Shanghai Shenxin Football Club (Chinese: 上海申鑫; pinyin: Shànghǎi Shēnxīn) is a football club who currently play in the 16,000 seater Yuanshen Sports Centre Stadium in Pudong, Shanghai, China. The club was originally founded in 2003 as Shanghai Hengyuan Football Club until the People's Liberation Army dismissed part of its sports branch, including the Bayi Football Team and Shanghai Hengyuan became interested in taking over the entire football team as well as their position in the top tier of the Chinese football pyramid. Shanghai Hengyuan discovered that much of the first team were sold off and decided to change their focus in buying the youth team. On April 2, 2004, a new club named Nanchang Bayi Hengyuan Football Club was established with players who had previously played for the Shanghai Hengyuan Football Club and the Bayi U-19 team. The club would gradually work its way up to the top tier after coming runners-up in the second division during the 2009 league season and promotion to the Chinese Super League. The club name changed to "Nanchang Hengyuan Football Club" at 2010 summer, because the word "Bayi" (means People's Liberation Army) used by enterprise is prohibited from 2009.[1] After almost eight years in Nanchang the club would decide to move back to Shanghai at the beginning of 2012 and renamed themselves Shanghai Shenxin Football Club.
History
In 2003 Shanghai real estate company Hengyuan Corporation would form Shanghai Hengyuan Football Club who were based in the Zhabei District and in their first season they failed to reach the Chinese Football Association Yi League finals at the end of the league campaign.[2] During this period top tier side Bayi Football Team were in financial difficulties and Shanghai Hengyuan were interested to taking over the entire club, however this was unable to be achieved because many of the first team had already left the club. Shanghai Hengyuan would then concentrate in buying Bayi's youth team and on April 2, 2004, a new club named Nanchang Bayi Hengyuan Football Club was established with players who had previously played for the Shanghai Hengyuan Football Club and the Bayi U-19 team. The club would move to Nanchang, Jiangxi and play at the 26,000 seater Nanchang Bayi Stadium to take advantage of the regions lack of football representation, yet strong support. Playing at the bottom of the Chinese football pyramid in the third tier the club brought in Li Xiao to manage the team and he quickly guided the team to win the Yi League in 2005 as well as promoted to the Jia League.[3] After this achievement Li Xiao would become the clubs vice-chairman while high profile managers Zhou Suian and then Zho Bo came to manage the team with little success. Once again Li Xiao came in to manage the team until November 27, 2008 when he decided to resign at the end the season[4]
The club then brought in Zhu Jiong who despite having a slow start to the season quickly guided the club to a runners-up position and promotion to the Chinese Super League for the first time in the clubs history. The club would initially struggle to settle within the league, however thanks to Chen Zhizhao's ten league goals saw the team narrowly avoid relegation when they finished thirteenth within the league.[5] The following season saw the club have a contract dispute with Chen Zhizhao and they spent the whole season without their top goalscorer, however despite this they once again just avoided relegation.[6] With the team perpetual relegation contenders as well as constantly disappointing crowd support the Hengyuan Corporation decided that it would be easier to bring the team back to Shanghai and closer to the companies headquarters. This saw the club move into 30,000 seater Jinshan Sports Centre at the beginning of the 2012 league campaign and rename themselves Shanghai Shenxin Football Club.[7]
All-time League Rankings
As of the end of 2013 season.[8][9]
| Year |
Div |
Pld |
W |
D |
L |
GF |
GA |
GD |
Pts |
Pos. |
FA Cup |
Super Cup |
AFC |
Other |
Att./G |
Stadium |
| 2003 | 3 | 10 | | | | | | | | | DNQ | NH | | | | | | Zhabei Stadium |
| 2004 | 3 | 22 | 13 | 4 | 5 | 30 | 15 | 15 | 40 | 31 | DNQ | DNQ | | | | | | August 1st Stadium |
| 2005 | 3 | 19 | 11 | 4 | 4 | 27 | 15 | 12 | 27 | W | DNQ | DNQ | | | | | | August 1st Stadium |
| 2006 | 2 | 24 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 11 | 27 | -16 | 20 | 11 | R1 | NH | | | | | | August 1st Stadium |
| 2007 | 2 | 24 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 26 | 26 | 0 | 36 | 5 | NH | NH | | | | | | August 1st Stadium |
| 2008 | 2 | 24 | 11 | 9 | 4 | 37 | 24 | 13 | 42 | 3 | NH | NH | | | | | | August 1st Stadium |
| 2009 | 2 | 24 | 14 | 5 | 5 | 48 | 22 | 26 | 47 | RU | NH | NH | | | | | | August 1st Stadium |
| 2010 | 1 | 30 | 8 | 8 | 14 | 33 | 35 | -2 | 32 | 13 | NH | NH | | | | | 11,680 | August 1st Stadium |
| 2011 | 1 | 30 | 8 | 5 | 17 | 20 | 41 | -21 | 29 | 14 | R3 | NH | | | | | 10,462 | Nanchang Bayi Stadium |
| 2012 | 1 | 30 | 6 | 12 | 12 | 36 | 35 | -1 | 30 | 15 | R3 | DNQ | | | | | 11,597 | Jinshan Sports Centre |
| 2013 | 1 | 30 | 11 | 7 | 12 | 31 | 42 | -11 | 40 | 7 | R4 | DNQ | | | | | 8,559 | Yuanshen Sports Centre Stadium |
Key
Current season
Cheng Yaodong