A football-themed statue stands at the Evergrande Football School, now the Qingyuan campus of Guangzhou Sport University Photo: VCG

The football academy once affiliated to defunct Evergrande Group has been taken over by Guangzhou Sport University (GSU) and it will be transformed into a campus of the university after a court-approved restructuring plan brought in 600 million yuan ($89.28 million) in investment.

The Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court on August 21 approved the restructuring deal, according to a civil ruling published on the National Enterprise Bankruptcy Restructuring Cases Information Network. GSU was selected as the restructuring investor through a public recruitment process.

Under the restructuring arrangement, 490 million yuan of GSU's 600-million-yuan investment will be used to resolve the school's debts, while the remaining 110 million yuan will support the academy's  operations and development after the restructuring, according to reports citing people familiar with the issue.

The court said an audit showed that, as of May 13, the school had total assets of about 555.2 million yuan and liabilities of about 2.86 billion yuan, leaving it insolvent. Its assets had an assessed market value of about 786.2 million yuan and a liquidation value of about 414.9 million yuan.

The development marks a major change for one of China's best-known youth football academies, which was established by the Guangzhou-based Evergrande Group in 2011 and was once backed by the property conglomerate's huge investment. The restructuring means that the school will not simply disappear following the financial collapse of its former parent Evergrande Group.

The school's facilities in Qingyuan, South China's Guangdong Province, will become the home of GSU's Qingyuan campus. The university has said in project notices that the campus is scheduled to receive about 1,000 new students in September 2026. 

The restructuring comes after years of financial difficulties following the collapse of Evergrande Group. As of December 31, 2025, Evergrande Football School had total assets of 810 million yuan and total liabilities of 2.888 billion yuan, according to figures disclosed on the restructuring case.

Founded in 2011 and formally admitting students in 2012, the Evergrande Football School was one of the most ambitious youth-development projects of China's football investment boom. 

It adopted a training model that included cooperation with Spanish football organizations such as Real Madrid academy and established an overseas branch in Spain. 

The school was built with extensive football facilities and once became a symbol of Evergrande's ambition to develop a pipeline of young Chinese football players.

Its financial troubles emerged after Evergrande's broader debt crisis in 2021 cut off the funding that had supported the school.

The academy subsequently had to reduce its scale and seek other sources of income, including hosting competitions and training camps, while continuing its youth-development programs.

Yet the academy continued to produce players during the turbulent period.

In 2025, players developed by the school made 210 appearances in national-team selections across different age groups, while 144 academy graduates played in China's professional leagues, including 16 in the Chinese Super League, 49 in the China League One and 79 in China League Two, according to figures cited by the Guangdong Football Association.

The school also had a particularly successful 2025 in youth competitions. 

Its U13, U15 and U17 teams each won national-level youth championships during the year, according to Soccer News newspaper.

Xu Bin, one of its graduates, became the academy's first male senior China international after being called up to the national team in March 2025. 

He subsequently moved to English Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers in January 2026.

Xu was also part of China's squad that finished runner-up at the 2026 AFC U23 Asian Cup, alongside fellow Evergrande Football School graduates Wang Bohao and Huo Shenping.