SHANGHAI SHENHUA

'Shanghai Shenhua' (Simplified Chinese: 上海申花) is a Chinese Super League football club.
They play at the 35,000 seat Hongkou Stadium in Shanghai, China and is owned by Zhu Jun (75%), Shanghai SVA Group, SMEG (Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group) and Huangpu Investment Ltd. (SMEG + Huangpu Investment 25%). Their head coach is Osvaldo Gimenez.
The club was founded on 10 December, 1993 and was first sponsored by a local company named Shenhua (''Shenhua'' also means "flower of Shanghai" in Chinese). At the end of 2001, Shenhua ended their sponsorship of club, then SVA and SMEG came aboard. The club changed its name to Shanghai Shenhua SVA SMEG Football Club (SFC). The team however is unique as it still retains "Shenhua" in its name while many other teams drop the name of their former sponsors completely.
The club is the most successful of the Shanghai teams, the others being Shanghai Zobon and, formally, Inter Shanghai. Shenhua are 2 time top-tier champions and 6 time runners up. Their biggest supporters club is called ''Blue Devil''.
In 2007, Zhu Jun, the owner of in-city rival Shanghai United F.C. bought a majority share of Shanghai Shenhua, thus began to merge the two clubs. The new club moved their home stadium to Yuanshen Sports Centre Stadium in Pudong, Shanghai, which was the stadium Shanghai United F.C. played in last season. In the new squad submitted for the AFC Champions League, 17 players appeared in the China national football team or the China national under-23 football team.
After the merge, the club is struggling in the league. Rumors of internal conflicts are spreading after Du Wei was abruptly demoted to the reserves team for lack of match-fitness immidiatly after played two games for the national team[1]. Many other old Shenhua players were also demoted, such as Zheng Kewei, Li Chengming, Liu Hongtao and Cheng Liang. In the 2007 Asian Champions League, Shanghai has suffered three straight losses with two draws, the worst record of any Chinese team in the ACL. The combination of Shanghai United team has destabilized the original compact, effective team under Wu Jingui.

Contents

Honours

Current squad

Out on loan

Famous previous players

External links

Honours

★ (Former) Jia A Champions (1995, 2003)

★ (Former) Jia A Runners-up (1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001)

★ Chinese Super League Runner-up (2005 & 2006)

★ Chinese FA Cup Winners (1998)

★ Chinese Super Cup Winners (1996, 1999, 2002)

★ A3 Champions Cup Winners (2007)

Current squad

''Correct as of 17 June 2007''

Out on loan

★ Walter Martínez (FW) on loan to Beijing Guoan

Famous previous players

;China

★ Fan Zhiyi (1994-1998)

★ Liu Yunfei (2006-2007)

★ Ou Chuliang

★ Qi Hong (1994-2003)

★ Qu Shengqing (2001-2004)

★ Shen Si

★ Wu Chengying

★ Yu Weiliang

★ Zhang Yuning (2003-2006)
;Brazil

★ Júnior Baiano (2001)
;Germany

★ Jörg Albertz (2003-2004)

★ Carsten Jancker (2006-2007)
;Honduras

★ Saul Martinez (2002-2005)

★ Luis Alfredo Ramirez (2006)
;Serbia

★ Ivan Jovanović (2006)

★ Dejan Petković (2003)
;Uruguay

★ Rubén Sosa (2002)

★ Peter Vera (2004)

External links

★ Official Site

★ Shanghai Shenhua Stadium at Worldstadiums.com

★ Sinosoc

★ Gimenez to coach newly combined Shanghai Shenhua