SPORTS NEWS.

He was a former captain of China's U-23 Football Team and China's Olympic Team in 2004 where he was highly praised as the future Fan Zhiyi. He was described by Maradona, who watched him in action at the 2001 World Youth Championship in Argentina as having unparalleled speed and a keen sense of how to defend[6]. He would then rapidly rise through the Chinese youth teams to graduate into the senior Chinese national team when he made his debut against Trinidad and Tobago in a friendly on Augest 5, 2001 in a game that China won 3-0[7]. This lead to several further games and despite his lack of experience he was called up into the squad that played at the 2002 World Cup[8][9]. Due to injury he was dropped for the national team in the 2004 AFC Asian Cup that reached the final where Arie Haan preferred to play Zheng Zhi in defence[10]. Du Wei was able to regain his position within the national team after the tournament and was recalled for the 2007 AFC Asian Cup squad. When Gao Hongbo became the new Chinese Head coach he chose Du Wei as his captain and he lead China to win the 2010 East Asian Football Championship.