Cangzhou Mighty Lions Football Club () was a Chinese professional

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 based in

Cangzhou Cangzhou; Jilu Mandarin, locally pronounced as is a prefecture-level city in eastern Hebei province of China, province, People's Republic of China. At the 2020 Chinese census, 2020 census, Cangzhou's built-up (''or metro'') area made of Yunh ...

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 ...

. Cangzhou Mighty Lions played its home matches at the Cangzhou Stadium, located within

Yunhe District Yunhe District () is a district of Cangzhou, 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 mill ...

. 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 the

China Amateur Football League The Chinese Football Association Member Association Champions League (), referred to as the Chinese Champions League or CMCL, is the fourth-tier football league of the People's Republic of China. The league is under the auspices of the Chinese Fo ...

last year, as Fujian Smart Hero F.C. (). Within their debut season, they played in the

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 ...

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 The 2012 China League One was the ninth season of the China League One, the second tier of the Chinese football league pyramid, since its establishment. It began on March 17, 2012 and ended on October 28, 2012. The size of the league has been ex ...

division via the League One relegation play-off in which Fujian beat Guizhou Zhicheng 6–5 in a penalty shootout. In the

campaign, Xu Hui was appointed as manager and he would lead the club to a third-place finish. This saw Yongchang Real Estate () becoming 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 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 ...

's capital city

Shijiazhuang Shijiazhuang; Mandarin: ; formerly known as Shimen and romanized as Shihkiachwang is the capital and most populous city of China's Hebei Province. A prefecture-level city southwest of Beijing, it administers eight districts, three county-le ...

into the

Yutong International Sports Center The Yutong International Sports Centre Stadium (Simplified Chinese: 裕彤国际体育中心) is a multi-use stadium in Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China. It is currently used mostly for football matches. The capacity of this stadium is 29,000. See a ...

. They 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 for 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 Yasen Petrov Petrov (; born 23 June 1968) is a Bulgarian former football player. His nickname is ''Giuseppe Giannini, Giannini from Plovdiv''. Career Born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Petrov played for the PFC Botev Plovdiv, PFC Levski Sofia, PFC Slav ...

guiding 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 Li Jinyu (; born 6 July 1977) is a Chinese former international football player who is currently the head coach of Liaoning Tieren. As a player he represented Liaoning Whowin and Shandong Luneng in the Chinese Super League and spent one seas ...

on a caretaker basis, after a run of bad form saw the club in a relegation battle. The club was relegated at the end of the

2016 Chinese Super League The 2016 Ping An Chinese Football Association Super League () was the 13th season since the establishment of the Chinese Super League. The league title sponsor was Ping An Insurance. Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao won their sixth consecutive title ...

season and on 7 November 2016, brought in

Afshin Ghotbi Afshin Ghotbi (, born 8 February 1964) is an Iranian football coach who works as head coach of Vancouver FC in the Canadian Premier League. Early life Afshin Ghotbi was born in Tehran. He is the son of a teacher in Iran with whom he left Iran ...

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 ahead of the 2021 season when the 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 ()

Crest history

File:Cangzhou Mighty Lions F.C.2011-2012.svg, Fujian Smart Hero logo in 2011 and 2012 File:Cangzhou Mighty Lions F.C.2013.svg, Shijiazhuang Yongchang Junhao logo in 2013 File:Cangzhou Mighty Lions F.C.2014.svg, Shijiazhuang Yongchang logo in 2014 File:Cangzhou Mighty Lions F.C.2015-2020.svg, Shijiazhuang Ever Bright logo between 2015 and 2020 File:Cangzhou Mighty Lions F.C.svg, Cangzhou Mighty Lions logo since 2021

Current squad

First team squad

Out on loan

Reserve squad

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 Xu or XU may refer to: Surnames * Xu (surname 徐) ( ''Xú'') * Xu (surname 許) (/ ''Xǔ'') * Xu (surname 胥) ( ''Xū'') The Tone (linguistics), tones of these surnames are different in Mandarin, but if the tone diacritics are omitted then eac ...

(''interim'') (May 14, 2013 – June 30, 2013) * Li Shubin (Jun 30, 2013 – Dec 12, 2013) *

(Dec 12, 2013 – 14 Jul 2016) *

(''caretaker'') (14 Jul 2016 – 7 Nov 2016) *

(7 Nov 2016 – 3 Sep 2018) *

(8 Sep 2018 – 19 Jul 2019 ) *

(20 Jul 2019 – 6 Sep 2021) * Liu Yan (''caretaker'') (6 Sep 2021 – 3 Nov 2021) *

Svetozar Šapurić Svetozar Šapurić (; 28 August 1960 – 27 December 2024) was a Serbian football manager and player. Career Šapurić started out at his hometown club Vrbas, spending eight seasons in the senior squad (1977–1985), before securing a move to ...

(4 Nov 2021 – 20 February 2023) * Zhao Junzhe (21 February 2023 – 15 July 2024 ) * Li Xiaopeng (16 July 2024 – )

Honours

China League One The Chinese Football League 1 (), also known as China League One or Chinese Jia League (), is the second level of professional football in China, under the Chinese Super League. The league is under the auspices of the Chinese Football Association ...

**Runners-up:

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Results

All-time League Rankings ''As of the end of the 2023 season.'' * In group stage. * Avoided relegation due to the dissolution of Jiangsu Suning. 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 Chinese Super League clubs Sport in Hebei 2011 establishments in China Association football clubs established in 2011 Football clubs in China Football clubs in Shijiazhuang Football clubs in Cangzhou Football clubs in Fujian