Jiangsu Suning FC

Jiangsu Suning

Jiangsu Suning FC is based in Nanjing, Jiangsu and play their home matches in the Nanjing Olympic Sports Center. They are currently owned by the Suning Appliance group. Jiangsu were founded in 1958 as a semi-professional team but later reorganized themselves to become professional in 1994. Jiangsu is one of the founding members of the first professional league in China. They were however relegated in their first professional season and only gained promotion back in 2008. They have since become one of the stronger teams in China and have finished runner-up twice – in 2012 and 2016. According to Forbes Jiangsu Sunning is the fourth most valuable team in China with a value of 144m. They collected an estimated 36m in revenue in 2015.

MANAGER

South Korean Choi Yong-soo is at the helm of Jiangsu Sunning and has been in charge since 2016. He had a distinguished club career having played for the likes of Seoul FC. He was also part of the dream run by South Korea in the 2002 WC. He was head coach of Seoul FC for 4 years till 2016 and took his team to the final of the AFC Champions League in 2014.

INTERNATIONAL PLAYERS

Ramires is Jiangsu’s most high profile international player with a distinguished career at Chelsea and Benfica. He has over 50 caps for Brazil. In his career he won the Premier League, Champions League, Europa League as well as the Portuguese tier 1.

Roger Martinez joined Jiangsu in 2016 and has a scorching goal record of 10 in 12 league games. He has been capped 7 times for his country.

Alex Teixeira joined Jiangsu for then-Asian record of 50m. He was brought from Shakthar Donetsk where he won the Ukrainian League 5 times while scoring 89 goals.

Hong Jeong-ho played for Bundesliga side Augsburg for 3 years before joining Jiangsu in 2012.

RECORD SCORER

Cristian Danalache has plundered the most goals for Jiangsu with 37. He is followed in second place by Xi Wu. He has scored 26 goals and may sill add to this tally. Record signing is 3rd among current players and 6th overall with a solid 21 goals at an average of 0.45 per match.

RIVALRY

The club has rivalries with neighboring Hangzhou Greentown FC and Shanghai based teams Shanghai SIPG and Shanghai Shenhua. The teams contest derbies known as Yangtze Delta Derby. Among these, Jiangsu is fierce rivals with Shenhua with whom they contested the 1960 Championship. In the city, they have a local rivalry with Nanjing Yoyo FC with whom they contested local derbies until the latter folded due to financial difficulties.

HONOURS

Chinese Jia-A League/ Chinese Super League Runner up x2 (2012, 2016)
Chinese League One x2 (1992, 2008)
Chinese League Two (1997)
Chinese FA Cup (2015)
Chinese FA Super Cup (2013)