Shijiazhuang Ever Bright F.C.


Shijiazhuang Ever Bright Football Club is a professional football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association. The team is based in Shijiazhuang, Hebei and their home stadium is the Hebei Olympic Sports Centre Stadium that has a seating capacity of 60,000. Their majority shareholder is the Yongchang Real Estate who own 70% of the shares of the club.

History

On February 25, 2011, the club was founded by Smart Hero International Trading Limited, Xiamen Dongyuhang Import & Export Co., Ltd., Xiamen City HS Sheng Industrial Co., Ltd. and Xiamen City Shengxin Metal Products Co., Ltd., on the basis of local amateur club Xiamen Dongyuhang, which just won the runners-up spot of China Amateur Football League last year, as Fujian Smart Hero F.C.. Within their debut season they played in the China League Two division within the 2011 league season where their home uniforms were yellow tops and black shorts. Fujian in their first season would win promotion to the 2012 China League One division via the League One relegation play-off which Fujian beat Guizhou Zhicheng 6–5 in a Penalty shootout.
In the 2012 China League One campaign Xu Hui was appointed as manager and he would lead the club to a third-place finish. This saw Yongchang Real Estate interested in the team and they bought 70% shares of the club, which officially went through on January 18, 2013. The club moved to Hebei Province's capital city Shijiazhuang into the Yutong International Sports Center, changed the club's colors to blue and the team's name into Shijiazhuang Yongchang Junhao F.C.. On December 27, 2013 Yongchang Real Estate bought the remaining 30% shares of the club and on February 24, 2014 Shijiazhuang Yongchang Junhao F.C. changed their name to Shijiazhuang Yongchang F.C.. In the 2014 league season Shijiazhuang Yongchang won promotion to the top tier in the first time in their history when they came runners-up within their division. The club's first act within the top flight was to change their English name to Shijiazhuang Ever Bright F.C. in January 2015.
In the club's debut season within the top tier saw the club's manager Yasen Petrov able to guide the team to seventh in the league and safely away from relegation at the end of the 2015 league season. The following campaign would prove to be considerably more difficult and Yasen Petrov was relieved of his position on 14 July 2016 and replaced by Li Jinyu on a caretaker basis, after a run of bad form saw the club in a relegation battle. The club were relegated at the end of the 2016 Chinese Super League season and on 7 November 2016 brought in Afshin Ghotbi as their new coach for the following season. Fortunately, they remained contenders for promotion in the next few seasons, but despite earning third place in 2017, they failed to win promotion for the next two years.

Name history

First team squad

Reserve squad

As of 7 March 2019

Unregistered players

Out on loan

Coaching staff

Managerial history

Managers who have coached the club since they became a completely professional unit on February 25, 2011.

League

All-time League Rankings
As of the end of 2019 season.
YearDivPtsPos.FA CupSuper CupAFCAtt./GStadium
20113261394321616393DNEDNQDNQLongyan Sports Center
20122301210841329463R2DNQDNQ4,142Fuzhou Stadium / Jinjiang Sports Center Stadium
201323010101026251408R3DNQDNQ10,053Yutong International Sports Center
2014230176742251757RUR2DNQDNQ11,208Yutong International Sports Center
2015130815734313397R3DNQDNQ25,070Yutong International Sports Center
201613079142853-253016R4DNQDNQ22,523Yutong International Sports Center
201723014124483414543R3DNQDNQ16,219Yutong International Sports Center
2018230129943385456R3DNQDNQ12,405Yutong International Sports Center
20192301821059421756RUR4DNQDNQ17,488Yutong International Sports Center

Key