Back in the Chinese Super League after ten years! Sichuan football ushered in a historic moment

Source: Sports Weekly

A small 1-0 win is exciting enough for the players in Chengdu Rongcheng. The final whistle sounded, the players on the field and the coaches on the field cheered, and tears flew in the field. From the 2018 Championship to the 2021 Super League, Chengdu Rongcheng has completed the leap from the bottom to the top league in just 4 years; and this club transformed from the youth training camp and preserved the sichuan football torch finally helped Sichuan football complete the recovery after 10 years. With the success of Rongcheng Chongchao, Sichuan football's 10-year history of no Chinese Super League team came to an end.

Sichuan football is bumpy

In the history of Sichuan football, there have been 2 teams competing in the top league. Sichuan Quanxing was a founding member of the Chinese A League A, and after the 2005 season, the team, which later changed its name to Sichuan Guancheng, was disbanded. Sichuan Quanxing once blew a yellow surge, winning the first A third place twice in the 1999 and 2000 seasons, which became a force to be reckoned with in Chinese football at that time. In the 2004 season, Sichuan Guancheng also won the second place in the FA Cup.

Chengdu Wuniu, who began playing in the professional league in 1996, later renamed Chengdu Sheffield United, has played in the Chinese Super League for three seasons: ranked 13th in 2009; ranked 7th in 2010 to create the best record in the history of the team, but was ordered to be relegated due to a match-fixing incident; Chengdu Sheffield United returned to the Chinese Super League after a year, but was relegated again in 2011. The team was relegated to The Second Division after three seasons in the Chinese First Division, ending its historic mission after the 2014 season.

Since Sheffield United's last appearance in the Chinese Super League in 2011, Sichuan football has been away from the top league for 10 years. With the success of Rongcheng Chongchao, Sichuan football has once again returned to the territory of China's top league, and Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic is no longer the only representative of Southwest football.

The transformation of youth training ushers in opportunities

The rise of Chengdu Rongcheng is actually a mixture of persistence and legend. On March 7, 2018, Chengdu Xingcheng Club, the predecessor of Chengdu Rongcheng Club, was established, and it won the second place of the Chinese Champions League and became a professional club that year. In 2019, Chengdu Xingcheng won the second place of the Chinese Second Division and successfully broke through the first division. In the 2020 and 2021 seasons, the team won the 4th place in the Chinese League one for two consecutive seasons. On January 15, 2021, Chengdu Xingcheng Club officially announced that it was officially renamed Chengdu Rongcheng.

The birth of Xingcheng occurred at the darkest moment of Chengdu football and even Sichuan football. After the complete failure of the cooperation between Tiancheng Real Estate and Sheffield United, Chengdu not only no longer has a professional league team, but even the national team may not be able to participate in the Chinese Second Division; in this case, Chengdu's Youth Training Derui Club and Xingcheng Real Estate cooperated to close in the scattered Sichuan players and began to cultivate their own young players. After the rush to the first division, Chengdu Rongcheng showed significantly stronger potential and resilience than other clubs, even if the rush failed, it did not affect the team to continue to increase investment this year.

Looking back at Rongcheng's rush to overtake this season, it can be seen that the team almost failed. Rongcheng Chengjia was in the promotion zone 15 times a year (10 times 1st, 5th 2nd), but all in the first 21 rounds. Rongcheng has appeared in the play-off area 16 times this season (3rd and 4th 6th times in 10 times) and has been in the play-off area since round 22. Rongcheng only ranked outside the top 4 once in the whole year, that is, after the 8th round, it was ranked 6th. In the end, Rongcheng hit the line with the 4th place in the Chinese First Division. However, due to the expansion of the Chinese Super League this year, Chengdu Rongcheng has ushered in a golden opportunity on the next gram. In the end, they also seized the opportunity.

The following grams on the creation of legends

In the two-legged match against Dalian, Chengdu Rongcheng was once considered to have no chance. Opponents have hoarded a large number of young talents in Chinese football and have played some better matches this season; and the decline of Chengdu in the second half has made their status somewhat mysterious.

But head coach Xu Zhengyuan has always been confident in the team. 'Football, it's not possible for all games to be the same, facing different teams, it's also different situations, we are the team that scores the most goals in the middle division, I believe the team's ability to attack the line can be shown in the play-offs." South Korea's new-generation manager, who completed the first step of his five-year goal in his first year of coaching in China, was also surrounded by players after the game, and he shed tears of excitement.

Also shedding tears of excitement were the fans of Chengdu Rongcheng. After the game, Rongcheng Club posted on the social platform that "ten years of drinking ice, four years of journey", after 3724 days of waiting, Chengdu finally has a Chinese Super League team again. Young player Liu Ruovan played the best season of his career here; Romulo, who refracted the winning goal, maintained a high-intensity combination with the team throughout the season and is considered one of the best players in the history of Sichuan football; Zhang Yan, who was in danger due to Zhang Yinuo's low-level mistakes, made countless fights in the last few battles of the season, and this game also defused a very threatening shot of Dalian team.

The legend on the lower gram is not the end for Chengdu Rongcheng. Ten years of drinking ice, a romantic return of Chinese football, this is perhaps the best way to unfold the legendary story of this winter.