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Football in Dalian

Football is the most popular sport in Dalian, as the city bears the name "City of Football" (Chinese:足球城) in its recent history. Dalian trained hundreds of professional football players, many of which represented China national football team.

Introduction

Football teams in Dalian could date back into the 1920s. In 1946, Dalian Shipbuilding Company established a football team. A formal Dalian football team was formed in 1983. The team name used to be Pearl, Xinghai and Hualu. Based on the existing team, Dalian Wanda were China's first team to turn professional in 1993. They became Dalian Shide in 1999 as the Wanda group decieded to quit football, and dissolved in 2012 due to financial and political issue. Dalian Wanda set a few records in China's professional football, including most champions in the professional era (8 times), longest unbeaten streak (55 matches, from 1995 to 1998) and longest unbeaten home matches (57 matches, from 1994 to 1998).

Dalian Shide used to operate a few affiliated clubs, Dalian Saidelong and Dalian Sundy, both of which were sold and moved to other cities, and eventually dissolved. Retired players and former officials from Dalian Shide formed Dalian Transcendence (dissolved in 2018) and Dalian Zhixing.

Dalian Aerbin were established in 2009. They became Dalian Yifang in 2015. Wanda officially returned to local football in 2018, but did not change the team name until 2020, when they became Dalian Professional, or Dalian Pro in short. The team eventually ceased to operate in early 2024.

Dalian Shide were the only club to appear in continental matches.

As of 2024, Dalian Zhixing is the only existing professional team in Dalian.

History

Early history of football in Dalian was mostly recorded by Zhu Yuanbao (朱元宝), former chairman of Dalian Football Association, and former team official of Dalian Wanda.

As the Chinese football decided to turn professional in 1992, Dalian began to reform the existing Dalian football team into a professional football club. In 1993, Wang Jianlin and the local sports bureau reached agreement to establish Dalian Wanda F.C. based on the existing team. The team...

Present and past clubs

The table below lists all Dalian clubs in top four tiers of the Chinese football league system: from the top division (Chinese Super League/Jia-A League), down to tier 4, the China Champions League.

Club	Stadium	Founded	Until	Status	Notes
Dalian Shide	Dalian People Stadium	1993	2012	Defunct	Founded as Dalian Wanda. Renamed as Dalian Shide in 1999.
Dalian Saidelong	Jinzhou Stadium	2000	2005	Defunct	Relocated and renamed as Zhuhai Anping in 2003. Moved to Shanghai as Shanghai Zhongbang in 2005, then Shanghai United in 2006. Merged into Shanghai Shenhua by the end of 2006.
Dalian Changbo	Jinzhou Stadium	2002	2005	Defunct	Founded as Dalian Sundy in 2002. Renamed as Dalian Changbo in 2004. Relocated as Shanxi Wosen Luhu in 2006, then Hohhot Black horse in 2007, then dissolved.
Dalian Professional	Multiple	2009	2023	Defunct	Founded as Dalian Aerbin. Renamed as Dalian Yifang in 2015, then Dalian Professional in 2020.
Dalian Transcendence	Jinzhou Stadium	2014	2018	Defunct
Dalian Chanjoy	Jinzhou Stadium	2016	2017	Defunct	Founded as Dalian Boyang. Renamed as Dalian Chanjoy in 2019, then dissolved.
Dalian Jinshiwan		2022	2022	Defunct	Founded based on Dalian Pro Under-21 team.
Dalian Huayi		2022	2022	Defunct
Dalian Zhixing	Jinzhou Stadium	2022	2024	Existed

Timeline?

Domestic honours

Team	Chinese Super League/Jia-A	FA Cup	CSL cup	League One/Jia-B	League Two	Domestic Total	Asian Cup	?	Asian total
Dalian Shide	8
Dalian Saidelong	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dalian Changbo	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dalian Professional	0	0	0	2	1	1	0	0	0
Dalian Transcendence	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0
Dalian Chanjoy	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dalian Jinshiwan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dalian Huayi	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dalian Zhixing	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Stadium

Dalian Peoples Stadium

Main article: Dalian People's Stadium