Get up again and wait for the moon! Manatee returns, Chinese Super League recreates the "founding derby"

Keep the clouds open, and finally welcome the moon. On November 28, Qingdao Manatee defeated Xinjiang 7:1 and returned to the Chinese Super League two rounds early.

After nine years of sinking, this powerhouse that existed in the early days of the professional league has finally returned to the top league family. Eighteen years ago, the Chinese Super League was founded, 12 teams were in the top gun, the "derby" was one after another, the fans were enthusiastic, looking back, the "founding derby" of that year was all cleared, and the return of the Manatee finally allowed Qilu derby to continue.

"Occasionally the wind and rain fell, and then got up again to wait for the moon." In the past 18 years, China's professional league has been up and down, stop and go, but fortunately there are unremitting perseverants like Qingdao Manatee, and their efforts have finally paid off.

Football has finally returned to its original appearance.

At that time, the grand scenery Tri-Derby

In 2004, the Chinese professional league was upgraded and 12 teams became the founding teams of the Chinese Super League.

Among the 12 teams, there are 3 in Shanghai, 3 in Liaoning, 2 in Shandong, and the remaining 4, scattered in Beijing, Tianjin, Sichuan and Guangdong, and Shenzhen is the only representative of Nanyue football.

An undeniable fact is that the important cities of Chinese football at that time were in Liao, Shanghai and Lu.

Shanghai Shenhua, Shanghai COSCO and Shanghai Liancheng form the "Shanghai Derby", Liaoning, Shenyang, Dalian form the "Liaoning Derby", Shandong Luneng and Qingdao Zhongneng form the "Qilu Derby", whenever these teams meet together, there will always be a lot of stories happening.

Shanghai Shenhua and Shanghai COSCO Shanghai derby are the hottest derbies at the beginning.

In 2001, Xu Genbao led Shanghai COSCO to rush into A A as the champion of the A-B League, and then switched to Shenhua, and COSCO invited the famous French coach Leroy to come to COSCO with him, as well as Renard, who had just led Saudi Arabia to defeat Argentina in the World Cup. The COSCO team recruited talents, Fan Zhiyi, Qi Hong, Shensi and other former Shenhua main forces have joined, the COSCO team and the Shenhua team competed, Xu Genbao said that Fan Zhiyi is a "hollow radish", but also to increase the popularity of the Shanghai derby.

In 2002, the first game of A A was the Shanghai derby, which attracted much attention, and many foreign media rushed to report, and the famous Manatee Chen Gang was playing in Shenhua at that time, and the first thing he said when he saw me was: Isn't this a derby?

In that match, COSCO won 2-0 against Shenhua.

The peak of the Shanghai derby was in 2003, that is, the last A-A, Shanghai Shenhua and Shanghai COSCO met in the 25th round, after the COSCO team accumulated 45 points and Shenhua team accumulated 43 points, ranking in the top two of the standings. As a result, Shenhua won 4:1 to overtake the score, and the one-point gap lasted until the final round. In the last round, the Shenhua team lost to Shenzhen 1:4, everyone thought that the COSCO team would take the opportunity to win the championship, but unexpectedly, the COSCO team lost to Tianjin 1:2, the Tianjin team was successfully relegated, and the Shenhua team won the last A championship.

Years later, fans learned it was a multi-party hoax, and Shenhua was stripped of their 2003 A-League title.

The derby between the two teams lasted until the Chinese Super League era, and then everyone knew what happened, Shanghai Shenhua and Shanghai United City merged, Shanghai COSCO went to Xi'an, then Guizhou, Beijing, the name was also changed repeatedly, and after a short "Beijing derby", it ceased to exist.

The Shenyang team then moved to Changsha, then Shenzhen, and finally was acquired by Guangzhou R&F, and now it becomes Guangzhou City Team.

The Liaoning team disappeared from the stage of the professional league after a series of turmoil.

The most successful team in the early days of the professional league, Dalian, after changing owners, relegation and transfer, returned to the Chinese Super League last year and became the current Dalian people.

The first two derbies of the Chinese Super League came to an end. After that, Guangzhou derby, Jinmen derby, Hebei derby, and new Shanghai derby appeared, full of new giants, completely not the old look.

Qilu battle Manatee sinks

In contrast, the Qilu derby of Shandong Luneng and Qingdao Zhongneng has always been relatively stable, whether it is personnel composition or team belonging, it has always had Qilu characteristics, and the records of the two teams are also mutually victorious and defeated.

In fact, from the early days of the professional league, these two teams have a deep relationship and compete with each other.

Qingdao team was originally formed, the team is the former Shandong team retired players, in 1995, Qingdao team rushed into the first year of A A, Qilu derby became the attraction, the first game Taishan team sat home, before the game opened a winning award, the result of the two teams to tie, although the winning prize was not opened, the atmosphere of competition between the two teams has been formed. In the difficult moment of the relegation of the Manatee team in the second half of the year, Shandong drew 1:1 with Qingdao, and it was Li Xiaopeng from Qingdao who scored a goal with a magic stroke.

Qilu derby did not give in to each other, Qingdao team was eventually relegated, and this draw also laid the groundwork for the two teams to fight later.

In 1996, Qingdao returned to the A-A team, and for 17 consecutive years, Shandong and Qingdao played the Qilu derby in the top league until 2013.

That year, Shandong Luneng double-beat Qingdao Zhongneng and Qingdao team was relegated to the Central League One by the last point.

At this point, the three major derbies of the Chinese Super League in 2004 disappeared, Jinyuan football began to prevail, and China's professional leagues were redefined.

At the beginning of the league, Manatee was known as the "relegation professional". In 1994, A B was promoted to A A, in 1995 A A was demoted to A B, and in 1996 A B was promoted to A A. Since then, the Manatee have been in crisis many times, always miraculously relegated, and have also won sixth place in the league and the FA Cup.

So, when they were downgraded in 2013, many people thought they would come back soon.

In 2014, they did come close to coming back, only to be fifth after being deducted 7 points. After that, the main team lost a lot of players, the team's development encountered difficulties, and in 2016, Qingdao Zhongneng was relegated to the Central B.

In 3 years, the team has been relegated two levels in a row, will they come back?

In the history of China's professional league, there has never been a team that can return to the top league after two consecutive relegations, and even exists.

Nine years of dormancy Brothers reunited

The Manatee's road back, so hard.

It has to be said that the impact of Golden Yuan football on the Manatee team is all-round, not only the loss of talent, nor just the shortage of funds.

On November 3, 2013, Qingdao Zhongneng lost 0:1 to Beijing Guoan and was relegated to the Central League One, and the picture of team owner Qiao Weiguang crying has become the memory of many Qingdao fans.

Since then, the team has frequently changed coaches and even lost the title of "Manatee", but it has never been able to achieve the goal of overtaking.

The old coach Yin Tiesheng is a witness to the ups and downs of this team.

In 2005, Yin Tiesheng came to Qingdao Zhongneng and led this team to play for 3 seasons. As the meritorious coach of Shandong Taishan team, Yin Tiesheng is the manager who led the team to participate in the Qilu derby, and he led Taishan team to the 1995 and 1997 seasons against Manatee.

Leading two different teams to participate in the derby of the top league in 5 seasons, Yin Tiesheng is also unique in the entire Chinese football scene.

In 2016, Yin Tiesheng entered the island city and replaced his disciple Su Maozhen, hoping to lead the Zhongneng team out of the predicament, but the team was still relegated to the Central B, and Qilu Debi was far away.

During this period, the same city Qingdao Huanghai team rushed into the Chinese Super League, relegated two years later, and then announced its disbandment, because these two seasons have been a conference system, Qingdao fans still have not been able to experience the atmosphere of Qilu Derby.

In 2021, Zhongneng won back the title of "Manatee", and Yin Tiesheng regrouped and led Qingdao Manatee back to the Central League as the champion team of China B.

Yin Tiesheng, who entered the island city of Sanjin, has been looking forward to leading the Manatee team to rush into the Chinese Super League and reproduce the "Qilu Derby".

On the evening of November 28, when he really achieved this goal, when interviewed by reporters, Yin Tiesheng seemed very calm: "We have finally achieved the goal of rushing overtake, and for me it is a mission that is not disappointing." Qingdao is a football city, it needs a Chinese Super League team, Shandong is a big football province, and the reproduction of Qilu derby is also a good promotion for Shandong's football career. ”

As a derby opponent for many years, Shandong Taishan Club also sent a congratulatory letter after Manatee overtook it, saying that Qingdao Manatee is a football powerhouse with a long and glorious history in our province, and has advanced to the Chinese Super League this season, writing a new history of Shandong football and Qingdao football.

Qingdao Manatee investor Qiao Weiguang, who has invested a lot of effort in taking over this team for 18 years, and the 9 years of the team's relegation are undoubtedly his most disappointing time: "These nine years have not been easy, and the results now reflect the spirit of our energy, the spirit of Qingdao people, and the spirit of not admitting defeat." Our team went from the Chinese Super League to the Chinese First and then to the Second Division, when the company was also facing transformation, but we persevered in difficult times. Super League, we are back and don't want to go down anymore! ”

Zhang Dong, vice chairman and general manager of Manatee Club, also has new ideas for the development of the team: "Team results are not the only criteria for judging professional clubs, the sustainable development of the club and the goal of 'building a century-old club' are the focus of our work in the future." Aside from the competitive level, I think the development of the club should convey more humanistic feelings and hometown complexes, show the spirit of struggle of Qingdao people through football, and bring vitality to the development of Qingdao, which I think is more important. ”

The success of Manatee rushing means that a new upgrade in personnel structure and capital investment is required, and a new change in concept is needed. As the only remaining "founding derby" of the Chinese Super League, Qilu derby needs to revisit the history and look forward to the future, both healthy competition and hand in hand.

All encounters are reunions after a long absence, and the Qilu derby of "nine" reunion will give the Chinese professional league a new content.

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