Tianjin Tianhai F.C. (; ) was a 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. The team was based in

Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...

History

2006-2010: Formation and League Two

On June 6, 2006, the Tianjin Binhai Holdings Limited company would form a new football team based in

Hohhot Hohhot,; abbreviated zh, c=呼市, p=Hūshì, labels=no formerly known as Kweisui, is the Capital (political), capital of Inner Mongolia in the North China, north of the China, People's Republic of China, serving as the region's administrativ ...

called Hohhot Binhai and would name former Chinese international player Han Jinming as their manager. They would move into the Hohhot People's Stadium while taking part at the bottom of the Chinese pyramid within the third tier at the start of the 2007 league season. By May 5, 2007, Tianjin Songjiang Sports Culture Industry Co. Ltd would take a controlling interest within the club and hired another former Chinese international player in Hao Haidong to be the club's general manager. When the club finished in a disappointing fifth within the group stages of the division it was decided that the club needed significant restructuring, which saw Hao Haidong named as chairman, Han Jinming moved to General management, Zhang Xiaorui was named as the new manager and lastly the entire team was moved to

to play within the Hedong Sports Centre. While under Zhang Xiaorui's reign results gradually improved, however while the club were constant play-off contenders they could not gain promotion and he was soon replaced by the Belgium Patrick De Wilde who guided the club to a runners-up spot and promotion at the end of the 2010 league season.

2011-2016: League One

By the 2011 season the club had already moved into the 60,000 seater

Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium The Tianjin Olympic Centre (), often colloquially referred to as the Water Drop (), is a sports complex with a multi-use stadium named Tianjin Olympic Centre Stadium in Tianjin, China. Construction started in August 2003 and was completed in Aug ...

, however despite their grand settings the team would struggle within the division and narrowly avoided relegation at the end of the season. This saw Patrick De Wilde exit soon after and the club decided to promote his assistant as well as Hao Haidong's cousin

Hao Haitao Hao Haitao (, born December 3, 1968) is a Chinese football coach and a former association football, football player. He last managed Guizhou Hengfeng. He previously played for Qingdao Manatee, Shanghai Pudong F.C., Shanghai Pudong and Tianjin Te ...

into the management chair. In the 2012 league season Hao Haitao would actually guide the club to their best ever finish of sixth within the league, however at the end of the campaign Li Weiqi (李微奇) took over Hao Haidong's position as chairman and Hao Haitao followed his cousin in leaving the club. At the start of the 2013 league season Pei Encai was brought in as Head coach, however he left the team four games before the end of the season due to the passing away of his mother, which saw Zhang Xiaorui return to the club as a caretaker manager. Italian Gianni Bortoletto was brought in at the beginning of the 2014 league season, initially as a technical director before accepting the Head coach position but after a series of disappointing results he was fired on 14 June 2014. On 23 June 2014 Portuguese manager

Manuel Cajuda Manuel Ventura Cajuda de Sousa (born 27 June 1951) is a Portuguese football manager and retired footballer. In a career which spanned three decades, he managed nearly 20 teams in his own country, and also worked in Egypt, the United Arab Emi ...

came in for the remainder of the season. The club would once again start the following season with a new manager when Croatian coach Dražen Besek joined the team 15 December 2014. After a series of defeats, Besek was replaced by another Croatian in Goran Tomić who joined the management on 12 May 2015. On 7 July 2015 Quanjian Nature Medicine officially took over the club. This would be their second foray into Chinese football after their sponsorship of

Tianjin Teda F.C. Tianjin Jinmen Tiger Football Club (), previously Tianjin TEDA (), is a Chinese professional football club based in Tianjin, that competes in . Tianjin Jinmen Tiger plays its home matches at the TEDA Soccer Stadium, located within Binhai. The f ...

abruptly came to an end on 30 June 2015 after a public dispute occurred on who had control over the club's player transfers, particularly in the attempted signing of the Chinese international player

Sun Ke Sun Fo (; 21 October 1891 – 13 September 1973), courtesy name Zhesheng (), was a Chinese politician and high-ranking official in the government of the Republic of China. He was the son of Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Republic of China, ...

. At the start of the 2016 season the club would go through a complete overhaul, they would redesign a new badge that reflected Quanjian Nature Medicine's own logo, change the club's colours to a light blue, bring in experienced Brazilian coach

Vanderlei Luxemburgo Vanderlei Luxemburgo da Silva (born 10 May 1952) is a retired former Brazilian professional football coach and player. A left wingback, Luxemburgo represented Flamengo, Internacional and Botafogo before retiring in 1980. He subsequently be ...

along with international players in

Luís Fabiano Luís Fabiano Clemente (born 8 November 1980), commonly known as Luís Fabiano, is a retired Brazilian professional footballer who played as a striker most notably for Sevilla, São Paulo, and the Brazil national team. He is a prolific goals ...

, Jádson Rodrigues da Silva, Zhao Xuri and the player the owners originally attempted to sign, Sun Ke. On 22 October 2016, under the guidance of

Fabio Cannavaro Fabio Cannavaro (; born 13 September 1973) is an Italian professional association football, football coach and former player who last was the head coach of Croatian club GNK Dinamo Zagreb, Dinamo Zagreb. He is regarded as one of the greatest De ...

, Tianjin Quanjian defeated Meizhou Hakka 3–0 to win the

2016 China League One The 2016 China League One () was the 13th season of the China League One, the second tier of the Chinese football league pyramid, since its establishment in 2004. The league's title sponsor is the e-commerce website 58.com. Teams A total of 1 ...

title and gain promotion to the

2017 Chinese Super League The 2017 Ping An Chinese Football Association Super League () was the 14th season since the establishment of the Chinese Super League. The league title sponsor is Ping An Insurance. Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao won their seventh consecutive title ...

2017-2019: Super League Era

At the start of the

season the owners once again decided to change the team's home colours from a light blue to an all red uniform. After signing a world-class midfielder in

Axel Witsel Axel Laurent Angel Lambert Witsel (born 12 January 1989) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder or centre-back for club Atlético Madrid and the Belgium national team. He originally also played in more offensiv ...

, the club cruised to third place in the 2017 season and advance to the

2018 AFC Champions League The 2018 AFC Champions League was the 37th edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 16th under the current AFC Champions League title. Kashima Antlers won the title for t ...

, qualifying to the continental tournament for the first time. Quanjian Group was accused of illegal

multi-level marketing Multi-level marketing (MLM), also called network marketing or pyramid selling, is a controversial and sometimes illegal marketing strategy for the sale of products or services in which the revenue of the MLM company is derived from a non-salarie ...

and false advertisement in December 2018. After the arrest of club leader and Quanjian Group owner Shu Yuhui, the club asked the local FA to take over operations and changed its name to Tianjin Tianhai in January 2019. On 12 May 2020, Tianjin Tianhai announced that the club was dissolved. This disbandment saved Shenzhen Kaisa from being relegated to the

2020 China League One The 2020 China League One ( zh, 2020中国足球协会甲级联赛) was the 17th season of the China League One, the second tier of the Chinese football league pyramid, since its establishment in 2004. The season was scheduled to begin on 29 Febru ...

Name history

* 2006–2007 Hohhot Binhai F.C. 呼和浩特滨海 * 2008–2015 Tianjin Songjiang F.C. 天津松江 * 2015–2018 Tianjin Quanjian F.C. 天津权健 * 2019–2020 Tianjin Tianhai F.C. 天津天海

Kit evolution

Managerial history

* Han Jinming (2007) * Zhang Xiaorui (2008–09) * Hao Haidong (''caretaker'') (2010) * Patrick de Wilde (2010–11) *

(2012) * Pei Encai (2013) * Zhang Xiaorui (''caretaker'') (2013) * Gianni Bortoletto (2014) *

(2014) * Dražen Besek (2014–2015) * Sun Jianjun (''caretaker'') (2015) * Goran Tomić (2015) *

(2015–2016) *

(2016–2017) *

Paulo Sousa Paulo Manuel Carvalho de Sousa (; born 30 August 1970) is a Portuguese football manager and former professional player who played as a defensive midfielder. He is the current manager of UAE Pro League club Shabab Al Ahli. Starting his career ...

(2017–2018) *

Shen Xiangfu Shen Xiangfu (; ; born May 27, 1957, in Beijing) is a Chinese football coach who is the joint manager of The Regional Preferente de la Comunitat Valenciana side Atlético Museros as well as also being a former international football player. A ...

(''caretaker'') (2018) * Park Choong-kyun (2018) * Choi Kang-hee (2018–2019) *

(2019) * Park Choong-kyun (2019) * Li Weifeng (2019)

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 ...

(tier-II) **Champions (1):

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

Results

All-time league rankings

*As of the end of 2019 season. *: In North League : 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

Continental results

Notable players

Had international caps for their respective countries. ;Europe ;Belgium *

(2017–2018) ;Estonia *

Taavi Rähn Taavi Rähn (born 16 May 1981) is a retired Estonian professional footballer. He played in the position of a centre-back. Club career He started his professional career with Flora as a centre-back, then moved on to Ukrainian Premier League club ...

(2011–2012) ;Slovenia *

Aleksandar Rodić Aleksandar Rodić ( sr-Cyrl, Александар Родић, ; born 26 December 1979) is a Slovenian retired Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. Club career At the beginning of his career, ...

(2011–2012) ;South America ;Brazil *

Jádson Jádson Rodrigues da Silva (born 5 October 1983), commonly known as Jádson (), is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Having begun his career at Atlético Paranaense, he moved to Shakhtar Donet ...

(2016) *

Alexandre Pato Alexandre Rodrigues da Silva (; born 2 September 1989), commonly known as Alexandre Pato () or just Pato, is a Brazilian former professional association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker. Pato began ...

(2017–2019) ;Asia ;China * Zhang Xiaorui (2008) * Huang Yong (2009–2010) * Yang Jun (2015–2018) * Zhang Shuo (2015–2017) *

(2016–2020) * Zhao Xuri (2016–2018) * Zhang Lu (2016–2020) ;Hong Kong *

Ng Wai Chiu Ng Wai Chiu (born 22 October 1981 in Hong Kong) is a former Hong Kong professional footballer. He was capped for Hong Kong at various youth levels, as well as the senior national team. He is currently the assistant manager of Chinese Super Lea ...

(2013–2016) *

Jean-Jacques Kilama Jean-Jacques Kilama (; born 13 October 1985) is a former Cameroonian-born Hong Kong professional footballer who played as an amateur for Hong Kong First Division club Eastern District. Club career Indonesia Kilama played in Indonesia

(2016–2017) ;South Korea * Kwon Kyung-won (2017–2020)

References

External links

{{Chinese Super League Defunct football clubs in China Chinese Super League clubs Sport in Tianjin 2006 establishments in China 2020 disestablishments in China Association football clubs established in 2006 Association football clubs disestablished in 2020 Football clubs in China Football clubs in Tianjin Football clubs in Inner Mongolia China League One clubs China League Two clubs