Zhejiang Professional Football Club (Chinese: 浙江职业足球俱乐部; pinyin: Zhèjiāng Zhíyè Zúqiú Jùlèbù), commonly referred to as Zhejiang FC or simply Zhejiang, is a Chinese professional football club based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, that competes in the Chinese Super League, the top tier of Chinese football. Zhejiang plays its home matches at the Huanglong Sports Center, located within Xihu District. The club's main investors are the Zhejiang-based Greentown China Holdings Limited company and the Zhejiang Energy Group.
The club was founded on January 14, 1998, as Zhejiang Green Town, making their debut in the third tier of China's football league pyramid in the 1999 league season. On November 23, 2000, the club bought the playing right for Chinese Football Association Jia League as well as 32 players from first team of Jilin Aodong for 25 million Yuan. They have subsequently won promotion to the top tier after finishing runners-up in the 2006 league season and the highest position they have ever finished is third in the 2022, 2023 Chinese Super League seasons.
Zhejiang Green Town Football Club Co., Ltd. was officially established on January 14, 1998, with a capital of 16,000,000 Yuan and Zeng Leming was appointed as their general manager. Greentown Real Estate Company, Hangzhou Qiantang Real Estate Company, Zhejiang University and Zhejiang Provincial Football Association all participated in the creation as well as the registration of the club.[1] The company would go on to form a youth team before finally creating a senior team on January 22, 1999, to take part in the third tier with Bao Yingfu as their first head coach. They wouldn't wait long to show their ambition when they would make the play-offs in 2000 before losing to Tianjin Lifei.[2] Still determined to win promotion the club decided to buy the playing right for Chinese Football Association Jia League as well as 32 players from first team of Yanbian (Then Jilin Aodong) on November 23, 2000, for 25,000,000 Yuan, in time for the beginning of the 2001 league season. Under the new general manager Shen Qiang the club brought in new sponsors and Gu Mingchang as the new head coach, however during this period the club couldn't win promotion to the top tier and the chairman Song Weiping expressed his disappointment of the team. Song Weiping would soon discover that the reason for his club's disappointing results when it was discovered that several of his players and coaches were taking bribes, with a 6–0 defeat against Changchun Yatai in the 2001 league season being highlighted, which saw the offending participants banned for a year while the club had three months to reform and re-apply for a CFA playing license.[3] This would see the club would go through several management changes as well as a significant ownership shift, which saw Song Weiping's company Greentown China Holdings Limited take a 96% share of the team for 20,000,000 Yuan in 2005 while Zhejiang University held on to 4%.[1]
In 2009, The club renamed itself to Hangzhou Greentown Football Club.
Under Wang Zheng as their head coach the team would start to generally push for promotion, eventually achieving it at the end of the 2006 league season when they came second in the division.[4] The club often found themselves fighting off relegation and would bring in several managers to alleviate the problem, however this wasn't enough during the 2009 league season and the club found themselves in the relegation zone at the end of the season. Surprisingly the club were allowed to stay within the 2010 CFA Super League after it was discovered that Chengdu Blades and Guangzhou GPC were guilty of match-fixing.[5]
After gaining a reprieve from relegation the club went on a spending spree by signing several established Chinese internationals such as Du Wei, Li Yan and Wang Song.[6] The signings seemed to work and the club's results significantly improved throughout the 2010 league campaign, which saw the club achieve their best ever finish of fourth and a chance to play within the 2011 AFC Champions League for the first time.[7]
This club is known for its outstanding football academy and youth training facilities. However, they were relegated to the 2017 China League One after getting second-to-last place in the 2016 Chinese Super League because of their bad performances for the season with only 8 wins in 30 games.[8]
Aimed to take the crown in the football competition of 2017 National Games of China, Hangzhou Greentown adopted a risky youngster-first policy which was more radical than ever. But good wishes were all vain. In 2017, the team struggled near the relegation zone in their first season of China League while the youngsters who formed the Team Zhejiang watched the championship slip away in the final. Young trainer Xu Lei filled in manager Hong Myung-bo's shoes and the team finally ranked 9th in the league. Meanwhile, former player and veteran Jiao Fengbo also returned as the new general manager.
On 14 January 2018, the club changed their name to Zhejiang Greentown Football Club for the 20th anniversary of the club.[9] The same season they reached third place in the China League, one place away from returning to the CFA Super League.
In September 2020, the team changed their name to Zhejiang Energy Greentown Football Club, as Zhejiang Energy Group stepped in as one of the major shareholders, while Song Weiping officially quit the club.[10]
On 26 February 2021, According to the requirements of non-corporate change of club name by the Chinese Football Association, after several rounds of discussion and reported to the relevant provincial departments and the Chinese Football Association for review and approval, the club's name changed to Zhejiang Professional Football Club.[11]
Zhejiang finished third in the 2022 Chinese Super League season, which is their highest position they have ever finished in the top tier of the Chinese league saw them qualified for the 2023–24 AFC Champions League group stage after 12 years.
On 20 June 2024, AFC confirmed Zhejiang will participate in the inaugural 2024–25 AFC Champions League Two group stage.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
John Jairo Trellez (2001–04).svg/1280px-Flag_of_Australia_(converted).svg.png){kind=small}
Anthony Grdic (2001–03)
Philippe Chanlot (2001)
Bertin Tomou (2002–03, 2005)
Orlando Bernades da Silva (2005–06) Tico (2006–07) Argel Fuchs (2007) Erivaldo Saraiva (2008–09)
Ng Wai Chiu (2009–10)
Luis Ramírez (2010–11)
Kim Dong-jin (2012–13) Fabrício (2012)
Davy Angan (2013–16)
Masashi Oguro (2013) Anselmo Ramon (2014–17)
Chen Po-liang (2015–19) Matthew Spiranovic (2015–17)
Imed Louati (2015) Tim Cahill (2016)
Roda Antar (2016)
Sammir (2016) Rafael Martins (2018–20)
Dino Ndlovu (2018–20)
Nyasha Mushekwi (2019–23) Leung Nok Hang (2021–) Franko Andrijašević (2021–) Matheus Leite Nascimento (2021–22) Lucas (2022–) Jean Evrard Kouassi (2023–)As of 18 May 2022
Source: [1]
Bao Yingfu (22 Jan 1999 – Dec 1999) (general coach) Zhu Haibo (May 1999 – Dec 1999) Wu Tingrui (Dec 1999 – Jul 2000) Zhang Jingtian (18 Jan 2000 – 2000) (general coach) Zhou Chenggui (Jul 2000 – Oct 2000) Gu Mingchang (23 Dec 2001 – 7 Jul 2001) Wang Changtai (8 Jul 2001 – 21 Jul 2001) (caretaker).svg/1280px-Flag_of_Serbia_and_Montenegro_(1992%E2%80%932006).svg.png){kind=small}
Goran Kalušević (24 Jul 2001 – 28 Aug 2001) Wang Changtai (28 Aug 2001 – 6 Oct 2001) (caretaker)
Bobby Houghton (Jan 2002 – 21 Jul 2003) Li Bing (21 Jul 2003 – Dec 2003) Wang Zheng (Dec 2003 – 15 May 2007) Zhou Suian (15 May 2007 – Dec 2007) Sun Wei (Dec 2007 – 21 Apr 2008) Zhou Suian (21 Apr 2008 – 21 Sept 2009) Wu Jingui (21Sept 2009 – Nov 2011) Takeshi Okada (15 Dec 2011 – 5 Nov 2013) Yang Ji (6 Nov 2013 – 4 Nov 2014) Philippe Troussier (2 Dec 2014 – 1 Jul 2015) Yang Ji (1 Jul 2015 – Nov 2015) Hong Myung-bo (17 Dec 2015 – 25 May 2017)
Zdravko Zdravkov (25 May 25, 2017 – Nov 2017) (caretaker)
Sergi Barjuán (26 Nov 2017 – 3 July 2019) Zheng Xiong (3 July 2019 – 31 Dec 2020) Jordi Vinyals (1 Jan 2021 – )All-time League rankings
As of the start of 2024 season.[16][17]
^1 Bought the first team of Jilin Aodong as well as their position in second tier.
^2 Two CSL clubs were involved in match-fixing scandal and relegated to China League, so Hangzhou Greentown could stay at top level.
^3 Failed to achieve promotion in the play-off.
^4 Promotion was achieved via the play-off.
Key
Because there are not many football clubs based on Zhejiang in history, Zhejiang FC has rarely been able to have a rival in the province for a long time. In 2017, after being relegated to China League, Hangzhou Greentown briefly had a 2-seasons Zhejiang derby with Zhejiang Yiteng but only won 1 out of 4 matches. More often than not, Zhejiang FC has a stronger rivalry with other teams of the same level in the Wu Chinese region, particularly Shanghai Shenhua, and Shanghai Zhongyuan historically.