As a player, he was predominantly remembered for his time at Shanghai Football Team before going into management where he started off as a youth coach before becoming an assistant.

Later, Zhu joined the China national football team and served as an assistant to the English head coach, Bobby Houghton.

On 9 March 2005, the Chinese Football Association named the Zhu Guanghu as the successor of the Dutch coach, Arie Haan.

A number of people, including FIFA president Sepp Blatter suggested that a native coach would have better communication with the players.

In the 2007 AFC Asian Cup, just needing a draw in the last match, the Chinese side conceded three goals from free-kicks in the closing stage of the game against Uzbekistan.

On 5 August, it was confirmed that after a three-month negotiation, Zhu was expected take the position of manager at Shenzhen Asia Travel again that weekend before the match against Guangzhou GPC.