Shanghai SIPG FC are based in Xuhui, Shanghai and play in the Shanghai Stadium that can seat close to 57k people. The owners of the team are Shanghai International Port Group. The club was founded by former Chinese international Xu Genbao on 25th December 2005 as Shanghai Dongya. They made their debut in the 2006 Chinese third-league and have worked their way to the top. The highest position they have secured in a season was 2nd place in 2015. According to Forbes, Shanghai SIPG is the third-most valuable team in China with a club value of $159m. They had an estimated $37m revenue in 2015.
MANAGER
Shanghai SIPG are managed by former Chelsea and Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas. He was appointed on 4th November 2016 and this campaign would be his first full year in charge. Before him former England national team manager Sven-Goran Eriksson was in charge and guided the club to their highest ever finish in 2015.
INTERNATONAL PLAYERS
Shanghai SIPG is home to many top quality international players like Oscar, Hulk, Ricardo Carvalho, Odil Ahmedov and Brazillian Elkeson.
Oscar has played for Chelsea in the Premier League and has won the title and the Europa League among other triumphs before moving to Shanghai for an Asian record transfer of £60m. Hulk was signed by Shanghai for a then Asian transfer fee of about £56m. He was prolific for Porto and Zenit St. Petersburg and has averaged 0.75 goals per game here. Ricardo Carvalho also played for Chelsea and Real Madrid. He won 3 titles in both England and Spain and was a member of Portugal’s Euro 2016 team. Odil Ahmedov played for Anzhi and Krasnodar before joining Shangai. He is nearing a 100 caps for his country. Elkeson was prolific for Guangzhow Evergrande before switching to Shanghai.
RECORD SCORER
Lei Wu is Shanghai SIPG’s top scorer with 68 goals to his name. Of the current players closest to him Elkeson has 20 followed by Wenjun Lu and Hulk.
RIVALS
The club’s main rivals are against Shanghai Shenhua and Shanghai Shenxin whom they contest in the local Shanghai derby. With the clubs founder Xu Genbao having managed Shenhua to the 1995 league title, the Shenhua tie holds a direct personal link between the two teams. On 28 April 2013 the two sides met for the first time in a league game that saw the club defeated 2–1 to Shenhua. The tie against Shanghai Shenxin also contains strong links between the two teams with players Jiang Zhipeng and Wang Jiayu having represented both teams before the two clubs met in their first derby on 2 June 2013, which resulted in a 6–1 victory. The club’s geographical location has also opened them up to rivalries with neighbouring club’s Hangzhou Greentown and Jiangsu Guoxin-Sainty where they contest in a fixture called the Yangtze Delta Derby.
CLUB TRIUMPHS
Chinese Super League Runner-up (2015)
China League One (2012)
China League Two (2007)