Chengdu Rongcheng Football Club (Chinese: 成都蓉城足球俱乐部; lit. 'Chengdu Hibiscus City F.C.') is a Chinese professional football club based in Chengdu, Sichuan, that competes in the Chinese Super League, the top tier of Chinese football. Chengdu Rongcheng plays its home matches at the Phoenix Hill Football Stadium, located within Jinniu District. The club's founder and their majority shareholder is Chengdu Better City Investment Group Co., Ltd. The name Rongcheng derives from the Chinese expression literally translated as 'Hibiscus City', one of the nicknames for the city of Chengdu.
History
The club was founded on 7 March 2018, by Chengdu Better City Investment Group Co., Ltd. on the ashes of the dissolved Chengdu Qbao.[1] With the support of the Chengdu Football Association and the appointment of José Carlos Granero as their head coach, the club would start their journey playing within the Chengdu FA Champions League.[2] After winning the division, the club would participate within the 2018 Chinese Champions League, where they came runners-up to Taizhou Yuanda and achieved promotion to the third tier of the Chinese football pyramid. Consecutive promotions would follow after finishing as runners-up to Shenyang Urban, followed by a promotion to the second-tier (China League One) at the end of the 2019 China League Two season.[3]
In the 2020 China League One campaign, the club came fourth in their debut season in the second tier and head coach José Carlos Granero decided not to renew his contract with the club, despite his achievements with the team.[4] South Korean coach Seo Jung-won would be appointed as their new head coach for the start of the 2021 China League One campaign.[5] On 15 January 2021, the club changed their name to Chengdu Rongcheng F.C. to comply with the Chinese Football Association's request of teams having neutral names.[6] On 12 January 2022, Chengdu was promoted to the Chinese Super League after beating Dalian Pro 2–1 on aggregate in the promotion/relegation play-offs.[7]
Phoenix Hill Sports Park Football Stadium, the home ground of Chengdu Rongcheng since 2022
Preparation for Chengdu Rongcheng's 2022 debut Chinese Super League season under Seo Jung-won began as the club signed the likes of Austrian centre-backRichard Windbichler,[8] Chinese Taipei midfielderTim Chow,[9] both on free contracts, South Korean midfielder Kim Min-woo,[10] among several other pre-season winter signings. Chengdu Rongcheng were winless for their opening 8 games, including a 6-game drawing streak. Chengdu grabbed their first ever CSL win on 8 July at a centralised neutral venue in Meizhou, Guangdong, beating Tianjin Jinmen Tiger 2–1.[11] Chengdu would go on to win their next four games on the bounce as they propelled themselves to 6th place, 13 games in, until their third loss of the season came against a competitive Shandong Taishan side, who beat them 2–1 on 21 August 2022.[12] It then went on to be a continuous period of highs as Chengdu were only beaten 2 times in the next 22 games, until the end of the 2022 Chinese Super League season. That period included a 14-game unbeaten league run that further extended into the following season, new incomings as skilled Brazilian Matheus Saldanha had joined on loan for the rest of the season,[13] and two matches in the Chinese FA Cup. Two 3–0 wins over Hebei and fellow newly-promoted Meizhou Hakka advanced them to a two-legged quarter-final tie where they were eliminated by two 0–4 defeats to Shanghai Port in January of the following calendar year, 2023.[14] Chengdu Rongcheng finished 5th in the 2022 season on 65 points, narrowly missing out on AFC Champions League football on head-to-head points. The stand-outs and surprise packages of the season were Hu Hetao and Mutellip Iminqari who broke onto the scene under manager Seo Jung-won, and played 25 games and 24 games in all competitions respectively. On 23 December 2022, Chengdu Rongcheng moved to their new and current home, the Phoenix Hill Football Stadium, and were victorious for their first three games of playing at home there that season.
