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March 5, 2016

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Home » Sports » Soccer

Shenhua sets ‘high’ goals for new season

By Ma Yue | March 5, 2016, Saturday | Print Edition

SHANGHAI Greenland Shenhua has set a target for itself in the 2016 season — finishing higher up in the league and qualifying for the AFC Champions League.

Having failed to finish higher than sixth in the last five Chinese Super League seasons, the club is hoping to be in the top three in the domestic league, an ambition that is also shared by its investor Greenland Group.

The property developer took over the team at the beginning of 2014, and has said it is keen to see “some good results” within three years.

Greenland Shenhua bought three foreign and six domestic players this year. Two of the foreign players made it to the list of 10 most expensive foreign buys by any Chinese teams this season. Shanghai paid 13 million euros (US$14 million) for Colombian midfielder Fredy Guarin and 9.16 million euros for South Korean defender Kim Kee-hee.

Together with Senegal striker Demba Ba, captain Giovanni Moreno from Colombia and another new signing Nigerian international Obafemi Martins, the club is hoping for a much-improved result under the stewardship of new manager, Spain’s Gregorio Manzano.

“The transfer decisions were made together by the club’s managing team and officials,” Manzano told Shanghai Daily when the team paid a visit to the landmark 468-meter-tall Oriental Pearl TV Tower in Pudong earlier this week. “Martins and Kim, who have just arrived, still need some time to merge with the team. The rest of the squad did well in preparations, and I have confidence in them.”

“If they don’t play well, I’ll make them jump off from here,” Manzano joked.

Chinese people follow an age-old custom of “climbing high” at the beginning of a year to achieve “high” results in life and career. To seek “good luck” for the new season, the team visited the sightseeing deck of the tower at 259 meters high. It was also the first time that some of the players had a good view of the city from such a height.

Despite his flamboyant hairstyle and flaunty way of celebrating a goal, Martins is actually a modest guy — a bit shy in front of media and with fans.

“I started my career very young. To this day, I have been to many countries and have seen all the best leagues in the world,” said the 31-year-old, who has played for clubs like Inter Milan, Newcastle, Rubin Kazan and Major League Soccer (MLS) side Seattle Sounders.

“I want to try all the leagues in the world if possible. I never set targets for myself, but will definitely try my best for Shenhua.”

Martins will be taking jersey No. 17 from former Shenhua midfielder Tim Cahill of Australia, who was released by the club after the arrival of the Nigerian.

Cahill has signed for another Chinese Super League outfit Hangzhou Greentown.

Greenland Shenhua President Wu Xiaohui gave 80 marks out of 100 for the new team members.

“I have combined the head coach’s opinion and analyzed our previous games, and did the best in finding new talents,” Wu said. “It’s only after the league starts that we can gauge whether the new signings are successful.”

Manzano coached Beijing Guo’an for two seasons before joining Greenland Shenhua. Beijing conceded 26 goals in 30 matches last year, the fewest among all CSL teams, while the figure was 44 for Shenhua. Strengthening the defense was one of Manzano’s major tasks, including making space for wingers.

“Many CSL teams tend to use a dense formation and protect the center in a match. We need to work on more aggressive wings to break through their defense,” Manzano had said in an earlier interview.

Meanwhile, Wu Xiaohui told the media that the club’s home ground, the Hongkou Football Stadium, will be enlarged next year to meet the demand of the fans.

A new venue for the team was still under discussion.

“The date has not been set yet as we need to wait for the approval from the city government,” Wu said. “The club also needs to find a transitional stadium for home matches.”

Also, Greenland Shenhua is planning to open two official stores this year. One of them will be located at Hongkou Stadium, and the other at Pudong’s Oriental Pearl TV Tower. The club reached a cooperative partnership with the tower this year.

Apart from setting up an official store inside the landmark structure, the TV tower would also light itself up in Shenhua’s jersey color — blue — on special occasions.

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