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Cangzhou Mighty Lions Football Club (Chinese: 沧州雄狮足球俱乐部; pinyin: Cāngzhōu Xióngshī Zúqiú Jùlèbù) is a Chinese professional football club based in Cangzhou, Hebei, that competes in the Chinese Super League, the top tier of Chinese football. Cangzhou Mighty Lions plays its home matches at the Cangzhou Stadium, located within Yunhe District. Their majority shareholder is the Yongchang Real Estate, who own 70% of the shares of the club.
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| Full name | Cangzhou Mighty Lions Football Club | ||
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| Founded | 25 February 2011 | ||
| Ground | Cangzhou Stadium | ||
| Capacity | 31,836 | ||
| Owner | Yongchang Real Estate | ||
| Chairman | Li Qiang | ||
| Head coach | Li Xiaopeng | ||
| League | Chinese Super League | ||
| 2024 | Chinese Super League, 13th of 16 | ||
| Website | http://www.sjzycfc.com/ | ||
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On February 25, 2011, the club was founded by Smart Hero International Trading Limited (骏豪投资有限公司), Xiamen Dongyuhang Import & Export Co., Ltd. (厦门东屿行进出口有限公司), Xiamen City HS Sheng Industrial Co., Ltd. (厦门协晟工贸有限公司), and Xiamen City Shengxin Metal Products Co., Ltd. (厦门金盛鑫金属制),[1][2] on the basis of local amateur club Xiamen Dongyuhang, which just won the runners-up spot of the China Amateur Football League last year, as Fujian Smart Hero F.C. (Chinese: 福建骏豪足球俱乐部). 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.[3]
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 (Chinese: 永昌地产集团) becoming interested in the team and they bought 70% shares of the club, which officially went through on January 18, 2013.[4] The club moved to Hebei Province's capital city Shijiazhuang into the Yutong International Sports Center. They changed the club's colors to blue and the team's name into Shijiazhuang Yongchang Junhao F.C. (Chinese: 石家庄永昌骏豪足球俱乐部). 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.(Chinese: 石家庄永昌足球俱乐部).[5][6] 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 guiding the team to seventh in the league and safely away from relegation at the end of the 2015 league season.[7] 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.[8] The club was 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.[9] 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.
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- 2011–12: Fujian Smart Hero (福建骏豪)
- 2013: Shijiazhuang Yongchang Junhao (石家庄永昌骏豪)
- 2014: Shijiazhuang Yongchang (石家庄永昌)
- 2015–2020: Shijiazhuang Ever Bright (石家庄永昌)
- 2021–: Cangzhou Mighty Lions (沧州雄狮)
Fujian Smart Hero logo in 2011 and 2012
Shijiazhuang Yongchang Junhao logo in 2013
Shijiazhuang Yongchang logo in 2014
Shijiazhuang Ever Bright logo between 2015 and 2020
Cangzhou Mighty Lions logo since 2021
First team squad
- As of 11 July 2024[10]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Out on loan
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Reserve squad
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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| Position | Staff |
|---|---|
| Head coach |  Li Xiaopeng |
| Assistant coach |  Bai He |
| Goalkeeper coach |  Georgi Sheytanov |
| Conditioning coach |  Christos Sotiriou |
| Technical analyst | Lü Hongchen |
| Technical director | Zhao Junzhe |
Source: sina.com
Managerial history
Managers who have coached the club since they became a completely professional unit on February 25, 2011.[11][12]
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 – 3 Nov 2021)
Svetozar Šapurić (4 Nov 2021 – 20 February 2023)- Zhao Junzhe (21 February 2023 – 15 July 2024 )
- Li Xiaopeng (16 July 2024 – )
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- China League One[13]
- Runners-up: 2014
All-time League Rankings
As of the end of the 2023 season.[14][15]
| Year | Div | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Pos. | FA Cup | Super Cup | AFC | Att./G | Stadium |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 3 | 26 | 13 | 9 | 4 | 32 | 16 | 16 | 39 1 | 3 | DNE | DNQ | DNQ | Longyan Sports Center | |
| 2012 | 2 | 30 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 41 | 32 | 9 | 46 | 3 | R2 | DNQ | DNQ | 4,142 | Fuzhou Stadium / Jinjiang Sports Center Stadium |
| 2013 | 2 | 30 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 26 | 25 | 1 | 40 | 8 | R3 | DNQ | DNQ | 10,053 | Yutong International Sports Center |
| 2014 | 2 | 30 | 17 | 6 | 7 | 42 | 25 | 17 | 57 | RU | R2 | DNQ | DNQ | 11,208 | |
| 2015 | 1 | 30 | 8 | 15 | 7 | 34 | 31 | 3 | 39 | 7 | R3 | DNQ | DNQ | 25,070 | |
| 2016 | 1 | 30 | 7 | 9 | 14 | 28 | 53 | -25 | 30 | 16 | R4 | DNQ | DNQ | 22,523 | |
| 2017 | 2 | 30 | 14 | 12 | 4 | 48 | 34 | 14 | 54 | 3 | R3 | DNQ | DNQ | 16,219 | |
| 2018 | 2 | 30 | 12 | 9 | 9 | 43 | 38 | 5 | 45 | 6 | R3 | DNQ | DNQ | 12,405 | |
| 2019 | 2 | 30 | 18 | 2 | 10 | 59 | 42 | 17 | 56 | RU | R4 | DNQ | DNQ | 17,488 | |
| 2020 | 1 | 20 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 23 | 29 | -6 | 22 | 16 2 | R1 | DNQ | DNQ | N/A | |
| 2021 | 1 | 22 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 25 | 32 | -7 | 24 | 11 | R5 | DNQ | DNQ | N/A | Cangzhou Stadium |
| 2022 | 1 | 34 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 47 | 51 | -4 | 44 | 12 | QF | DNQ | DNQ | N/A | |
| 2023 | 1 | 30 | 8 | 7 | 15 | 29 | 60 | -31 | 31 | 12 | R3 | DNQ | DNQ | 8,692 |
- ^1 In group stage.
- ^2 Avoided relegation due to the dissolution of Jiangsu Suning.
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