The year 2023 brings unprecedented joy to the Sichuan soccer world: Chengdu Rongcheng is sitting firmly at the top of the league, trying to create the feat of entering the AFC Champions League for the first time in the team's history, and Lionel Messi will once again set foot on this land. Just yesterday, Sichuan Jiuniu thrashed Wuxi Wuhu 4-0 in the 27th round of the Central League, leading Nanjing City by 12 points and locking up early qualification for the Super League with only three rounds of fixtures remaining.
Seven years of wind and rain, Sichuan Nine Bulls finally round Super League dream, which marks the first time in the history of Sichuan soccer has two Super League teams, but also declared the "Sichuan" in the Football Association registered prefix team for 17 consecutive years without access to the end of the Super League.
--Wen/Song Xinyu
--Edited/Yin Hang
"We are in the mud, but some of us look up to the stars. In the darkest corners there are always stars shining like the last light of night." -- Oscar Wilde
Chengdu Rongcheng is undoubtedly a unique presence on the Chinese soccer map in the 2023 season. As a second year student, Rongcheng has performed well in the Chinese Super League for two consecutive years. The post-match choral light show of 10,000 people at the Phoenix Hill Stadium has made Rongcheng famous, and the scene of hard-to-find tickets recalls the former glory of Sichuan soccer - the "Gold Medal Ball Market".
However, for many senior Sichuan fans, they have never witnessed the famous team of "Sichuan" crowned with a crown. The yellow color of Quanxing and Sichuan, for a long time, can only serve as the background of the glorious memories in the hearts of countless fans.
Without a river, there is no army.
The dream season of 1994 was the starting point of Sichuan fans' dream. In the first professional league, Sichuan Quanxing set off a wave of "yellow crazy", full house, so that Sichuan's "gold medal ball market" reputation. The slogan of "Rise Up" resounded through the north and south of the Yangtze River.
However, Quanxing fell into relegation in the following season. In the final round, Zhai Biao scored a golden goal, and a fan named Shen Lixin in the stands covered his face and wept. This picture became one of the classics on the CCTV soccer channel, and the "Battle of Chengdu" has become a timeless classic in Chinese soccer.
According to the official data of the Football Association that year, the total number of spectators for the 11 home matches in 1994 was as high as 442,000, a figure that was unique in the history of Chinese soccer at the time.
Since then, Sichuan soccer had their golden era until the 2001 A-B Five Rats Incident and Quanxing's exit. In fact, the last three years of the Quanxing era were also the peak period of Sichuan soccer. 1999, under the leadership of Tavares, Sichuan soccer ranked first for seven consecutive weeks, and was only one step away from touching the championship throne, before finally coming third.
However, with the intervention of the real Germany system, lost the Sichuan soccer characteristics of Sichuan soccer, began a 17-year-long period of turmoil, a fall, and no return. Some people have summarized Sichuan football in this way: "People often say that the experience of Sichuan football in the past few years can be summarized in three words: the rise of the high building, guests come, the high building collapse. I say, the building did not collapse, the building itself does not belong to you, nor should it belong to anyone. The plunder of Dalian people, the weakness of Sichuan enterprises, destined this is a plunder."
