“Today is not the end of my life in football,” Zhao, who also played in the Chinese Women’s Super League for Shanghai RCB, wrote on her official Weibo account. “When the aura of athletes fade away, I think my responsibilities and missions have not ended.

 

“Thank you for the training of the national team and the Shanghai team; thank you for supporting me along the way; thank you for all the glory that football has brought me.

 

“I will not leave football. In the future, I want more rural children to experience the joy of running on the football field. I am still a football player.”

Zhao played 38 times for China PR during an eight-year national team career, making her debut in 2015, and she was included in the squad that represented her nation at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada later the same year.

 

She was also a member of the squad that played at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and which reached the semi-finals of the 2018 AFC Women’s Asian Cup in Jordan.

Zhao was not selected for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France but returned to the squad in 2022 for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup, where she played in the 7-0 win over IR Iran in the group phase as the Chinese went on to win the title.

 

China PR will kick off their 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup campaign against Denmark in Group D in Perth on July 22 before taking on Haiti and England, with both games to be played in Adelaide on July 28 and August 1 respectively.