Tainan City Football Club, (for sponsorship reasons currently known as Tainan City Taiwan Steel) (Chinese: 台灣鋼鐵足球隊), is a Taiwanese professional football club based in Tainan City, which currently competes in the Taiwan Football Premier League.
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| Full name | Tainan City Football Club | ||
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| Nickname(s) | The Eagles | ||
| Founded | 2016 | ||
| Ground | Tainan Municipal Football Field | ||
| Capacity | 2,000 | ||
| Owner | Tainan City Government Taiwan Steel Group | ||
| Manager | Raphaël Blanchon | ||
| League | Taiwan Football Premier League | ||
| 2023 | Taiwan Football Premier League, 1st of 8 (champions) | ||
| Website | https://tsgfc.com.tw/ | ||
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Tainan City has won a record 4 league titles in the club history. They become the first club in the league to win a record four consecutive league titles.
History
editTainan City Football Club was established with the support of the Tainan City Government and the Football Committee of the Tainan City Sports Federation, Hongxin Enterprise and Taiwan Steel Group. The team joined the Taiwan Football Premier League, under the name Tainan City in 2017, which most of the players came from Tianmu Campus, University of Taipei. Tainan City structure and its players changed, since Taiwan Steel Group acquired the club and renamed it as Tainan City Taiwan Steel in 2019, importing national team players such as Wu Chun-ching.
Becoming Taiwanese giants
editAhead of the 2020 season, Tainan City added national team player like Pan Wen-chieh, Chen Wei-chuan, 2019 'Best Player' award winner Marc Fenelus, and 2019 'Golden Boot' award winner Benchy Estama.[1] Tainan City went on to win the 2020 season league title becoming the club first major piece of silverware in their history which also see them directly qualifying to the 2021 AFC Cup.
Tainan City was then drawn in Group J alongside Mongolian club Athletic 220 and both Hong Kong club Lee Man and Eastern. In the club first ever AFC Cup match on 23 June 2021, they beaten Athletic 220 in a 3–0 home win picking up their first ever win in the tournament. However, the club then lost their both match against the Hong Kong club thus finishing third in the table.
Tainan City ended up winning the 2021 season, 2022 season and 2023 season league title for four consecutive times becoming the first Taiwanese club to ever do so.
Tainan City then qualified to the inaugural 2024–25 AFC Challenge League where they were placed alongside Southeast Asian opponents, Shan United from Myanmar and Young Elephants from Laos. Tainan City then comeback against Young Elephants after being down 2–1 before bouncing back to win the match 3–2. In the next match against Shan United, as the team was losing 2–1, club player Toninho scored an equaliser at the 87th minute which then put the team as runners-up in the group thus advancing to the quarter-finals facing off against Indonesian club Madura United.
Current squad
editNote: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Continental record
edit| Season | Competition | Round | Opponent | Home | Away | Aggregate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | AFC Cup | Group J |  Athletic 220
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3–0 | 3rd out of 4 | |
 Lee Man
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1–4 | |||||
| Eastern
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0–1 | |||||
| 2022 | AFC Cup | Group J | Lee Man
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1–3 | 3rd out of 3 | |
| Eastern
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1–3 | |||||
| 2023–24 | AFC Cup | Group I | Ulaanbaatar
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3–0 | 1–3 | 3rd out of 4 |
 Chao Pak Kei
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4–2 | 1–4 | ||||
 Taichung Futuro
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5–1 | 1–2 | ||||
| 2024–25 | AFC Challenge League | Group D |  Shan United
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2–2 | 2nd out of 3 | |
 Young Elephants
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3–2 | |||||
| Quarter-finals |  Madura United
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Honours
editDomestic
editReferences
edit- ^ "台企甲4月12日開幕，台灣鋼鐵補強後來勢洶洶" (in Chinese (Hong Kong)). 10 April 2020.
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