Cangzhou Mighty Lions Information

The Cangzhou Mighty Lions are a Chinese Super League team that was established in 2011, making it one of the youngest members of the league. The club is based in Cangzhou in the province of Hebei. Yongchang Real Estate has owned the club since 2013.

Svetozar Šapurić is the team’s current manager, having taken over from previous coach Afshin Ghotbi. The club finished third in the relegation group last year, securing its top flight status for another year. The top scorer for Cangzhou last season was Congo forward Oscar Taty Maritu, who scored seven times.

Cangzhou Mighty Lions History

Cangzhou has enjoyed a meteoric rise through China’s football divisions since the club’s founding in 2011. Cangzhou started life as a club under a different name as Fujian Smart Hero FC. Upon its establishment, it was entered into the third tier of Chinese football – China League 2.

Fujian would take to the league like a duck to water and earned promotion to China League 1 in its first fully-fledged season. Upon promotion, the club changed its name to Shijiazhuang Yongchang Junhao FC and moved to Hebei. In 2014, the owners of the club changed the name again to Shijiazhuang Yongchang F.C, and the club achieved another promotion from China League 1 into the Chinese Super League. 

Since the club gained promotion in 2014, it’s been a bit of an up-down period. It finished seventh in its first full season in the top flight before being relegated in 2016. The club would remain in the second tier of Chinese football until 2020, when they once again won promotion. They should have been relegated again at the end of the 2020/2021 campaign but escaped due to the financial collapse of Jiangsu FC. The club became the Cangzhou Mighty Lions in 2021.