Shenhua: Two New Foreign Signings in Place, Defense Line Faces Challenges in the New Season

Special Contributor / Gan Hui After a painful 2025 season, Shenhua has set off again, striving for their ambitions.

In the new year, the club is improving the squad’s overall quality through personnel adjustments. On January 7, the team arrived in Dubai, UAE, to start a 20-day overseas winter training. In the second half of the training, Shenhua will play four friendly matches within 10 days against Latvia’s FK RFS, South Korea’s Ulsan Hyundai, Russian Premier League’s Dynamo Moscow, and Russian First League’s Rodina Moscow. Head coach Slutsky hopes to use these high-level friendlies to both train through matches and fine-tune the lineup.

Meanwhile, the club is actively exploring professionalization, industrialization, and integration of sports, culture, commerce, and tourism. The unveiling of the “Shenhua Center” marks an important milestone in the club’s professional and commercial development and is a pioneering attempt at diversifying China’s sports industry.

Since New Year’s Day, Shenhua has been active. As of this writing, the club has announced two new signings — foreign forward Latang and domestic central defender Yang Shuai. The club also renewed contracts with five core players: Wu Xi, Zhu Chenjie, Li Ke, Teixeira, and Manafa. Wu Xi, Li Ke, Teixeira, and Manafa extended for one year each, while Zhu Chenjie signed a three-year deal. Additionally, Shenhua officially confirmed the transfers of Dai Weijun, Bao Yaxiong, and Fernando out of the club, and players Eddie, Andre, Zhou Juncheng, Cui Lin, and Zhou Zhengkai left after their contracts expired.

With two players in and eight out, the number of incoming players is far fewer than those leaving. Among the eight departures, only Andre was a regular starter last season; Bao Yaxiong ranked second in appearances but played only eight league matches. Other players had limited playing time or were out on loan. Therefore, the core framework of Shenhua’s squad remains stable for the new season.

On this stable foundation, the club’s intention to strengthen the attack through signings is clear. For the 2026 season, all foreign player changes target the forward line, bringing in last season’s J-League Silver Boot winner Latang and the tall striker Guy.

In the past two seasons, Shenhua narrowly missed out on the league title, with relatively low offensive efficiency being a key factor. Latang has experience in European football and was loaned to J-League side Cerezo Osaka last season, performing well. Across all competitions, he appeared 44 times, scoring 23 goals and providing 4 assists; in the J1 League, he played 36 games with 18 goals and 3 assists, earning the 2025 J-League Silver Boot.

Guy’s arrival fills the gap of lacking a strong focal point in Shenhua’s attack. Standing 1.95 meters tall and weighing 90 kilograms, he is a classic powerful center forward. Slutsky’s tactical system highly values this type of striker.

Following the personnel changes, Shenhua’s forward lineup has been significantly upgraded compared to last season, now featuring a physically strong tall striker, a fast and aggressive forward, and a goal poacher with good finishing skills.

With Latang and Guy on board, Shenhua must quickly integrate this new forward trio, whose differing styles can combine to maximize attacking strength.

In the 2025 season, Shenhua conceded 35 goals in 30 Chinese Super League matches, making them one of the teams with fewer goals allowed, just 7 more than the lowest, Chengdu Rongcheng. Compared to last season’s champions Shanghai Port, Shenhua conceded 9 fewer goals. Overall, although their defense was less solid than in 2024, Shenhua’s defense remains relatively strong within the league.

However, during this Dubai winter training, Shenhua’s defense faces serious personnel shortages. In the first national team training camp under new head coach Shao Jiayi, Shenhua has three players selected: Zhu Chenjie, Xu Haoyang, and Ma Zhen. Zhu Chenjie is the defensive core, and Ma Zhen will return after his loan ends.

Jiang Shenglong, sidelined due to injury, did not join the team in Dubai. On December 15, 2025, Jiang underwent minimally invasive puncture surgery at Jia Hui International Hospital, draining 330ml of fluid from his kidney area. Doctors have advised extended rest. Since Jiang will miss the Dubai training, the earliest he can rejoin the team is after their return to Shanghai at the end of the month. Whether he can resume normal training then depends on his recovery progress.

According to Slutsky’s plan, he will use the preparation period to further enrich the team’s tactical approaches, including experimenting with new formations. In the key new formation, the ball distribution from defenders Zhu Chenjie and Jiang Shenglong is crucial. Their absence from the Dubai camp will undoubtedly impact the development and cohesion of Shenhua’s new tactical system. During the Dubai training, four friendlies are scheduled; with Zhu and Jiang absent, the central defense pairing will likely be Jin Shunkai and new signing Yang Shuai.

Additionally, goalkeeper coach Tony Roberts has just joined Shenhua and is in the process of familiarizing himself with the players. The current national team training camp runs until January 27, meaning Roberts will only meet another new player, Ma Zhen, after the Dubai camp ends and the team returns to Shanghai.

Given multiple key defenders are unavailable for systematic preparation and lineup integration, Shenhua’s defense may face considerable challenges at the start of the new season.

At the beginning of 2016, before returning from winter training in Spain, the entire Shenhua team made a special visit to Real Madrid’s home stadium. Standing inside the Santiago Bernabéu, the players experienced the rich football culture and deep history of Real Madrid.

In fact, not only football fans but many ordinary tourists visiting Madrid consider the Bernabéu stadium a must-see landmark.

Professional football’s core is not just the 90 (or 120) minutes of matches but also the club’s market-driven operations that empower the city through sports and inspire more people with sporting spirit.

In the 2025 season, Shenhua’s home stadium, Shanghai Stadium, attracted a total attendance of 562,575, averaging 37,505 per game, a 23% increase from 2024. Shenhua’s matches boosted nearby dining, leisure, and shopping consumption, becoming a new engine driving city spending and activating the urban consumption chain. According to Shanghai Oriental Sports Evaluation Consulting Center, from February 2024 to April 2025, Shenhua’s events generated a direct economic impact of 2.154 billion yuan and an indirect pull effect of 3.71 billion yuan, forming a highly dynamic “event economy circle.”

One day before Shenhua’s departure for Dubai training, after two years of preparation and one year of construction, the Shenhua Center was grandly unveiled at the team’s home stadium, Shanghai Stadium. It is China’s first integrated commercial complex project for a professional football club that combines historical displays, stadium tours, interactive experiences, and themed commerce.

Entering the Shenhua Center, visitors can experience the club’s story rewritten through technology, feel the pulse of history on the “Shenhua Road,” and relive glorious moments in the “Peak Moments” immersive theater. Club chairman Gu Jiqing said, “We are trying to create a commemorative museum that carries Shenhua’s history and heritage. Here, thirty years of ups and downs are transformed into vivid images and real scenes. The opening of this door behind me marks an important innovation in the inheritance of Shenhua’s spirit and culture and a new starting point to deepen emotional connections with the city and fans.”

Spanning over 2,000 square meters, the Shenhua Center integrates three major functional areas to offer visitors an immersive football culture experience. As the project’s soul, the Shenhua Cultural Experience Center features a 50-meter interactive corridor called “Shenhua Road,” a 360-degree panoramic “Peak Moments” theater, and interactive zones like “Stars Shine” and “Meritorious Coaches” using infrared and motion-sensing technology to vividly narrate the club’s 30-plus-year history. The specially designed “Twelfth Man” fan culture exhibition highlights the deep bond between the club and its supporters.

The Shenhua Center has collected over 500 precious physical exhibits, scanned and archived more than 4,000 pages of historical documents, restored over 50,000 historical photos, and edited over 600 minutes of historical video footage. These items, carrying the youth and memories of countless people, form the emotional foundation of the center.

The flagship merchandise store transcends the traditional concept of a shop and extends the club’s brand aesthetics. It showcases limited-edition cultural and creative products blending Shenhua’s spirit with Shanghai’s trendy style, offering fans a unique shopping experience through smart retail technology.

The fan service station aims to become the “urban living room” connecting the club and the community. In the future, it will not only provide specialty dining and leisure space but also serve as a gathering place for fan salons, themed exhibitions, and cultural events.

The “Shenhua Center” is expected to officially open to the public for ticket sales before the Spring Festival. Gu Jiqing stated, “We look forward to Shenhua’s passion and glory becoming part of the city’s fabric and residents’ lives.” Shenhua hopes more domestic and international tourists visiting Shanghai will come to the “Shenhua Center” to experience the excitement and charm of sports, breaking the traditional spatial and temporal limits of stadiums and creating a new urban sports culture landmark operating 365 days a year.