Cangzhou Mighty Lions Football Club () was a Chinese professional football club based in Cangzhou, Hebei. Cangzhou Mighty Lions played its home matches at the Cangzhou Stadium, located within Yunhe District. Their majority shareholder was 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 last year, as Fujian Smart Hero F.C. (). 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.
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 () 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'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. (). 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 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 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 season and on 7 November 2016, brought in Afshin Ghotbi 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 ()
Players
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 (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 – )
Honours
China League One Runners-up: 2014
Results All-time League Rankings
As of the end of the 2023 season.
YearDivPtsPos.FA CupSuper CupAFCAtt./GStadium 2011 3 26 13 9 4 32 16 16 39 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 R1 DNQ DNQ N/A 2021 1 22 6 6 10 25 32 -7 24 11 R5 DNQ DNQ N/ACangzhou 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 In group stage. Avoided relegation due to the dissolution of Jiangsu Suning. Key
China top division China second division China third division W Winners RU Runners-up 3 Third place Relegated
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