When it comes to the favorites for the championship in the 2025 season, it's no longer Shanghai Port, or Shanghai Shenhua who are basically maintaining their status quo, or Chengdu Rongcheng who have brought in three national team players as domestic signings. Nor is it Shandong Taishan under Choi Kang-hee.
Instead, it's Beijing Guoan. Since the club's owner made the tough decision not to renew the contract with Portuguese coach Sergio Conceicao, Beijing Guoan, who used to cut corners in the transfer market, suddenly has money, as netizens say, Beijing Guoan hasn't fought such a rich battle in many years.
The first move was to bring in a big-name coach. Former Barcelona team coach Quique Setien, although Beijing Guoan had previously invited the former AC Milan coaching staff, but Barcelona's fame is more resounding than AC Milan, and Setien is also the coach who taught Messi how to play football. Added to his philosophy of attack, many fans, especially Beijing Guoan fans, are already very excited, for example, when Setien came to China, many fans went to meet him at the airport, which did not happen when Suarez came.
The second move is to renew contracts with veterans, such as former international Zhang Xizhe has been confirmed to stay, in the first training session of the 2025 season, Beijing Guoan has Han Jiaqi, Li Lei, Cao Yongjing, Zhang Yuning, Wang Ziming, Lin Liangming selected for the national team training. Personally, I think if Setien can solve the problem of coexistence between Zhang Yuning and Fabio, playing attacking football like Shanghai Port is still very possible.
And in terms of domestic signings, Beijing Guoan also has a big fish in Wu Shaocong, whether or not the loan can be successful, we'll see what Beijing Guoan's operations department does from January 6th to February.
Although Wu Shaocong is a pending option, Serginho is solid, it is currently unknown what his naturalization procedures are like, if completed he will be a domestic player, if not completed he will be a foreign player.
As fans say, national team players are useless, what you need to win the championship is foreign players. Look at how many national team players Shanghai Port had last season, in November's game, there wasn't even one starting player, and only two people reported for the first training session of 2025. Therefore, Beijing Guoan just needs to arrange a 2 million euro foreign player in the midfield and frontcourt. Mainly versatile forwards.
The rest depends on whether Setien's tactics are effective, and Beijing Guoan's logistics team must also be up to the task, to avoid widespread injuries during the season, whether the coach fits the Chinese Super League, whether new signings can integrate into the team, and whether logistics support is sufficient. If these three points are achieved, Beijing Guoan winning the championship will be a piece of cake!