Jiang Jin began his football career playing for Bayi Football Team during the 1987 league season and gradually established himself within their team. During his time with Bayi he saw them become a fully run professional football team and despite seeing them finding it difficult to transition to professionalism Jiang was a steady constant within the team. By the 1996 league season his consistency started to pay off when he aided Bayi to third within the league, which led to an eventual call-up to the national team. While his international career grew from strength to strength Bayi struggled within the league until they were relegated at the end of the end of the 1998 league season. Jiang stayed for a short period before joining Tianjin Teda where he remained for three seasons before joining highly ambitious side Shanghai International in the 2003 league season in a season that saw his side just miss out on the league title. The next season saw him only make sixteen league appearances and drop from being the first choice goalkeeper. This led to Jiang joining second-tier side Shanghai Stars where he was offered an assistant post as well before he retired in 2007.
International career
Jiang Jin was first called up to the senior team in 1993; however he waited until October 31, 1997 before he was given his chance to make his senior debut in 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Qatar in a 3-2 defeat. Under Bobby Houghton Jiang was given an opportunity to establish himself as the country's first choice goalkeeper and it was during the 1998 Asian Games held in Bangkok that Jiang shone by aiding the country to a third place finish and personally winning the “Asian best goalkeeper” award.
Match-fixing
On October 17, 2010, Jiang Jin was reported to have been detained by the police and was said to be involved in fixing the November 30, 2003 league game against Tianjin Teda F.C. during his stint as a player at Shanghai International. The allegations suggested that his team mate Shen Si was bribed by former Tianjin Teda general manager Yang Yifeng a total of 12 million Yuan to lose the game and that Shen had asked team mates Jiang Jin, Qi Hong and Li Ming to help him. After being arrested by the police a lengthy wait eventually saw Jiang Jin found guilty of match-fixing and was sentenced to five and a half years imprisonment on June 13, 2012 and fined 500,000 Yuan along with his associates except for Shen Si who was given six years.
