Nanjing Shaye 南京沙叶

Nanjing Shaye Football Club (Chinese: 南京沙叶足球俱乐部) is a professional Chinese football club that currently participates in the China League Two. The team is based in Nanjing, Jiangsu.

History

The club was originally a nondescript local amateur team named Nanjing Zhongshan Yuanlin from the city of Nanjing. In November 2014, Shaye Investment Management Co. Ltd. took over the club, which subsequently adopted its later widely known name Nanjing Shaye.

In 2016, the club formed a 11-a-side team to participate in the Nanjing Super League, and ended up winning the entire championship. Also competing in the China Amateur Football League for its first time in the same year, the club failed to make it out of the second round of group stages.

In 2017, the club signed to cooperate with the football section of Hohai University. After successfully defending its title as the champion of Nanjing amateur football, they participated in 2017 China Amateur Football League and advanced to the final round of 16, but was eliminated by Anhui Hefei Guiguan and failed to advance further and gain access to China League Two.

In 2018, the club won their third Nanjing Super League title in a row, and made it to the final 8 of 2018 Chinese Champions League after beating Wuhan Shangwen 1–0 in the first round of final play-offs, without losing a single goal in all previous stages. However, the club was eliminated by eventual champions Taizhou Yuanda in the quarter-finals. Despite this setback, they thrashed Tianjin Ruihu 4–0 in the subsequent round, finally ensuring promotion and a spot in 2019 China League Two.