Fan Zhiyi - modest and unassuming. (Allsport)

By Alex Lowe, PA International

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A quick and uncompromising defender he may be, but China star Fan Zhiyi is a reluctant hero.

The 32-year-old's approach to the game, wholehearted but fair, passionate but controlled, has endeared him to millions of football fans.

In China, he is firmly installed as a national icon after captaining the national team to their first ever World Cup finals.

Zhiyi is a proud man, emotional about what he has achieved but modest.

He speaks in a soft, humble voice, and insists his status as China's most famous footballer does not sit easily on his shoulders.

Frequently he directs conversation away from himself and back onto the team schooled by experienced World Cup coach Bora Milutinovic.

"It is very strange for me," Zhiyi has said.

"I don't want to think about it, I want to be the best footballer I can be in every game.

"Bora says he wants everyone to stick together, this is a group.

"This is the first time going to the finals and we must be together in every game. I think we've got a good chance with Bora. We will try."

While at Crystal Palace, who he joined in 1998 alongside fellow China international Sun Jihai, Zhiyi was the apple of the fans' collective eye. It is the same today at Scottish Premier League club Dundee.

The south Londoners appreciated his dogged determination and quiet but charismatic demeanour, three times voting him their player of the month and, in 2001, the Eagles' player of the season.

The award came despite Zhiyi's absence during the last month of the English season, a crucial period for Palace as they battled against relegation.

However, it was also a vital month for the development of the China squad and his passion for leading his country would eventually end his association with the club.

Despite his obvious marketability - an estimated 100million fans watched his debut as all the club's games were beamed back to China - Palace were eventually forced to release him from a new, lucrative contract.

As the first Chinese player to move to Europe, Zhiyi was successful in adapting his game to the rigours of English football.

His priority was always China and World Cup qualification, but he carved out a reputation as a versatile, sturdy defender that stretched further afield than just London.

The club reacted to interest from Premiership big-guns Liverpool by offering their Chinese star a vast pay rise.

Crystal Palace spokesman James Virrender believes the club made every attempt to keep hold of their prized asset.

Had the club not been in administration, their two pre-season tours to China and the sale of replica shirts in the Far East would have swelled the coffers nicely.

"Last season we went on a cup run and Liverpool were looking at Zhiyi after we beat them in the first leg of the Worthington Cup semi-final," said Virrender.

"He was offered a new contract with a 30% pay rise and the main clause was that he was not to play for China as much.

"He missed the last month of the relegation fight and then this season he played just two games and was away from August until October playing World Cup qualifiers.

"Steve Bruce, who was manager then, and the chairman said he was breaching the terms of his contract and let him go."

Zhiyi had sacrificed one ambition, of playing in the Premiership, for the fulfilment of a dream and in doing so gave Chinese football a major boost.

"I am at a loss for words," he said after China's 1-0 victory over Oman in October guaranteed their passage to the biggest footballing stage of all for the first time.

"I have cried many times but nothing like this before. I have not wasted my efforts through all those years - this is all that I have waited for."