Charlton Athletic midfielder Zheng Zhi will lead China's under-23 squad at next month's Beijing Olympic soccer tournament.

Zheng, who turns 28 next month, together with defender Li Weifeng, 29, and striker Han Peng, 24, have been selected as the three over-age players by China's Serbian coach Ratomir Dujkovic.

"It is my dream to march into the Olympic final in the Bird's Nest, as the coach has said," Zheng told the Beijing Daily after scoring a penalty in a 4-0 warm-up victory over Malaysia in Jilin Province at the weekend.

Regular captain and playmaker of the senior team, Zheng suffered back and toe injuries during China's failed bid to progress past the third round of Asian qualification for the 2010 World Cup.

"I want to get myself back into top form before the Games ... I have been recovering well and I hope all my injuries can heal in the next 20 days," he said.

Shanghai Shenhua's Li, nicknamed "Big Head", was Zheng's predecessor as China skipper but was stripped of the post because of disciplinary problems.

When he was hired, Dujkovic was set the goal of reaching the last four at the Olympic soccer tournament, which runs from August 6-23 in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Tianjin and Qinhuangdao.

Meanwhile, Charlton has denied claims that a pre-season friendly against Iran was called off for political reasons.

Iranian media said yesterday that a complaint would be lodged to FIFA after Charlton pulled out of the match due to be played in Spain this week.

"We are going to lodge an official complaint to FIFA over Charlton's behavior," Tehran Times daily quoted Iranian Football Federation vice-president Mehdi Taj as saying.

"(World) football officials have emphasized that politics should be kept away from sports, so we ask why the English disregarded FIFA's motto," Taj said.

Championship (second division) side Charlton arrived in Spain yesterday for a pre-season training camp where it hoped to play two private warm-up matches.

(Agencies via Shanghai Daily July 15, 2008)