Guangzhou R&F

Guangzhou R&F

GUANGZHOU R&F

Guangzhou R&F are based in Guangzhou, Guangdong and play their home games at the Yuexiushan Stadium. They are currently owned by the Chinese property developer R&F Properties who took over the club in June 2011. The club was originally founded in 1986, in Shenyang as Shenyang Ginde FC. They then moved to Changsha in 2007. In 2010, they were bought by American sportswear and Sports equipment company MAZAMBA and they relocated to Shenzhen in February 2011. Their ownership was brief and in June 2011, R&F Properties took over the club and relocated to Guangzhou.

MANAGER
Guangzhou R&F are currently managed by Dragan Stojkovic who took over on August 24th 2014. He succeeded Cosmin Contra and Sven Goran Eriksson. Dragan Stojkovic had a distinguished playing career for Red Star Belgrade and the Yugoslavia National Team. He previously managed Nagoya Grampus. He led them to the League title and was named the manager of the year. Grampus’ former manager Arsene Wenger publically congratulated him for his achievements.

INTERNATIONAL PLAYERS
Eran Zahavi, Junior Urso, Apostolos Giannou, Rennatino and Jang Hyun-Soo.

Eran Zahavi is one of Israel’s all-time greats despite being only 29. He has been Israeli player of the year twice and was top scorer for three consecutive seasons in the Israeli Premier League. In 2015-16 he score 35 goals in a season setting an all-time club and League record. He is a regular Israeli International.

Junior Urso transferred to Guangzhou R&F on 9th January 2017. He previously played for Shandong Luneng. He previously played for a number of Brazilian clubs.

Apostolos Giannou played for the likes of PAOK in Greece before joining Guangzhou in 2016. He played for Greece in a sole international before switching allegiance to Australia. He played for half a dozen games for the Kangaroos.

Rennatino is what you would call a journeyman, having played for 6 clubs in less than 8 years. But he now seems settled in China having been in Guangzhou since 2017.

Jang Hyun-Soo played for Tokyo FC before moving to Guangzhou R&F in 2014. He has become a mainstay there having played over 63 times. He has also played for his country South Korea and also went to Brazil for the Olympics last summer.

RECORD SCORER
Davi is Guangzhou’s top scorer with 30 goals. Second on the list is Abderazak Hamed-Allah with 26. Among the current players, Lin Lu is next on the list with 21. Israeli Eran Zahawi has 17 goals to his name while scoring at the rate of 0.81 per match.

RIVALRY
The club took part in the Liaoning Derby with Dalian Football Club and Liaoning FC when in Shenyang. When the club moved to Guangzhou, they formed a rivalry with Guangzhou Evergrande. The matches they play are known as Canton Derby.

HONOURS
Jia League B/China League 1 x2 (1991, 2001)