On 3 February 2023, Tan moved to Spain to join RCD Espanyol, being assigned to their 'B' team. The club had reportedly been scouting him since 2019, and he began officially training with the reserves later the same month. On 1 April 2023, in a 3–1 Segunda Federación win over Ebro, Tan came off the bench late into the game and provided an assist for Kenneth Soler's goal - his first assist for the club.

International career
Tan has represented China at under-19 level.

Career statistics

 * Notes

Honours

 * Guangzhou Evergrande
 * Chinese FA Super Cup: 2018