Since his retirement in October 2010, his shirt number of 18 has been retired in honour of his contribution to Sichuan football by Chengdu Blades.[7] Yao Xia's time at Chengdu Blades would further continue when he took the team leader and deputy general manager position soon afterwards before coming in as the club's caretaker manager on December 7, 2012 where he took over the club's training during the off season.[8] On September 16, 2013 Yao was asked to once again take on the management position when the club fired Patrick Aussems after a string of results saw the club in the relegation zone, his appointment saw the club immediately win two games in a row against Yanbian Baekdu Tigers F.C. and BIT F.C..[9]