Yu Tao began his football career playing for Shanghai 02 before the club was taken over by Shanghai Shenhua and he was promoted to their senior side at the beginning of the 2002 league season, where he made twenty four league games and would score four goals.
[9] Yu Tao would be called up into the Chinese managers Arie Haan's first game against Syria in a friendly on 7 December 2002 in a 3–1 win.
[10] After that game, he would become an irregular member for the national team, but this would not be enough to make the squad for the 2004 AFC Asian Cup.
After several years in the international wilderness, the next Chinese manager Zhu Guanghu would call him up for a friendly against Kazakhstan on February 7, 2007, in a 2–1 victory.
The introduction of Gao Hongbo as the Chinese manager that saw Yu Tao given his chance of a competitive tournament when he was called him up for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup.