Qingdao F.C.

Did You Know?

• The club was founded on 29 January 2013 by former Shandong players and coaches, including Qi Wusheng as chairman, Hao Haidong as managerial director, and Su Maozhen as general manager.
• The name Hainiu (海牛), meaning 'The Sea Bulls', had previously been used by Qingdao Jonoon from 1994 to 2004.
• Serbian player Goran Gogić collapsed and lost consciousness after a training session on 3 July 2015 and died later that same day.

History

Qingdao Football Club was a professional Chinese football team based in Qingdao, playing its home matches at the 45,000-seat Qingdao Guoxin Stadium. The club was owned by Qingdao Central Plaza Business Management Co., Ltd., which formed the team on 29 January 2013. It competed in the Chinese Super League under a CFA license before dissolving after the 2021 season.

The club was founded as Qingdao Hainiu F.C. by former Shandong players and coaches, including chairman Qi Wusheng, managerial director Hao Haidong, and general manager Su Maozhen. With 20 million Yuan from the parent company, they revived the name "Hainiu" (Sea Bulls), previously used by another Qingdao club from 1994 to 2004, hoping to recapture the city's golden football era. In their debut season, the team went undefeated through the group stage, beat Meixian Super-X and Shenzhen Fengpeng, then defeated Hebei Zhongji 3–1 in the play-off final to win promotion to the second tier. They earned one million Yuan for the final and three million total for the season.

On 31 January 2015, Qingdao Huanghai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. bought a 51% stake. That July, Serbian player Goran Gogić collapsed and died after a training session. The team finished 11th that season. On 30 December 2015, after the pharmaceutical company took full control, the club changed its name to Qingdao Huanghai F.C. Under Spanish manager Jordi Vinyals in 2016, they tied on 59 points with Tianjin Quanjian and Guizhou Zhicheng but missed promotion on head-to-head record. They finished fourth in League One the next two years, then won the 2019 League One title to earn promotion. Before the 2021 season, the club was renamed Qingdao F.C. It dissolved after that season.

The number 12 jersey was retired in January 2016 in honor of the club's supporters. Notable players included Chinese internationals Qu Bo, Wan Houliang, Jiang Kun, Zhang Jiaqi, Deng Zhuoxiang, Wang Dong, Zou Zheng, Liu Jian, and Zhu Ting; African players Joseph Minala, Yves Ekwalla Hermann, Kelly Youga, Yaya Touré, and Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu; Asian players Yaki Yen, Godfred Karikari, and Kim Seung-Yong; European players Vladimir Voskoboinikov, Romain Alessandrini, Fredrik Ulvestad, Ricardo Vaz Tê, Jagoš Vuković, Goran Gogić, Đorđe Rakić, Denis Popović, Martí Crespí, Joan Verdú, and Francisco Sandaza; and South Americans Cléo and Yuri de Souza.