Shanghai SIPG F.C.

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.[4]

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,[5] and Wu Lei the youngest Chinese professional footballer, aged only 14 years and 287 days.[6] 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.[7]

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.[8]

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.[9] 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[10] At the end of the season, Shanghai Tellace won the league title and was promoted to the Chinese Super League.

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).[11] 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[12] 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 (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.[13]

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 (4 foreign players + 1 Asian foreign player). 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.

As of 22 January 2020 [20]

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

No. Position Player 1 GK Yan Junling 2 DF Zhang Wei 3 DF Yu Rui 4 DF Wang Shenchao 5 DF Shi Ke 6 MF Cai Huikang 7 FW Marko Arnautović 8 MF Oscar 9 FW Ricardo Lopes 10 FW Hulk (Captain) 11 FW Lü Wenjun 12 FW Li Haowen 13 DF Wei Zhen 14 FW Li Shenglong 15 MF Lin Chuangyi

No. Position Player 16 MF Mirahmetjan Muzepper 18 MF Zhang Yi 19 FW Hu Jinghang 20 MF Yang Shiyuan 21 DF Yu Hai 22 GK Sun Le 23 DF Fu Huan 24 FW Lei Wenjie 25 MF Odil Ahmedov 27 DF Zhang Enge 28 DF He Guan 34 GK Chen Wei 36 DF Yu Hao 37 FW Chen Binbin 39 MF Liu Zhurun

As of 1 March 2019

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

No. Position Player 26 MF Gao Haisheng 29 DF Nie Meng 31 DF Xiao Mingjie 33 FW Huang Zhenfei 38 DF Wei Lai 40 DF Li Shenyuan 41 GK Sun Jiazheng 42 MF Sun Jungang 43 DF Yang Maoshi 44 DF Wu Zhengchao 45 MF Jia Tianzi 46 MF Tian Hubo 47 MF Shang Jinglin 48 DF Yang Fan 49 DF Wan Guiwen 50 MF Huang Wenzhuo

No. Position Player 51 DF Zhang Weiyi 52 MF Zhang Zhen 53 MF Xue Zhichenghong 54 MF Dai Jianjun 55 DF Zhu Jiayi 56 DF Hou Shen 57 GK Yan Changcheng 58 MF Zhou Zheng 60 GK Guo Tong DF Liu Jiawei DF Mao Rui FW Shi Jian MF Ye Shanqing DF Zhang Yunkai MF Zheng Zelong MF Sun Enming MF Wang Jiajie DF Wu Hang

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

As of 4 November 2016[21][22]

• Claude Lowitz (2006)
• Jiang Bingyao (2007–2009)
• Fan Zhiyi (2010)
• Jiang Bingyao (January 2011 – 20 December 2012)
• Gao Hongbo (27 February 2013 – 7 November 2013)
• Xi Zhikang (4 December 2013 – 17 November 2014)
• Sven-Göran Eriksson (18 November 2014 – 4 November 2016)
• André Villas-Boas (4 November 2016 – 30 November 2017)
• Vítor Pereira (13 December 2017 – present)

• Chinese Super League
  • Winners: 2018
  • Runners-up: 2015, 2017
• China League One
  • Winners: 2012[23]
• China League Two
  • Winners: 2007
• Chinese FA Super Cup
  • Winners: 2019

• As of the end of 2018 season.[24][25]

• ^1 in group stage

Key