Hebei Football Club () was a professional Chinese

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club that participated in the

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Super League (), commonly known as the Chinese Super League or the CSL (), also known as the China Resources Beverage Chinese Football Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Ch ...

division under licence from the

Chinese Football Association The Chinese Football Association (), abbreviated as CFA (), is the governing body for association football, beach soccer and futsal in the People's Republic of China (Mainland China). The CFA organizes the men's and women's national teams an ...

(CFA). The team was based in

Langfang Langfang is a prefecture-level city of Hebei Province of China, Province, China, and was known as Tianjin Prefecture until 1973. It was renamed Langfang Prefecture after Tianjin became a Direct-controlled municipalities of China, municipality ...

Hebei Hebei is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...

. The club was dissolved in March 2023. According to Forbes, Hebei was the 7th most valuable football team in China, with a team value of $90 million, and an estimated revenue of $22 million in 2015.

History

Hebei Zhongji was founded on 28 May 2010 by the Hebei football association and Hebei Zhongji Group who promised to invest three million Yuan a season for next four campaigns. They registered to play within

China League Two The Chinese Football League 2 (), or China League Two, is the third-tier association football league of the People's Republic of China. The league is under the auspices of the Chinese Football Association and operated by the Chinese Professional ...

, third tier of the Chinese football league system, as Hebei Yilin Shanzhuang (

Simplified Chinese Simplification, Simplify, or Simplified may refer to: Mathematics Simplification is the process of replacing a mathematical expression by an equivalent one that is simpler (usually shorter), according to a well-founded ordering. Examples include: ...

: 河北依林山庄) for sponsorship reasons in the 2011 league season. They failed to advance into the Play-offs after finishing in 5th place in the group stage. On 17 October 2011, the cooperation relationship between Hebei FA and Hebei Zhongji Group was terminated and Hebei Zhongji Group took full ownership of the club while the players who were owned by Hebei FA split into a new team called Hebei Youth. In the 2012 league season, Hebei Zhongji finished in 1st place in the North Group with 18 wins, 5 draws and only 1 defeat, however they were knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Play-offs by

Hubei China-Kyle Xinjiang Tianshan Leopard F.C. ( zh, s=新疆天山雪豹, t=新疆天山雪豹, p=Xīnjiāng Tiānshān Xuěbào, , w, iː, ɡ, ər=شىنجاڭ قار لەيلىسى) is a defunct professional Chinese football club that participated in the Chin ...

with the score at 1–1, losing on the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

. On 16 August 2013

Guo Ruilong Guo Ruilong (; born 1 December 1943) is a Chinese football coach and former player. Playing career Born in Kunming, Guo returned to his hometown Beijing in 1946 after the Second Sino-Japanese War ended. He began his football career for Beijin ...

was brought in to manage the team for the rest of the 2013 league season, however during his brief tenure at the club he quickly led them to promotion after finishing runners-up at the end of the campaign. Huang Yang was brought in to coach the team during the off season while on December 26, 2013, the club announced that

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

Nelson Agresta Nelson Agresta del Cerro (born August 2, 1955 in Montevideo, Uruguay) is a Uruguayan former footballer, who played for clubs of Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Ecuador and the Uruguay national football team. Teams * Racing Club de Montevideo 19 ...

would be the club's first foreign manager. On 27 January 2015, they changed the team name to Hebei China Fortune (

河北华夏幸福
) after being purchased by

China Fortune Land Development China Fortune Land Development Co., Ltd. is a publicly traded Chinese real estate developer, based in Beijing, headed by Wang Wenxue and focused on industrial parks. It purchased Chinese Super League club Hebei China Fortune F.C. on 27 January ...

. Serbian manager

Radomir Antić Radomir Antić ( sr-Cyrl, Радомир Антић, ; 22 November 1948 – 6 April 2020) was a Serbian professional football manager and player. Following a 17-year playing career as a defender, most of which he spent playing at Partizan, wit ...

signed a three-year contract with the club on the same day. They changed the club name to Hebei China Fortune F.C. in December 2015 after winning promotion to

in the 2015 season. The club has since expanded its bid for league success by landing international stars such as

Gervinho Gervais Yao Kouassi (born 27 May 1987), known as Gervinho, is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a forward. Gervinho began his career at ASEC Abidjan and Toumodi, before moving to Belgium in 2004 to play for Beveren. Between 2007 ...

and

Ezequiel Lavezzi Ezequiel Iván "Pocho" Lavezzi (, ; born 3 May 1985) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a forward. During his career, his most important attributes were his pace, hardworking style of play, technique, creativity, and d ...

. In August 2016, the Chilean

Manuel Pellegrini Manuel Luis Pellegrini Ripamonti (; ; born 16 September 1953) is a Chilean professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who is the head coach of Real Betis. As a coach, he has managed clubs in S ...

became manager of the club, as part of a larger plan for Hebei China Fortune F.C. and Chinese football to make a great leap forward by the end of the decade. This process continued with the appointment of Chris Coleman on 10 June 2018.

Ownership and naming history

Managerial history

Results

All-time league rankings ''As of the end of 2022 season.'' * In group stage. * Hebei had 3 points deducted due to unpaid salaries on 5 November 2022 and had 6 points deducted due to unpaid salaries on 23 November 2022. 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
{{China League Two Defunct football clubs in China Chinese Super League clubs 2009 establishments in China 2023 disestablishments in China Association football clubs established in 2009 Association football clubs disestablished in 2023 Sport in Hebei Football clubs in China Football clubs in Shijiazhuang Football clubs in Qinhuangdao Football clubs in Langfang