Fujian Smart Hero

Cangzhou Mighty Lions Football Club () is a professional football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Cangzhou, Hebei and their home stadium is the Cangzhou Stadium that has a seating capacity of 31,836. 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 in 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. (while their Chinese name still remained as 石家庄永昌) in January 2015.

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.

They were promoted again in 2019 but finished last in the 2020 relegation tournament. They escaped relegation when Super League team Jiangsu F.C. dissolved in 2021. They were renamed as Cangzhou Mighty Lions, the same year Chinese FA sought to remove corporation names from team names.

Name history

*2011–12: Fujian Smart Hero ()
*2013: Shijiazhuang Yongchang Junhao ()
*2014: Shijiazhuang Yongchang ()
*2015–2020: Shijiazhuang Ever Bright ()
*2021–: Cangzhou Mighty Lions ()

Current squad

First team squad

Reserve squad

''As of 7 March 2019''

Out on loan

Coaching staff

Managerial history

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

* Zhao Tuqiang (2011)
* Xu Hui (2012 – May 14, 2013)
* Xu Tao (''interim'') (May 14, 2013 – June 30, 2013)
* Li Shubin (Jun 30, 2013 – Dec 12, 2013)
* Yasen Petrov (Dec 12, 2013 – 14 Jul 2016)
* Li Jinyu (''caretaker'') (14 Jul 2016 – 7 Nov 2016)
* Afshin Ghotbi (7 Nov 2016 – 3 Sep 2018)
* Yasen Petrov (8 Sep 2018 – 19 Jul 2019 )
* Afshin Ghotbi (20 Jul 2019 – 6 Sep 2021)
* Liu Yan (''caretaker'') (6 Sep 2021 – )

Honours

League

* China League One
:Runners-up (1): 2014

Results

All-time League Rankings

''As of the end of 2019 season.''

* In group stage.

Key

* Pld = Played
* W = Games won
* D = Games drawn
* L = Games lost
* F = Goals for
* A = Goals against
* Pts = Points
* Pos = Final position

* DNQ = Did Not Qualify
* DNE = Did Not Enter
* NH = Not Held
* – = Does Not Exist
* R1 = Round 1
* R2 = Round 2
* R3 = Round 3
* R4 = Round 4

* F = Final
* SF = Semi-finals
* QF = Quarter-finals
* R16 = Round of 16
* Group = Group stage
* GS2 = Second Group stage
* QR1 = First Qualifying Round
* QR2 = Second Qualifying Round
* QR3 = Third Qualifying Round

References

External links

Official Site

{{Chinese Super League

Football clubs in China
Shijiazhuang
Chinese Super League clubs