Shanghai SIPG F.C.


Shanghai SIPG F.C. or SIPG FC is a professional football club that participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association. The team is based in Pudong, Shanghai, and their home stadium is the Yuanshen Sports Centre Stadium, which has a seating capacity of 16,000. The club plans to move to the currently under construction Pudong Football Stadium in 2021. Their owners are the Chinese group Shanghai International Port Group.
The club was founded on 25 December 2005, as Shanghai Dongya FC 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 finished as league champions for the first time in the 2018 Chinese Super League season.
According to 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. According to the annual report of the parent company, the football club had a revenue of in 2015 financial year, as well as net loss of, total assets of, net assets of.

History

2005–2007: League Two

On 16 May 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 25 December 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 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. 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 club's 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 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.
During the 2015 winter transfer window, Shanghai SIPG signed 8 new players to strengthen the squad: Sun Xiang, Davi Rodrigues de Jesus, Dario Conca, Kim Ju-Young, Yang Boyu, Shi Ke, Jean Evrard Kouassi, and Yu Hai --- who the club spent 50 million Yuan on. It became the highest transfer record of any Chinese player. The team won the first 3 games of the season, which creates their best CSL league start in the history. On May 9, Shanghai SIPG secured a 5–0 victory over their rival Shanghai Greenland Shenhua, and it was their first victory in the Shanghai Derby. The team signed Ghanaian star Asamoah Gyan in the summer transfer window. Jean Evrard Kouassi was dropped into the reserve team due to the registration restriction at that time. Shanghai SIPG finished the season in second place with 65 points – just 2 points behind the champions Guangzhou Evergrande. It was their best league position in the club's history and they managed to get into the AFC Champions League qualification.
In the beginning of 2016, SAIC Motor Corporation became one of Shanghai SIPG's main sponsors. The club signed former AFC Champions League & CSL golden boot owner Elkeson from Guangzhou Evergrande for 18.5 million Euros. It broke the record of the Chinese transfer market. On February 9, the team secured a 3–0 victory over Muang Thong United from Thailand in the AFC Champions League qualification round, and successfully went in to the group stage of the ACL. Shanghai SIPG surprisingly went through the group stage in 1st place even though it was their first time playing in the ACL. In the Round of 16, Shanghai SIPG faced FC Tokyo. They lost 1–2 away in the first leg, yet thanks to Wu Lei's late 90th-minute goal in the 2nd leg, the team went through the round of 16 with an away goal difference. During the summer transfer window, Shanghai SIPG spent 56 million Euros to sign the Brazilian International, Hulk. The team was eliminated in the ACL quarter final, and in the CSL, the team ended up in 3rd place with 52 points.
In 2018, Shanghai rode the momentum of Wu Lei, who was the league's top scorer in that year, to win first place at the CSL for the first time. In 2019, they won the Super Cup for their second top tier trophy.

Ownership and naming history

Rivalries

The club's main rival is against Shanghai Shenhua with whom they contest in the local Shanghai derby. With the club's 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 clubs Hangzhou Greentown and Jiangsu Guoxin-Sainty where they contest in a fixture called the Yangtze Delta Derby.

Current squad

First-team squad

Reserve squad

As of 1 March 2019

Unregistered players

Out on loan

Coaching staff

Managerial history

League

All-time league rankings

YearDivPtsPos.FA CupSuper CupChampions
League		Att./GStadium
20063163582629−3147NHDNQ –Genbao Football Base Arena
200731711423515+2030WNHDNQ –Genbao Football Base Arena
200822477102630−4286NHDNQ –Jinshan Football Stadium
200922413564325+18444NHDNQ –Shanghai Stadium
201022491052518+7374NHDNQ –Shanghai Stadium
201122671182925+4329R2DNQ –Shanghai Stadium
201223017854725+2259WR3DNQ –3,113Shanghai Stadium
20131301071338353379R4DNQ –10,161Shanghai Stadium
20141301212647398485R3DNQ –12,460Shanghai Stadium
2015130198363352865RUQFDNQ –26,381Shanghai Stadium
201613014106563224523R4DNQQF28,012Shanghai Stadium
2017130177672393358RURUDNQSF29,174Shanghai Stadium
2018130215477334468WQFDNQR1621,631Shanghai Stadium
20191302064622636663SFWQFShanghai Stadium
2020130Yuanshen Sports Centre Stadium
2021130Pudong Football Stadium

Key


As of 28 January 2020
SeasonCompetitionRoundOppositionHomeAway
2016AFC Champions LeaguePlay-off round Muangthong United
3–0
–
2016AFC Champions LeagueGroup stage Melbourne Victory
3–1
1–2
2016AFC Champions LeagueGroup stage Suwon Samsung Bluewings
2–1
0–3
2016AFC Champions LeagueGroup stage Gamba Osaka
2–1
2–0
2016AFC Champions LeagueRound of 16 FC Tokyo
1–0
1–2
2016AFC Champions LeagueQuarter–finals Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors
0–0
0–5
2017AFC Champions LeaguePlay-off round Sukhothai
3–0
–
2017AFC Champions LeagueGroup stage FC Seoul
4–2
1–0
2017AFC Champions LeagueGroup stage Western Sydney Wanderers
5–1
2–3
2017AFC Champions LeagueGroup stage Urawa Red Diamonds
3–2
0–1
2017AFC Champions LeagueRound of 16 Jiangsu Suning
2–1
3–2
2017AFC Champions LeagueQuarter–finals Guangzhou Evergrande
4–0
1–5

2017AFC Champions LeagueSemi-finals Urawa Red Diamonds
1–1
0–1
2018AFC Champions LeaguePlay-off round Chiangrai United
1–0
–
2018AFC Champions LeagueGroup stage Melbourne Victory
4–1
1–2
2018AFC Champions LeagueGroup stage Kawasaki Frontale
1–1
1–0
2018AFC Champions LeagueGroup stage Ulsan Hyundai
2–2
1–0
2018AFC Champions LeagueRound of 16 Kashima Antlers
2–1
1–3
2019AFC Champions LeagueGroup stage Kawasaki Frontale
1–0
2–2
2019AFC Champions LeagueGroup stage Ulsan Hyundai
5–0
0–1
2019AFC Champions LeagueGroup stage Sydney FC
2–2
3–3
2019AFC Champions LeagueRound of 16 Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors
1–1
1–1

2019AFC Champions LeagueQuarter–finals Urawa Red Diamonds
2–2
1–1
2020AFC Champions LeaguePlay-off round Buriram United
3–0
–
2020AFC Champions LeagueGroup stage Sydney FC
2020AFC Champions LeagueGroup stage Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors
2020AFC Champions LeagueGroup stage Yokohama F. Marinos

Asian clubs ranking

Current RankCountryTeam
2Al-Duhail SC
3Al-Hilal FC
4Al Sadd SC
5Shanghai SIPG
6Al-Ahli FC
7Kawasaki Frontale
8Persepolis F.C.