Since this achievement the club have struggled to match the same success and after 14 years experienced relegation to the second tier at the end of 2011 Chinese Super League season.
[4] With Hu Zhigang as their first ever head coach and with players from all over the country, the club won two consecutive promotions and championships before entering the top tier of Chinese football after only two seasons, a remarkable feat named "Shenzhen speed" by the locals.
[5] Once again the team struggled with relegation, however South Korean football legend Cha Bum-Kun was appointed as the club's first ever foreign head coach in the summer of 1998.
At the start of the 2000 season on March 27, newly appointed head coach the eccentric Brazilian Edson Tavares caught six players Peng Weiguo, Chen Yongqiang, Zhang Jun, Sun Gang, Wang Chao and Yao Li with prostitutes in the team hotel.
The club came fourth within the league and brought in major Chinese signings in Yang Chen who returned to China after spending several seasons in Germany while Zheng Bin answered the summon of Zhu, his coach back in the international youth team.
These inclusions as well as the defender Zheng Zhi converted to a playmaker saw Shenzhen Jianlibao sensationally won the first ever Chinese Super League title in 2004 despite severe financial problems leaving players unpaid for seven months.
After a heavy defeat at home losing 1–4 to the champion Changchun Yatai at the last match of 2007 season, owner Yang Saixin claimed that he was "fed up" and wanted to sell the club.
[14] They experienced more difficulties when their head coach Mai Chao unexpectedly left after one match to join the Guangzhou Football Association and manage their youth team.
[16] On February 28, 2009, Fan Yuhong revealed that the new owners of the club were two main shareholders of China Motion, a publicly listed company in Hong Kong, however these rumors were false.
[17] Meanwhile, Shenzhen were in talks with a new kit advertisement and naming right sponsor, which would help further stabilize and secure the club's finances while the takeover finished, but only received a miner deal halfway through the season.
As Xie Feng tightened the defense, and crucial reinforcements from the transfer market including Hernan Barcos, Mao Jianqing, Marko Zoric and Chen Jie, the team impressively had a 10 match unbeaten run towards the end of season and avoided relegation, despite a controversial 3-point deduction from the FA for wearing the wrong colour kit and in the subsequently delayed match versus Shanghai Shenhua.
The attacking and passionate Serbian brought a roller-coaster run combined with an unbeaten start even once reaching the top of the table, however consecutive loses saw them slide towards a relegation fight till the last match of the season.
From a meeting during the 2011 AFC Asian Cup, Wan Hongwei signed former Japanese international head coach Philippe Troussier with a luxurious three-year contract under the financial sponsorship from Moutai Company.
An unpromising start again quickly disappointed fans and caused further upset and conflict left behind from the previous season, which escalated in the fourth round in the league match versus Chongqing F.C.
This wasn't helped by his off the pitch eccentric personality and temperament, which alienated his relationships with the squad and staff, which was highlighted after a defeat to Chengdu Tiancheng F.C.
in an August 25 game saw the club's hopes for promotion vanish with Troussier soon afterwards providing a statement that he would take leave back to France on a "regular holiday under his contract".
Aussems and fitness coach Christian Jahan gave a refreshing finish of the season, earning 11 points in 7 matches, but not enough to convince the board for permanent appointment.
After Philippe Troussier's tenue came to an end and he was unable to gain promotion for the club it saw Wan Hongwei and the Ruby company actively start to pull funding from the team.
This resulted in the July 15, 2014 FA Cup game against Shandong Luneng being delayed by 20 minutes while the Shenzhen players held a banner proclaiming unpaid wages from the owner.
[2] In the 2018 China League One, the team pulled off a last-round comeback to finish second ahead of Zhejiang Greentown, who held the second place for the last 13 rounds, and earned promotion back to the top division after a 7-year absence.
On 22 January 2024, Shenzhen announced the dissolution of the club, after finishing last place in the 2023 Chinese Super League season and getting relegated back down to the second-tier.