Fan Zhiyi played 110 games for the national football team and scored 17 goals. He was the first Chinese player to win the Asian Footballer of the Year award.
In 2007, he served as the technical director of the Chinese League Two team Suzhou Qupus. In 2009, he led the Shanghai East Asia Youth Team to participate in the Men's Football Group B competition of the 11th National Games. In the TV series "Flowers" that became a hit at the beginning of this year, he guest-starred as factory boss Fan.