Chengdu Rongcheng F.C.

Chengdu Rongcheng Football Club (Chinese: 成都蓉城足球俱乐部; lit. 'Chengdu Hibiscus City F.C.') is a Chinese professional football club based in Chengdu, Sichuan, that competes in the Chinese Super League, the top tier of Chinese football. Chengdu Rongcheng plays its home matches at the Phoenix Hill Football Stadium, located within Jinniu District. The club's founder and their majority shareholder is Chengdu Better City Investment Group Co., Ltd. The name Rongcheng derives from the Chinese expression literally translated as 'Hibiscus City', one of the nicknames for the city of Chengdu.

Chengdu Rongcheng
成都蓉城

Full name	Chengdu Rongcheng Football Club 成都蓉城足球俱乐部
Founded	7 March 2018; 6 years ago (2018-03-07)
Ground	Phoenix Hill Football Stadium, Chengdu, Sichuan
Capacity	50,695
Owner	Chengdu Better City Investment Group Co., Ltd.
Chairman	Li Mingqin
Manager	Seo Jung-won
League	Chinese Super League
2023	Chinese Super League, 4th of 16
Home colours Away colours

History

The club was founded on 7 March 2018, by Chengdu Better City Investment Group Co., Ltd. on the ashes of the dissolved Chengdu Qbao.^[1] With the support of the Chengdu Football Association and the appointment of José Carlos Granero as their head coach, the club would start their journey playing within the Chengdu FA Champions League.^[2] After winning the division, the club would participate within the 2018 Chinese Champions League, where they came runners-up to Taizhou Yuanda and achieved promotion to the third tier of the Chinese football pyramid. Consecutive promotions would follow after finishing as runners-up to Shenyang Urban, followed by a promotion to the second-tier (China League One) at the end of the 2019 China League Two season.^[3]

In the 2020 China League One campaign, the club came fourth in their debut season in the second tier and head coach José Carlos Granero decided not to renew his contract with the club, despite his achievements with the team.^[4] South Korean coach Seo Jung-won would be appointed as their new head coach for the start of the 2021 China League One campaign.^[5] On 15 January 2021, the club changed their name to Chengdu Rongcheng F.C. to comply with the Chinese Football Association's request of teams having neutral names.^[6] On 12 January 2022, Chengdu was promoted to the Chinese Super League after beating Dalian Pro 2–1 on aggregate in the promotion/relegation play-offs.^[7]

 

Phoenix Hill Sports Park Football Stadium, the home ground of Chengdu Rongcheng since 2022

Preparation for Chengdu Rongcheng's 2022 debut Chinese Super League season under Seo Jung-won began as the club signed the likes of Austrian centre-back Richard Windbichler,^[8] Chinese Taipei midfielder Tim Chow,^[9] both on free contracts, South Korean midfielder Kim Min-woo,^[10] among several other pre-season winter signings. Chengdu Rongcheng were winless for their opening 8 games, including a 6-game drawing streak. Chengdu grabbed their first ever CSL win on 8 July at a centralised neutral venue in Meizhou, Guangdong, beating Tianjin Jinmen Tiger 2–1.^[11] Chengdu would go on to win their next four games on the bounce as they propelled themselves to 6th place, 13 games in, until their third loss of the season came against a competitive Shandong Taishan side, who beat them 2–1 on 21 August 2022.^[12] It then went on to be a continuous period of highs as Chengdu were only beaten 2 times in the next 22 games, until the end of the 2022 Chinese Super League season. That period included a 14-game unbeaten league run that further extended into the following season, new incomings as skilled Brazilian Matheus Saldanha had joined on loan for the rest of the season,^[13] and two matches in the Chinese FA Cup. Two 3–0 wins over Hebei and fellow newly-promoted Meizhou Hakka advanced them to a two-legged quarter-final tie where they were eliminated by two 0–4 defeats to Shanghai Port in January of the following calendar year, 2023.^[14] Chengdu Rongcheng finished 5th in the 2022 season on 65 points, narrowly missing out on AFC Champions League football on head-to-head points. The stand-outs and surprise packages of the season were Hu Hetao and Mutellip Iminqari who broke onto the scene under manager Seo Jung-won, and played 25 games and 24 games in all competitions respectively. On 23 December 2022, Chengdu Rongcheng moved to their new and current home, the Phoenix Hill Football Stadium, and were victorious for their first three games of playing at home there that season.

Name history

• 2018–2020 Chengdu Better City F.C. 成都兴城
• 2021– Chengdu Rongcheng F.C. 成都蓉城

Current squad

First team

As of 22 February 2024^[15]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK   CHN Geng Xiaofeng 2 DF   CHN Hu Hetao 3 DF   CHN Tang Xin 4 DF   NED Timo Letschert 5 DF   CHN Hu Ruibao 6 MF   CHN Feng Zhuoyi 7 FW   CHN Wei Shihao 8 MF   TPE Tim Chow 9 FW   CHN Ai Kesen 10 MF   BRA Rômulo 11 DF   ISR Yahav Gurfinkel 15 MF   CHN Yan Dinghao 16 GK   CHN Jian Tao 17 DF   CHN Wu Lei 18 MF   BRA Andrigo 19 DF   CHN Dong Yanfeng

No. Pos. Nation Player 20 DF   CHN Tang Miao 21 FW   BRA Felipe 22 DF   CHN Li Yang 23 DF   CHN Yang Yiming 24 FW   CHN Tang Chuang 25 MF   CHN Mirahmetjan Muzepper 26 MF   CHN Liu Tao 27 DF   CHN Yang Fan 28 DF   CHN Yang Shuai 29 MF   CHN Mutellip Iminqari 30 FW   CHN Ezimet Qeyser 33 GK   CHN Zhang Yan 35 MF   CHN Liao Rongxiang 36 DF   CHN Chen Guoliang 37 FW   CHN Bughrahan Iskandar 39 MF   CHN Gan Chao

Reserve squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK   CHN Zhang Yinuo — GK   CHN Ran Weifeng — DF   CHN Liu Yu — DF   CHN Luo Xin — DF   CHN Sun Yunlong — MF   CHN He Xin

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF   CHN Lu Yang — MF   CHN Luo Zetao — MF   CHN Wang Haile — MF   COL Manuel Palacios — FW   CHN Mu Yiming — FW   CHN Zhang Yitao

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player

Managerial history

•   José Carlos Granero (2018–2020)
•   Seo Jung-won (2021–present)

Results

All-time league rankings

As of the end of 2023 season.^[16]

Year	Div	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Pos.	FA Cup	Super Cup	AFC	Att./G	Stadium
2018	4	3	3	0	0	26	2	24	9	RU	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ		Chengdu Longquanyi Football Stadium
2019	3	30	20	7	3	53	12	41	67	RU	R2	DNQ	DNQ
2020	2	15	10	2	3	20	14	6	32	4	R2	DNQ	DNQ
2021	2	34	21	8	5	81	28	53	71	4^1	R16	DNQ	DNQ
2022	1	34	18	11	5	49	28	21	65	5	QF	DNQ	DNQ		Phoenix Hill Sports Park Football Stadium
2023	1	30	15	8	7	51	32	19	53	4	R3	DNQ	DNQ	34,993

• ^1 Promoted by beating Dalian Pro in the promotion play-offs.

Key

China top division   China second division   China third division   China fourth 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

1. 从头再来!成都兴城足球俱乐部正式成立 盼5年冲超 sina.com 2018-03-20 Retrieved 2018-06-07
2. "成都兴城足球俱乐部正式成立 开启成都足球新篇章". sports.sina.com.cn. 2018-03-20. Retrieved 2022-11-25.
3. "成都兴城0：2不敌沈阳城建 获2019赛季中乙联赛亚军". sohu.com. 2019-10-19. Retrieved 2022-11-25.
4. "公告：卡洛斯先生不再担任成都兴城人居队主教练一职". m.dongqiudi.net. 2020-12-07. Retrieved 2022-11-25.
5. "官方：韩国籍教练徐正源出任成都兴城主帅". m.dongqiudi.net. 2020-12-12. Retrieved 2022-11-25.
6. "公告丨成都兴城足球俱乐部正式更名为成都蓉城足球俱乐部". m.dongqiudi.net. 2021-01-15. Retrieved 2022-11-25.
7. "超甲附加赛-罗慕洛建功 成都1-0冲超 大连人降中甲". 163.com. 2022-01-12. Retrieved 2022-11-25.
8. "官宣：理查德·温德比希勒加盟成都蓉城足球俱乐部" (in Chinese). Dongqiudi. 29 April 2022. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
9. "官宣：周定洋加盟成都蓉城足球俱乐部" (in Chinese). Dongqiudi. 25 April 2022. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
10. "官宣：金敃友加盟成都蓉城足球俱乐部" (in Chinese). Dongqiudi. 21 April 2022. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
11. "成都2-1津门虎取队史中超首胜！木塔力甫首球制胜，巴顿破门" (in Chinese). Dongqiudi. 8 July 2022. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
12. "山东2-1成都，克雷桑造点+连续八轮破门助泰山队豪取八连胜" (in Chinese). Dongqiudi. 21 August 2022. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
13. "官宣：萨尔达尼亚租借加盟成都蓉城足球俱乐部" (in Chinese). Dongqiudi. 26 August 2022. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
14. "足协杯战报：海港总比分8-0成都晋级，奥斯卡传射" (in Chinese). Dongqiudi. 8 January 2023. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
15. "2023赛季中超联赛成都蓉城足球队大名单正式发布！". Dongqiudi (in Chinese). 15 April 2023. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
16. (in Chinese). sodasoccer.com. Archived from the original on 2019-06-03. Retrieved 2016-11-12.