Shanghai Shenhua

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Shanghai Shenhua United
上海申花
logo
Full name Shanghai Shenhua United Football Club
上海申花联合足球俱乐部
Nickname(s) Shenhua
Founded 1993
Ground Hongkou Stadium,
Shanghai, China
(Capacity 35,000)
Chairman Flag of the People's Republic of China Zhu Jun
Manager Flag of the People's Republic of China Wu Jingui
League Chinese Super League
2007 Chinese Super League, 4th
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
 
Home colours
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
 
Away colours
2002-2007
2002-2007
1995-2002
1995-2002

Shanghai Shenhua (Simplified Chinese: 上海申花) is a Chinese Super League football club. They play at the 35,000 seat Hongkou Stadium in Shanghai, China and is owned by Zhu Jun (75%), Shanghai SVA Group, SMEG (Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group) and Huangpu Investment Ltd. (SMEG + Huangpu Investment 25%). Their head coach is Wu Jingui.

Contents

[edit] History

The club was founded on 10 December 1993 and was first sponsored by a local company named Shenhua (Shenhua also means "flower of Shanghai" in Chinese). At the end of 2001, Shenhua ended their sponsorship of club, then SVA and SMEG came aboard. The club changed its name to Shanghai Shenhua SVA SMEG Football Club (SFC). The team however is unique as it still retains "Shenhua" in its name while many other teams drop the name of their former sponsors completely.

The club is the most successful of the Shanghai teams, the others being Shanghai Zobon and, formerly, Inter Shanghai. Shenhua are 2 time top-tier champions and 6 time runners up. Their biggest supporters club is called Blue Devil.

In 2007, Zhu Jun, the owner of in-city rival Shanghai United F.C. bought a majority share of Shanghai Shenhua, thus began to merge the two clubs. The new club moved their home stadium to Yuanshen Sports Centre Stadium in Pudong, Shanghai, which was the stadium Shanghai United F.C. played in last season. In the new squad submitted for the AFC Champions League, 17 players appeared in the China national football team or the China national under-23 football team.

After the merge, the club struggled in the league. Rumors of internal conflicts are spreading after Du Wei was abruptly demoted to the reserves team for lack of match-fitness immediately after playing two games for the national team[1]. Many other old Shenhua players were also demoted, such as Zheng Kewei, Li Chengming, Liu Hongtao and Cheng Liang. In the 2007 Asian Champions League, Shanghai suffered three straight losses with two draws, the worst record of any Chinese team in the ACL.

With the start of the 2008 season, former coach Wu Jingui was rehired as the head coach and the team moved back to Hongkou Stadium for their home fixtures. These changes are having a positive affect on the team with Shenhua winning the first 3 games to start the 2008 season.

[edit] Honours

[edit] International

[edit] Domestic

League titles

  • Jia A Champions (2)
    • 1995, 2003
  • Jia A Runners-Up (5)
    • 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001

Cups

  • Chinese Super Cup Winners (3)
    • 1996, 1999, 2002

[edit] Current squad

As of 2 April 2008

The players in bold have senior international caps

No. Position Player
1 Flag of the People's Republic of China GK Wang Dalei
2 Flag of the People's Republic of China DF Yao Lijun
3 Flag of Hong Kong DF Ng Wai Chiu
4 Flag of the People's Republic of China MF Xu Yang
5 Flag of the People's Republic of China DF Du Wei
6 Flag of Argentina DF Matías Alberto Marchesini
7 Flag of Honduras MF Emil Martínez
9 Flag of Colombia FW Hamilton Ricard
10 Flag of the People's Republic of China FW Mao Jianqing
11 Flag of Costa Rica FW Erick Scott
12 Flag of the People's Republic of China GK Zhang Chen
13 Flag of the People's Republic of China DF Cheng Liang
14 Flag of the People's Republic of China DF Sun Xiang
15 Flag of the People's Republic of China MF Shen Longyuan
16 Flag of the People's Republic of China MF Yu Tao
17 Flag of the People's Republic of China DF Sun Ji
No. Position Player
18 Flag of the People's Republic of China MF Zheng Kewei
19 Flag of the People's Republic of China DF Li Chengming
20 Flag of the People's Republic of China DF Yang Yun
21 Flag of the People's Republic of China MF Jiang Kun
22 Flag of the People's Republic of China GK Qiu Shengjiong
23 Flag of the People's Republic of China DF Li Weifeng
24 Flag of the People's Republic of China MF Li Gang
25 Flag of the People's Republic of China MF Yin Xifu
26 Flag of the People's Republic of China MF Wang Hongliang
27 Flag of the People's Republic of China DF Liu Yintao
28 Flag of the People's Republic of China DF Feng Qi
29 Flag of the People's Republic of China FW Gao Lin
30 Flag of the People's Republic of China MF Tao Jin
31 Flag of the People's Republic of China MF Xiao Zhanbo
32 Flag of the People's Republic of China MF Yang Chungang
33 Flag of the People's Republic of China MF Bai Xuefeng

[edit] Famous players

China
Hong Kong
Brazil
Colombia
Germany
Honduras
Peru
Serbia
Uruguay

[edit] Affiliated Clubs

[edit] See Also

List of Chinese Super League clubs

[edit] External links