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Shanghai SIPG F.C.

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Nickname(s)
  
Red Eagles 红鹰

Ground Capacity
  
56,842

Arena/Stadium
  
Shanghai Stadium

League
  
Chinese Super League

Founded
  
2005

Ground
  
Shanghai Stadium

Chairman
  
Chen Xuyuan

Manager
  
André Villas-Boas

Location
  
Shanghai, China

Head coach
  
André Villas-Boas

Shanghai SIPG F.C. httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaenddeSha

Full name
  
Shanghai Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG) F.C. 上海上港集团足球俱乐部

Owner
  
Shanghai International Port Group

Shanghai SIPG F.C. (Chinese: 上海上港; pinyin: Shànghǎi Shànggǎng) or SIPG FC is a professional football club that participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Xuhui, Shanghai, and their home stadium is the Shanghai Stadium, which has a seating capacity of 56,842. Their owners are the Chinese group Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG).

Contents

The club was founded on December 25, 2005, as Shanghai Dongya FC (Dongya literally means East Asia in Chinese) by former Chinese international footballer coach Xu Genbao. The club used graduates from Genbao Football Base, a football academy also founded by Xu, to form their first team as they made their debut in the third tier of China's football league pyramid in the 2006 league season. They worked their way up to the top tier and the highest position they have ever finished is second in the 2015 Chinese Super League season.

According for Forbes, Shanghai SIPG F.C. are the third-most valuable football club in China, with a club value of $159 million, and an estimated revenue of $37 million in 2015.

Est.–2007: League Two

On May 16, 2000 former Chinese international football coach Xu Genbao founded the Genbao Football Base and enrolled 96 academy members born between 1988 and 1991, who were to be trained in the recently built Genbao Football Base Arena.

Initially, Xu Genbao had no intention of establishing a professional football club. However, as the youngsters in the Base grew up, the lack of youth football competition in China prompt Xu to set up a football club so that his protégés could earn match experiences in professional football. On December 25, 2005, Shanghai Dongya Football Club was jointly established by Xu Genbao and Shanghai Dongya Sports and Culture Center Co. Ltd, with Xu Genbao being the club chairman. Xu appointed Claude Lowitz, a French youth coach in the Base, as the team manager.

With young players aged between 14 and 17, Shanghai Dongya competed in the 2006 China League Two, the third tier of the Chinese league system. The team played their home games at Genbao Football Base Arena training ground in Chongming, Shanghai, and eventually finished their first season at the seventh place. During the campaign Xu's players broke a few records during the season, with Cao Yunding being the youngest Chinese goalscorer aged 16 years and 242 days, and Wu Lei the youngest Chinese professional footballer, aged only 14 years and 287 days. At the end of 2006, Claude Lowitz left the club, and former assistant manager Jiang Bingyao took up the manager position. With lessons learned and experiences gained from their debutante season, the young Dongya went on to win the division title in 2007, by beating Sichuan in the final, and thus gaining promotion to China League One, the second tier of the football league.

2008–2012: League One

Despite the successful promotion, questions arose as to what would happen to the team, especially given that Xu's previous effort to create a professional club (Shanghai Cable 02) ended up being sold off to Shanghai Shenhua in 2002 due to financial difficulties. In June 2007, Shanghai government came to Xu's rescue with financial aid, in exchange Dongya would represent Shanghai in the 2009 National Games.

With the club in a higher division, Shanghai Dongya moved into the 30,000 seater Jinshan Sports Centre in Jinshan District of Shanghai and finished the 2008 China League One division campaign in a respectable sixth. In the summer of 2009, Shanghai Dongya represent Shanghai football team and took part in the 2009 National Games. Xu Genbao took up the management post himself and led the team to win gold in the men's football tournament. Meanwhile, in the league, Shanghai Dongya chose the 65,000 seater Shanghai Stadium as their home stadium for their 2009 China League One campaign. Shanghai Dongya finished the season in fourth place and just missed out on promotion by a single win, but it was still considered quite an achievement because that team was made up of players under 20 years old, and with no foreign imports. This earned the club a reputation for its success in youth development in China and they were affectionately nicknamed as "China's Manchester United", by their fans because of Xu's well-known ambition "to create a China's Manchester United".

The 2010 league season saw former Chinese international Fan Zhiyi receive his first management job at the club as well as the introduction of their first ever foreign players in Macedonian Nikola Karçev and Haitian Fabrice Noël. Despite these new signings the club failed to improve upon the previous season's results and finished in the fourth place. Failure to gain promotion and financial difficulties caused the club unable to hold onto their rising stars. Before the 2011 season, five of the team's starting XI left the club: team captain Wang Jiayu, Chinese international Zhang Linpeng and Chinese U-23 players Cao Yunding, Jiang Zhipeng, and Gu Chao. In the following 2011 season, Xu Genbao promoted several young players into the first team and the team finished the season in a disappointing ninth place.

At the beginning of the 2012 season the club sold their team name to sponsor, Zobon Group for 30 million Yuan on a three-year deal, which saw the club change first team's name to Shanghai Tellace on December 31, 2011, while the club's name remains unchanged as Shanghai Dongya FC At the end of the season, Shanghai Tellace won the league title and was promoted to the Chinese Super League.

2013–present: CSL

On December 28, 2012 Shanghai Dongya changed its first team name again to Port Shanghai F.C., under a 40-million Yuan sponsorship deal with Shanghai International Port (Group). Within the off-season on January 7, 2013 the club officially acquired another Shanghai-based football club Shanghai Pudong Zobon, which had previously played in the 2012 China League Two division before they were dissolved. Most of its players, born between 1993 and 1994 and graduated from Genbao Football Base, were brought back under Xu Genbao's wing and would become the reserve team of Shanghai Dongya FC In the clubs debut within the top tier they brought in former Chinese national team manager Gao Hongbo as their Head coach and he would go on to guide the club to a ninth-place finish at the end of the 2013 league season. The Shanghai International Port (Group) would decide to strengthen their position within the club and officially took over the whole club on November 18, 2014 and immediately appointed Sven-Göran Eriksson as their new Head coach.

Rivalries

The club's main rivals are against Shanghai Shenhua and Shanghai Shenxin whom they contest in the local Shanghai derby. With the clubs founder Xu Genbao having managed Shenhua to the 1995 league title, the Shenhua tie holds a direct personal link between the two teams. On 28 April 2013 the two sides met for the first time in a league game that saw the club defeated 2–1 to Shenhua. The tie against Shanghai Shenxin also contains strong links between the two teams with players Jiang Zhipeng and Wang Jiayu having represented both teams before the two clubs met in their first derby on 2 June 2013, which resulted in a 6–1 victory. The club's geographical location has also opened them up to rivalries with neighbouring club's Hangzhou Greentown and Jiangsu Guoxin-Sainty where they contest in a fixture called the Yangtze Delta Derby.

Current squad

As of 2 March 2017

First-team squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Reserve squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Managerial history

As of 4 November 2016
  • Claude Lowitz (2006)
  • Jiang Bingyao (2007–2009)
  • Fan Zhiyi (2010)
  • Jiang Bingyao (Jan 31, 2011 – Dec 20, 2012)
  • Gao Hongbo (Feb 27, 2013 – Nov 7, 2013)
  • Xi Zhikang (Dec 4, 2013 – Nov 17, 2014)
  • Sven-Göran Eriksson (Nov 18, 2014 – Nov 4, 2016)
  • André Villas-Boas (Nov 4, 2016–)
  • League

  • Chinese Super League
  • Runners-up: 2015
  • China League One: 2012
  • China League Two: 2007
  • All-time league rankings

  • As of the end of 2016 season.
  • ^1 in group stage
  • Key

    References

    Shanghai SIPG F.C. Wikipedia