Xu Genbao
The club was founded on 25 December 2005 as Shanghai Dongya FC () by former Chinese international footballer Xu Genbao. The club used graduates from the Genbao Football Base, a football academy also founded by Xu, to form their first team as they made their debut in the third tier of China's football league pyramid in the 2006 league season. They worked their way up to the top tier and finished as league champions for the first time in the 2018 Chinese Super League season.