Xi'an Ronghai

Third place in the northern group of China League Two is where the season stands for Shanxi Chongde Ronghai. That alone marks a change.

He had owned Xi'an Wolves, founded in 2018 and since closed, and in January 2021 he put a new side together in the same city. It won the Xi'an FA Cup that May — an amateur competition, and the climb started there.

In 2021 the group was won and the regional play-off taken on penalties, then the Top 16 stage ended with last place in the group.

The rivalries the club has are the ones it has already lost to: Guangxi Hengchen from that penalty shoot-out, and Tianjin Fusheng, who put Ronghai out of the play-offs in 2022.