Since the professional league of the national football team kicked off in 1994, professionalization has become an irreversible trend despite the sharp turnaround in the performance of the national men's football team in the process of professionalization. Admittedly, we have made mistakes in numerous aspects.
Entering the 28th year of professionalization, looking back at these 28 years, which team has been the most brilliant in the National Football League? Through thick and thin, many clubs have fallen or disappeared, and only three clubs have not been relegated from the top flight since 1994: Beijing Guoan, Shanghai Shenhua, and Shandong Taishan (Shandong Luneng).
If we take the AFC Cup championship as a consideration, its gold content is relatively low. If we only take the top league championship as a criterion, Guangzhou Evergrande topped the list with 8 CSL championships; Dalian Wanda (Dalian Shide) followed with 7 A-League championships; Shandong Taishan won 4 championships, including 1 A-League championship and 3 CSL championships; Shanghai Shenhua won 2 A-League championships (of which the A-League championship of 2003 was canceled due to a fake ball), Shenzhen Jianlibao, Changchun Yatai, Beijing Guoan, Shanghai Shanghai Harbour and Jiangsu Suning won 1 Chinese Super League title each.
After some comparisons, only Dalian Wanda (Dalian Shide), Shandong Luneng and Guangzhou Evergrande were left on the list of the best candidates. Dalian Wanda (Dalian Shide) boasts seven top league titles and has produced many international players. During its glory days, the Chinese men's soccer team maintained at least a quasi-first-class level in Asia and successfully entered the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, with Dalian contributing the most international players.
Shandong Luneng's advantage is that it has never been relegated from the top league, and has been in the title race most of the time, except for a few years. However, its disadvantage is also very obvious, on the one hand, the top league championship only 4, on the other hand in the AFC Champions League record is relatively dismal, especially when facing the South Korean team, "fear of South Korea" is particularly prominent, and even be part of the fans jokingly referred to as the "tragedy of the team".
Guangzhou Evergrande has become the most successful club in the National Football League in the last decade and one of the most successful clubs in Asia in the last decade, boasting 8 Chinese Super League titles and 2 Asian Champions League titles. This achievement may have to wait a long time to be broken by other teams in the future. However, Guangzhou Evergrande has been criticized for relying mostly on purchases for its domestic players, starting a golden dollar soccer without the emergence of youth players. On the other hand, some fans believe that because of Guangzhou Evergrande's existence, the performance of China's men's national soccer team is declining with each passing day, is this really true?
After the 2002 World Cup, the Chinese men's soccer team entered the lowest decade. 2006 World Cup, 2010 World Cup, 2014 World Cup, all eliminated in the group stage, and even failed to participate in the top ten (eight-team tournament). 2007 Asian Cup and 2011 Asian Cup were also eliminated in the group stage.
However, it should be noted that the group stage of the 2014 World Preliminary Cup ended in 2011, the year Guangzhou Evergrande was just promoted to the Chinese Super League, and is still far from establishing its own dynasty; while the 2011 Asian Cup was held in Qatar in January, Guangzhou Evergrande was just promoted to the Chinese Super League, and a Chinese Super League match had not yet been played. So it's not really possible to blame Evergrande for the extremely poor results of these 5 competitions.
After that, the Chinese men's football team finally appeared in the 2018 Top 40, and finally ranked fifth in the Top 12, without a chance to reach the World Cup.In the 2015 Asian Cup and the 2019 Asian Cup, the national football team's result was the top eight. So it is nonexistent to say that Guangzhou Evergrande has scourged the national football team. As for youth training, it can't be a reason to blame, youth training is a long-term project, that's why many Chinese clubs are reluctant to invest in youth training, and can't see the effect in the short term. The real power of Evergrande Football School should be after 2025, let's wait and see. Putting aside these two accusations, then in these 28 years, the most successful club in the National Football League is undoubtedly Guangzhou Evergrande.
