On January 5, 2017, just five days before Yin Mingshan's 80th birthday, the old man appeared at a press conference on Wuhan Jinsheng Group's takeover of Chongqing Lifan Salon.
He was dressed in a Chinese mountain suit, black shoes, hair meticulous, walked on stage in a straight posture, it is difficult to believe that this is a dying old man.
In a brief 3-minute speech, he wished Chongqing soccer a future in a heartfelt way, concluding:
"Prosperity."
However, on May 24, 2022, Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic Football Salon released a statement announcing its withdrawal from the Chinese Super League and suspension of its operations.84-year-old Yin Mingshan rushed to the scene after hearing the news, and could not help but burst into tears in the face of the current situation.
After asking the finance officer about the status of employee payroll, he was outraged:
"How can it be closed without a (paycheck)?"
84-year-old Yoon Myung-sun
As the "motorcycle king" and once the "richest man in Chongqing", Yin Mingshan has invested 17 years of hard work in Chongqing soccer.
Before 1997, Chongqing had no real sense of the top professional league team. That year, the Wuhan Avant-garde Huandao Salon moved to Chongqing, and only then did Chongqing soccer usher in the spectacle of 10,000 people cheering.
In 2000, Yin Mingshan bought the avant-garde Huandao Salon for 55.8 million yuan and renamed it Chongqing Lifan Football Salon. on November 12, amidst the cheers of 40,000 Chongqing fans, the Huandao team, whose name is Chongqing Loncin, won the AFC Cup by beating Beijing Guoan 4-1, with a total score of 4-2, and the Lifan team was unveiled at the scene. unveiled, which became the first national championship in Lifan's history.
In the same year, Yin also spent 80 million yuan to acquire Chongqing Yanghe Stadium to create Lifan's Yanghe training base.
In 2001 Lifan ranked 9th in A-A, and won 6th place in 2002. According to the algorithm set by our Football Association (2002 ranking X 0.5 + 2003 ranking = Super League points), Lifan had a head start on the road to the Super League.
However, the sudden change of wind and clouds, in 2003 Lifan's performance fell, in the last generation of the last round of the A A, but also suffered "as long as the loss of the game in order to enter the Super League," the embarrassment.
At that time, in addition to Shaanxi and Bayi, who were already destined to miss out on the Chinese Super League, the other place was definitely going to come between Tianjin and Chongqing. The condition for Chongqing to enter the Super League was for Tianjin to lose to Shanghai International, the favorite, on the road, and to lose to Qingdao at home.
As a result, Qingdao's CSL qualification points will surpass Tianjin's, and as Qingdao's ranking rises, Tianjin's ranking will fall. This way, Chongqing can take the opportunity to overtake Tianjin. Therefore, even though Chongqing can't control Tianjin's final away match against Shanghai, Chongqing must lose this match against Qingdao first.
But it was a crazy time, the Shanghai International, aiming for the title, "accidentally" lost 1-2 to Tianjin, and the embarrassment of "losing to enter the Chinese Super League" did not happen.
At the end of 2003, Yin Mingshan bought Yunnan Hongta's Chinese Super League shell with 38 million, Lifan "borrowed the shell to return to the soul", became the first year of the Chinese Super League salon.
However, they didn't do well in the middle overs.
From 2004-2006, Yin Mingshan invested nearly 30 million per year, but due to the salon youth training is difficult to produce good seedlings, and did not bring in good internal and external aid situation, for three consecutive years at the bottom of the table, lucky escape two years of relegation of Lifan in the 2006 Super League resumed the elevation of the relegation of the only relegation team in that year.
Despite the relegation, Yin Mingshan's investment in the salon was not drastically reduced, with about 25 million invested each year in 2007 and 2008. 2008 saw Lifan's miraculous return to the Chinese Super League as 2nd in the Central League under Wei Xin's leadership.
Back to the Chinese Super League, Yin Mingshan will increase the investment to 30 million, but this still can not change the fate of the team relegation, known as the "elevator" Lifan, by 2010 China's football world anti-gambling, once again back to the Chinese Super League.
In 2010, Yin Mingshan increased his investment to 50 million, but due to the team's own lack of strength, it ranked 2nd from the bottom of the league and was relegated again, which was Lifan's fourth relegation in 7 years.
Slogan in defense of Chongqing
The relegation of Lifan's impact is huge, due to Lifan's lackluster results, the Chongqing Municipal Government, led by the Chongqing Municipal Bureau of Sports, the establishment of Chongqing Football Salon (Chongqing FC), many of the resources originally belonging to the Lifan tilted to the new team, the most notable example of Lifan's home from the Olympic Sports Center was forced to go far away to Yongchuan and Fuling.
It was then that Yoon hatched the idea of transferring the team, and over the next few years he invested around $30 million a year.
At the end of 2013, Chongqing FC Salon closed.In 2014, Yin Mingshan increased his investment, splashing 70 million, and Lifan succeeded in another Super League run.
Also in 2014, Lifan Group began to engage in strategic transformation, large-scale investment in new energy vehicles, for economic considerations, Yin Mingshan decided to transfer Lifan Salon.
At the end of 2014, Yin Mingshan transferred the salon to a company called Beijing Huaxia Guorui at a "cabbage price" of 10 million (only 2 million was actually paid).
Yin Mingshan has only one intention, to keep the team in Chongqing.
But as the true nature of this shell company was revealed, the Chinese Football Association eventually called off the transfer and Yin Mingshan took back ownership of the salon.
Wang Jianlin and Yin Mingshan on CCTV's Dialogue Program
In early 2015, Yin Mingshan appeared on CCTV's Dialogue with Wang Jianlin, and for the first time, he also talked about why he transferred the salon.
"When my profit was more than 300 million, take 30 million, small thing, but now when my profit is only 400 or 500 million, if I want to take 200 or 300 million, the burden is heavy, it's not that I don't like soccer any more, it's not that I hate soccer any more, it's really because I feel that I don't have the right ability to match."
In order to keep the team and at the same time let the team have a good home in the future, in 2015 Yin Mingshan put in great efforts, investing more than 100 million for the whole year. 2016, the total investment of the salon was more than 120 million, half of which was funded by Yin Mingshan, and the team finally ranked 8th in the Chinese Super League and successfully relegated.
After that, Wuhan Jinsheng Group entered the ownership, acquired 90% of the shares of Lifan Salon, the salon was renamed Chongqing Jinsheng Lifan Football Salon.
Yoon, who took home $540 million, stepped back but still retained a 10 percent stake in the salon, he said:
"I'm going to have to inform on Chungking City."
In 17 years, Yin Mingshan has dropped 840 million for Chongqing soccer.
"It's been 17 years of ups and downs, but it's always held up. In particular, I've seen that the amount of people who love soccer here go from a handful to a majority, and from watching in general to burning with passion, and I think that's the best reward for me."
At the time of investing in soccer, Yoon was 62 years old.
In 1979, at the age of 41, Yin Mingshan ended his 18-year-long labor reform, after which he worked as an English teacher and a publisher, and later made his first bucket of money by successfully distributing a series of penny books for middle school students.
In 1992, at the age of 54, Yin Mingshan started his motorcycle manufacturing career, which later became "Lifan Motorcycle".
In 2000, Lifan Motorcycle surpassed Jialing, Construction and other brands by producing and selling 1,840,000 engines and reaching 3.85 billion yuan in sales revenue, making it the No. 1 seller in the country.
Yin Mingshan, 62, made the 2000 Forbes list of the 50 richest people in China with a net worth of 550 million yuan.
In 2003, Lifan entered the automobile field and began to build cars. In November 2010, Lifan Auto became the first private car company listed on the A-share market.
After the listing, 72-year-old Yoon said:
"Fan Jin went crazy after he won the lottery, I won't, I'll be calmer."
That year, Yin became the "richest man in Chongqing" with a fortune of more than 11 billion dollars.
"Richest" halo soon, Lifan began to make car road fall behind.
In 2016, the "Lifan new energy vehicle subsidy scandal", 2017, 2018, 2019, Lifan shares for three consecutive years of deductible net profit is negative, 2019 deductible net profit is a huge loss of nearly 4.4 billion yuan.
In 2020, Lifan's situation worsened, with debts running high. In August 2021, Lifan Group went bankrupt and was reorganized, with Geely's Li Shufu eventually becoming the de facto controller, and Yin Mingshan finally being able to "retire".
On the day he retired from the Lifan salon, Yin said:
"I have not left Chongqing for 79 years. In Chongqing, I have changed from a pauper to a boss, from a grassroots in Chongqing to a civilized citizen of the city. I love this place very much, and I am willing to do some dedication to Chongqing's economic construction, culture and education. Also because I love soccer, since I was a child, I love soccer, play soccer, kick soccer, so I invested in soccer in my old age. Soccer has given me a lot, gave me a healthy body, my virtual age of 80 years old, how to see have not stooped and hunchback well, this is all thanks to soccer."
"When I took over soccer, Chongqing soccer was A-A, the equivalent of the Chinese Super League, and now when I handed over the dominance, it's still the Chinese Super League, and I didn't let the city down."
He said he was going to leave the soccer salon in the hands of his family, but the kids didn't have a hobby.
"I am indeed older, originally intended to be the soccer piece to the family, but children's hobbies are often not the same as their parents, so I do not force them to do what they like to do, for example, my son is more interested in car racing, he went to do that just go to do it, I do not force them. If my family is as obsessed as I am, then I will definitely continue to do it."
In the last three years, three Chinese Super League team closing exit, suspension of operations, "stock reform" has become a lot of Chinese soccer salon "straw".
Chongqing Two Rivers Athletic Salon Suspends Operations
Chongqing Two Rivers Athletics announced the closing day, talking about the salon's share reform, Yin Mingshan said:
"No one told me that from the beginning to the end!"
