Wuhan Zall F.C.

Hubei Greenery was founded in February, 2009 after its predecessor Wuhan Guanggu withdrew from the top tier because of its controversial punishment in October 2008 after the club had a dispute with the Chinese Football Association over the club's on-field behaviour against Beijing Guoan in a September 27, 2008 league game.[3] Due to their withdrawal they were unable to register and participate in any professional Chinese tournaments, however the Hubei Province soccer association decided that due to the lack of representation of any Hubei teams within the Chinese soccer league system they would help create a new team to represent Hubei and use the Wuhan U-19 team as well as the Hubei youth team as the foundation for the squad. This saw the establishment of a new soccer club on the 26 February 2009 when the Hubei Greenery officially registered itself within the Chinese Soccer association and start at the bottom of the professional football system in the third tier.[4] The club would show their unusual strength in depth when they would breeze through the regional section of the league campaign and enter into the play-off finals where they lost their only game of the season Hunan Billows F.C. in a penalty shoot out. Despite the defeat the club would win promotion to the second tier and to strengthen their team they bought back the contracts of several Wuhan Guanggu players who were not permanently sold off.

With the club in the second tier they would go through a period of joint investment from several parties until December 14, 2011 saw the Zall Group take ownership of the club and rename them Wuhan Zall Football Club as well as changing the team's colours back to orange, which was the club's predecessor's main colours.[5] Initially the new owners saw the team struggle throughout the 2012 league season and decided to sack the existing manager Jose Carlos de Oliveira and replace him with Zheng Xiong on a caretaker basis.[6] As the season went on the results considerably improved under Zheng Xiong who was given a full-time contract before guiding Wuhan Zall to second within the league and promotion to the Chinese Super League. The club's start in the 2013 league season was not a success and when the team went six games without a win, Zheng resigned.[7] The former Shandong Luneng Head coach who had won the Chinese Super League, Ljubiša Tumbaković was brought in to manage the team, however despite his experience in the league he was unable to help the club avoid relegation and he was sacked before the season was finished.[8] In 2015 the football club was sold to a private company Wuhan Zall Development Holding Co. Ltd. under the ownership of their chairman Yan Zhi and his relatives, for RMB 20,630,000.[9]

After several seasons within the second tier, the club brought in Li Tie as the Head Coach, a manager who had previously guided Hebei China Fortune F.C. to the top tier.[10] In his debut season Li Tie was able to guide Wuhan to the victory of the division championship and promotion back into the Chinese Super League at the end of the 2018 league season.[11]

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

No. Position Player 2 DF Huang Bowen 3 DF Liu Yi 4 DF Ai Zhibo 5 DF Han Pengfei 6 DF Li Chao 7 MF Luo Yi 8 MF Yao Hanlin (captain) 9 FW Rafael Silva 10 FW Léo Baptistão 11 MF Zhou Tong 12 GK Wang Zhifeng 15 DF Ming Tian 16 GK Dong Hengyi 17 FW Jean Evrard Kouassi 18 DF Song Zhiwei

No. Position Player 19 FW Nie Aoshuang 20 MF Li Hang 21 MF Jiang Zilei 22 DF Liao Junjian 23 GK Sun Shoubo 24 MF Wang Kai 26 MF Liu Yun 27 MF Tong Xiaoxing 28 MF Jiang Minwen 29 DF Xia Ao 30 MF Zhou Bozhao 31 MF Chen Ao — DF Daniel Carriço - MF Eddy Gnahoré (on loan from SC Amiens)

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 14 MF Zhang Haoran 41 DF Du Longquan 42 MF Chen Yinjie 43 DF Xiang Hongyu 44 FW Lin Xin 45 MF Zhang Bohao 46 MF Gao Ming 47 DF Li Yiming 48 MF Mei Cong 49 GK Wang Chen 50 DF Li Yueming 51 FW Wang Yifan 52 FW Chen Luoqi 53 DF Hu Zhuang 54 MF Sun Weiwen

No. Position Player 55 MF Fan Xiaobin 56 MF Fan Xiaowei 57 MF Song Defu 58 DF Yang Xin 59 GK Jia Xinyao 60 DF Ainishaer Aimaiti 61 MF Wu Kai 62 MF Li Xingqi 63 FW Xia Qihang MF Li Yang MF Wang Xudong GK Zhu Zisen MF Huang Xiyang MF Li Zhichao

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

No. Position Player FW Kang Zhenjie (at Jiangxi Liansheng until 31 December 2019)