The 2023 season was Beijing Guoan F.C.'s 59th season in Chinese football competitions. This season marked the club's 20th consecutive season in the Chinese Super League since the league's foundation in 2004, and it was the club's 33rd consecutive season in the top-flight of Chinese football. It covered a period from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2023.
Guoan finished 6th in the domestic league, and was a quarter-finalist in this season's Chinese FA Cup.
Summary
Pre-season With the 2-year renovation at Guoan's traditional home ground, Workers' Stadium, completed before the 2023 campaign, it was confirmed that Guoan will return to the 68,000-seat refurbished stadium for the 2023 season.
On 11 January, media reports confirmed that Zhang Yuning, the team's top goalscorer last season, would stay with the team in 2023 despite rumors of him transferring to play for European clubs. On 14 January, UAE Pro League's Al-Nasr announced that it had signed Samir Memišević, confirming that his loan to Guoan had ended and will not be renewed.
On 14 January, long-time Beijing-based reporter Qi Le published an online article that recounted Guoan's difficulty in paying players' and staff's wages, and the team's resulting FIFA player registration ban, over the past years. According to the article, Guoan still owed wages to former players and staff including Fernando, Jonathan Viera, Renato Augusto, and Slaven Bilić and his coaching staff. Additionally, Guoan still owed Famalicão fees related to the transfer of Anderson Silva. The team, however, have made some progress in terms of paying back outstanding salaries, and Qi expected the team to be on healthier financial grounds with the league returning to normal and China relaxing its COVID-19 policies. Qi's reporting also confirmed that the team has extended its contract with veteran players Wang Gang and Zou Dehai. However, later reports in March confirms that Guoan has resolved all the outstanding wages and international transfer disputes, allowing for the club to be registered for the 2023 Super League season and register player transfers without issues. The Chinese FA officially confirmed on 13 March that Guoan has cleared itself of unpaid historical debt and wages.
On 1 February, Norwegian club Ranheim announced the signing of Hou Yongyong, confirming that he has left the team after his contract ended at the conclusion of 2022.
In early February, the Sport & Leisure channel for the local Beijing Radio and Television Station ran a special TV feature titled "Farewell Season." In it, BRTV reporters confirmed that veteran players Yu Yang, Jin Pengxiang, Jin Taiyan, Liu Huan and youngster Liu Guobo have left the team after their contracts with the club expired at the end of the 2022 season. Additional reports claim that while Li Ke's contract with the club expired at the end of 2022, he has continued his rehabilitation and returned to the team during pre-season with the hope of earning a new contract via participating in team training.
The team regrouped on 6 February and traveled to Hainan on 8 February to begin the winter training camp ahead of the new season. Top goalscorer from last season Zhang Yuning did not join the team as he was still recovering from a shoulder surgery, but Samuel Adegbenro traveled with the team.
On 13 February, Guoan announced that Croatian striker Marko Dabro have been loaned out to Latvian club Riga for the 2023 season.
On 25 February, the team played its first friendly against Changchun Yatai in Hainan. Guoan played with a mixture of first team and youth team players, and won 3–0 thanks to goals from Piao Cheng, Jiang Wenhao and Samuel Adegbenro.
On 26 February, reports emerged that Guoan had signed winger Yang Liyu from Guangzhou and former player Li Lei, who left Guoan for Swiss club Grasshopper, was set to return ahead of the new season. Guoan has also signed a new contract with Li Ke after deeming him physically fit to play for the club during winter training camp.
On 1 March, Guoan played its second training match of the pre-season against Dalian Pro. Guoan emerged victorious with goals from Kang Sang-woo, Xu Dongdong and Yan Yu, and a double by Cao Yongjing. Guoan won 5–1 at the final whistle and the team went on a small break. The team returned to training on 7 March in Hainan and will remain there until 23 March. New signings Li Lei, Yang Liyu and Josef de Souza are expected to join the team during training camp soon. 7 March also saw Croatian media confirm Macedonian midfielder Arijan Ademi's impending transfer to Guoan from Croatian team Dinamo Zagreb. For a transfer fee of €1 million, he is reported to have signed a 3-year contract with the team earning €1.65 million per season. Additional reports confirmed Guoan's signing of right-back Feng Boxuan from Henan Songshan Longmen as he joined team training on 7 March as well.
Guoan played another training match on 11 March against Tianjin Jinmen Tigers. Guoan lost the game 1–2 as Tianjin featured 4 foreign players and none of Guoan's new signings took part in the game. Jian Wenhao, playing at left back, scored Guoan's only goal. 6 days later on 17 March, Guoan played a training match against CMCL team Shanghai Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Flying Lion. New singing Feng Boxuan, Li Lei, and Yang Liyu featured in the game. Thanks to goals from Tian Yuda, Li Boxi and Yang Liyu, Guoan emerged victorious 3–0. The team's last training match in Hainan was played against reigning CSL champion Wuhan Three Towns on 23 March. Thanks to goal from Yu Dabao and Kang Sang-woo, the team won 2–1. After the game, Guoan returned to Beijing and will regroup on 27 March. On 29 March, the Chinese FA officially confirmed Guoan's eligibility to participate in the 2023 Chinese Super League, and the season ticket sale subsequently opened on the same day.
On 30 March, Guoan officially announced the signings of 8 players. Besides the rumored De Souza, Arijan Ademi, Ngadeu-Ngadjui, Li Lei, Yang Liyu, Fang Hao, and Feng Boxuan, Beijing-born goalkeeper Han Jiaqi also joined the team after his former club Guangzhou City failed to clear the financial rules to stay in the CSL. Han will wear the number 1 shirt after Hou Sen willingly gave it away.
On 31 March, Guoan played a training match with Tianjin Jinmen Tiger. Adegbenro scored for Guoan from a header, and the game ended in a 1–1 draw. Ruan Qilong was injured in the first half and had to be substituted off immediately.
On 7 April, Guoan played their last pre-season friendly ahead of the 2023 CSL season kicking off on 15 April, against Nantong Zhiyun, which ended in a 0–0 draw. Guoan returned to Beijing and on 8 April launched this season's new kits along with announcing their new shirt sponsor, JD.com, at Workers' Stadium.
April
On 15 April, Guoan's season officially commenced with a return to the brand new Workers' Stadium in front of over 46,000 fans for its first Super League home game since late 2019 against Meizhou Hakka. With Zhang Yuning still injured, Guoan lined up with Yang Liyu up top supported by new signings Ademi, Souza, and Ngadeu along with returning Li Lei. The first goal of the game and in the new Workers' Stadium, instead of coming from a Guoan player, came from Meizhou's Ye Chugui in the 19th minute after a missed header in Guoan's box allowed Ye a clean shot to the near post. Guoan continued its attack but failed to score in the first half. In the 49th minute, Ademi was tripped in Meizhou's penalty area by Rade Dugalić and the referee Ma Ning awarded Guoan a penalty after extensive VAR review. Zhang Xizhe, the club's all-time top scorer, stepped up and converted the shot, tying the game at 1–1. Despite attempts by both sides, the game ended in a 1–1 draw with Guoan failing to secure an opening victory in the new season and the new stadium.
20 April saw Guoan face reigning league champions Wuhan Three Towns away from home. Menzo made a number of personnel changes, opting to give new transfer Han Jiaqi his first start at Guoan replacing Zou Dehai while starting both Gao Tianyi and Wang Ziming instead of Chi Zhongguo and the injured Adgebenro. Two teams traded chances in the first half with Wuhan seeming the better team, but Han Jiaqi's saves frustrated a number of good opportunities for Wuhan. Attempting to change the tempo of the game, Menzo replaced Wang Ziming with Kang Sang-woo at the start of the second half. In the 62nd minute, Guoan took the lead through Yang Liyu after Wuhan's keeper Liu Dianzuo erroneously gave the ball away inside his own box. In the final stages of the game, Wuhan brought on strikers hoping to make a difference, and indeed broke through Guoan's goal in the 92nd minute with substitute Ademilson. The game ended in a 1–1 draw. After 2 opening draws, Guoan sat 8th in the table.
Guoan played newly promoted Qingdao Hainiu away on 25 April with both teams winless after 2 rounds. Only 8 minutes into the game, Ngadeu-Ngadjui was judged after a VAR review to have handled the ball inside Guoan's penalty area with his hand and thereby conceding a penalty. Elvis Sarić subsequently converted the goal for Qingdao. In the 26th minute after Guoan players' failure to clear a corner by Qingdao, Aleksandar Andrejević attempted a shot on the edge of the area. Despite having gotten fingers across to the ball, Han Jiaqi was unable to stop it from going in, resulting in a 2–0 disadvantage for Guoan. At halftime, Menzo replaced Adegbenro with Kang Sang-woo and Wang Ziming with Zhang Yuning, giving Zhang his first cap after recovering from a shoulder injury. Despite the changes, Guoan conceded again just one minute into the second half as de Souza failed to deal with a header in midfield, allowing Evans Kangwa to carry the ball forward and slide it past Wang Gang and Han Jiaqi. Guoan pulled a goal back in the 50th minute thanks to de Souza converting from a corner chaos. Li Ke returned from injury and replaced Zhang Xizhe for his first cap in 2 years late in the game. Guoan dominated possession in the latter stages of the game, but was unable to find a way through Qingdao's defense, ending the game with a 3–1 defeat and extending the winless streak to 3 games. In the post-game press conference, Menzo blamed bad luck for the first goal conceded and praised Qingdao's attack for the second.
Guoan played rival Shandong Taishan on matchday 4 of the Super League on 29 April. The game was attended by 50,312 people, making it the highest attended game in this season. Despite attack from both sides, however, both teams failed to find a way through the opposition goal and the game ended in a 1–1 draw. After a winless 4 games with only 3 points, Guoan sat deep in the table close to the relegation zone at 13th place after the conclusion of matchday 4. The game also marked Wang Gang's 100th appearance for the club in all competitions.
May