Opinion | Newcomers Hebei China Fortune FC and Yanbian Funde feeling at home in the Chinese Super League
Hebei currently find themselves in second place in the top flight, with Yanbian seemingly safe from relegation after drawing with defending champions Guangzhou Evergrande this weekend
We’re almost at the halfway stage of this season’s Chinese Super League and that’s a large enough sample to predict what might lie ahead for this campaign’s debutants.
New boys Hebei China Fortune FC made a big splash at the start of the season with their star signings Ezequiel Lavezzi, Gael Kakuta and Gervinho and they have largely delivered on that spending spree. The Northeastern club won once again this weekend, edging Tianjin Teda thanks to a first minute Gael Kakuta goal, which leaves them sitting pretty in second in the standings just three points behind five-time champions Guangzhou Evergrande.
It’s been a remarkable rise for the side that finished second in League One last season. The club was only formed in 2010 and began their life in League Two, the country’s regional third tier, from which they gained promotion in 2013. Now they are well and truly established as a force to be reckoned with in the top flight.
Hebei’s tilt at the title disproves the adage that what goes up necessarily has to go down while the fortunes of the other newly-promoted side is equally surprising.
Yanbian Funde came up as champions and the team from the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture by the North Korean border held the reigning CSL champions to a 1-1 draw in Yanji this weekend thanks to goal from their Gambian Bubacarr Trawally.