The club was founded by
Xu Genbao in 1995 and was aimed at developing football talents for the participation of the
2002 World Cup, from which the club was named. In 2000, the club participated in
China League Two for the first time, but was eliminated by
Mianyang F.C. in the semi-finals and narrowly missed promotion to
Jia B. In 2002, the club was merged into
Shanghai Shenhua after fulfilling its purpose. Besides successfully producing players such as
Du Wei,
Sun Ji,
Sun Xiang,
Yao Lijun,
Yu Tao and
Zheng Wei, this club, being the first football project by
Xu Genbao, would later prove to be a valuable edifying lesson to him in football management, which was pivotal in the success of his following project,
Shanghai East Asia—later known as
Chinese Super League powerhouse
Shanghai SIPG. ==Results==