Club Career
Yu Dabao would start his career playing for Qingdao Hailifeng in the second tier of Chinese football and would soon be called-up to the Chinese under-17 national team . With the Chinese under-17 national team, he would go to the 2004 AFC U-17 Championship and was quickly regarded as one of the best prospects in China because of his aerial and counterattacking abilities saw China win the tournament. This would see many clubs reportedly interested in the young talent, including Ajax, Newcastle United and Rangers. However, the Chinese striker decided to join Benfica on a three-year deal. In his debut match, only five days and three training sessions after he arrived in Portugal, Dabao scored three goals and assisted a fourth in a junior squad Benfica match against Portimonense.
Due to Dabao's strong performances for Benfica's junior squad, the striker was given the chance of training with the senior team for the preseason, and was officially added to the Benfica senior squad in the 2007-08 season. Yu Dabao made his official debut with Benfica on 26 September 2007 in a Portuguese League Cup game against Estrela da Amadora, 0-0 draw with a 4-5 win on penalties, having played the 90 minutes.
On 13 May 2009, Yu revealed in a telephone interview that he was about to leave Portugal to spend the offseason holiday back in his homeland China, he received a call from Benfica asking him to stay in Lisbon until further notice. He made ten appearances for Olivais Moscavide and scored four goals, but was unable to save them from relegation as they suffered defeat in the last match of the season, for which they needed a win to survive.
He had a trial with FC Dallas in Major League Soccer in February 2010, but didn't get a contract. He moved back to China and signed a contract with Tianjin Teda.
In the morning of 27 February 2012, it was reported that Yu would transfer to Guangzhou Evergrande with a reported fee of ¥15 million. However, Guangzhou Evergrande withdrew from the transfer talk in the afternoon that day. He transferred to Dalian Aerbin, who was newly promoted to Super League the next day.
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