Hangzhou Nabel Greentown F.C.

Hangzhou Nabel Greentown
杭州诺贝尔绿城

Full name	Hangzhou Greentown FC 杭州绿城房产足球俱乐部
Nickname(s)	Greentown
Founded	January 14, 1998
Ground	Hangzhou Huanglong Stadium (Capacity: 51,000)
Chairman	Bao Zhongliang
Manager	Wu Jingui
League	Chinese Super League
2011	8th
Home colours Away colours

Hangzhou Nabel Greentown F.C. (Simplified Chinese: 杭州绿城足球俱乐部) is a Chinese football club who play at 51,000 seater Hangzhou Huanglong Stadium in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Founded on January 14, 1998 the club's main investor is the Greentown China Holdings Limited company. The team currently play in the Chinese Super League after winning promotion in 2006 and their current manager is Wu Jingui.

History

On January 14, 1998 the Zhejiang green city soccer club limited company was officially established with a capital of 16,000,000 Yuan and Zeng Leming was appointed as their general manager. The Zhejiang green city real estate company, the Hangzhou money pond real estate company, the Zhejiang University and the Zhejiang Province soccer association all participated in the creation as well as the registration of the club.^[1] The company would go on to form a youth team before finally creating a senior team on January 22, 1999 to take part in the third tier with Bao Yingfu as their first Head coach. They wouldn't wait long to show their ambition when they would make the play-offs in 2000 before losing to Tianjin Lifei.^[2] Still determined to win promotion the club decided to buy the first team of Jilin Aodong as well as their position in Chinese Football Association Jia League on November 23, 2000 for 25,000,000 Yuan, in time for the beginning of the 2001 league season. Under the new general manager Shen Qiang the club brought in new sponsors and Gu Mingchang as the new Head coach, however during this period the club couldn't win promotion to the top tier and the Chairman Song Weiping expressed his disappointment of the team. Off the field the club would go through several management changes as well as ownership changes particularly from the Greentown China Holdings Limited who took a 95% share of the team for 20,000,000 Yuan and decided to rename the club Hangzhou Greentown.^[1] Under Wang Zheng as their Head coach the team would start to generally push for promotion, eventually achieving it at the end of the 2006 league season when they came second in the division.^[3] The club often found themselves fighting off relegation and would bring in several managers to alleviate the problem, however this wasn't enough during the 2009 league season and the club found themselves in the relegation zone at the end of the season. Surprisingly the club were allowed to stay within the 2010 Chinese Super League after it was discovered that Chengdu Blades and Guangzhou F.C. were guilty of match-fixing.^[4] Hangzhou Greentown are not called the greenhorns contrary to popular belief.

Name history

• 2002 Renamed to Zhejiang Greentown (浙江绿城)
• 2003 Renamed to Zhejiang Sanhua Greentown (浙江三花绿城)
• 2004 Renamed to Zhejiang Greentown (浙江绿城)
• 2006 Renamed to Zhejiang Bebei Greentown (浙江巴贝绿城房产)
• 2007 Renamed to Zhejiang Greentown (浙江绿城房产)
• 2009 Renamed to Hangzhou Greentown (杭州绿城房产)
• 2010 Renamed to Hangzhou Nabel Greentown (杭州诺贝尔绿城)

Crest history

• 

  Zhejiang Greentown FC old crest

• 

  Current crest

Results

• As of the end of 2011 season

All-time League rankings

Season	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Division	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1
Position	51	5	8	7	10	8	3	2	11	9	15	4	8

• ^1 in group stage

Current squad

As of 8 July 2011.

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Han Feng 2 DF Wu Shaokun 3 DF Adam Griffiths 4 DF Rong Hao 5 DF Du Wei (Captain) 6 FW Yang Zi 7 FW Xie Zhiyu 9 FW Luis Ramírez 11 MF Paulo Pezzolano 12 MF Shen Longyuan 13 DF Cao Xuan 14 DF Jin Pengxiang 15 DF Sun Ji 16 MF Fan Xiaodong 17 FW Tan Yang 18 MF Zheng Kewei

No. Position Player 19 MF Tang Jiashu 20 FW Bari Mamatil 21 MF Sebastián Vázquez 23 GK Gu Chao 24 DF Liu Bin 25 DF Jiao Zhe 26 MF Wang Quan 27 MF Wang Kai 28 DF Wu Wei 29 GK Jiang Bo 30 FW Zeng Yue 31 MF Yang Chen 32 DF Lai Yang 33 MF Wang Song 41 FW Randy Diamond 42 FW Mao Jianqing

Coaching staff

Position	Staff
Head coach	Wu Jingui
Assistant coaches	Mao Yijun Xu Deming
Goalkeepers coach	Cai Jianlin
Fitness coach	Zheng Xiong
Team physicians	Nie Lianjun Liu Peimao Wang Shucheng

Source: Sina.com

Former notable players

• Tico
• Valdo
• Yordan Varbanov
• Bertin Tomou
• Yan Song
• John Jairo Tréllez
• Emil Martínez
• Jerry Palacios
• Mauricio Sabillón
• Slavco Georgievski

Honours

League

• China League One: 2006 (Runners-up)

Youth Team

U-15 Team

• Nike Cup Winners: 2008

International Friendlies

• On 26 July 2009, Manchester United visited the Dragon Stadium and played a friendly against Hangzhou Greentown as part of their pre-season Asian tour.^[5] Manchester United won by 8 goals to 2.
• On 16 July 2011, Arsenal visited the Meihu Stadium and played a friendly against Hangzhou Greentown as part of their pre-season Asian tour.^[6] The game was drawn 1–1.

See also

• Yanbian FC
• Hangzhou Sanchao
• Great Wall Cup - China's largest international youth football tournament

References

1. ^ ^{a b} http://www.greentownfc.com/Html/julebu/club/fazhanlicheng.html
2. ^ http://www.rsssf.com/tablesc/china00.html
3. ^ http://www.rsssf.com/tablesc/china06.html
4. ^ http://sports.sina.com.cn/j/2010-02-24/11214853407.shtml
5. ^ China friendly announced - Manutd.com
6. ^ [1]

External links

• Club website