Dalian Aerbin (2009–2014)

On September 20, 2009, Dalian Aerbin Group Co. Ltd. established a new professional football club named Dalian Aerbin (Chinese: 大连阿尔滨) and hired former Chinese footballer Li Ming to become the club manager. The club's name Aerbin comes from the Manchu language, meaning a place with water, which is also the name of a small town in Jinzhou District of Dalian where Dalian Aerbin Group Co. Ltd is located. They would soon move into the Dalian University Stadium in the Dalian Development Area and bring in Chi Shangbin as their co-manager and Sun Xianlu as their head coach.^[2] Starting in the third tier league, the club made their debut in the 2010 China League Two season. The club brought in established top-tier Chinese Super League players such as Guo Hui, Chang Lin, and Yang Lin. The quality of these players helped the club win their regional division section and later, the league title over Tianjin Songjiang as the club won the championship.^[3]

In the following season, the club hired its first foreign coach, Bulgarian manager Aleksandar Stankov. Dalian Aerbin F.C. set up a surprising winning streak and won the 2011 China League One championship.^[4] With their meteoric rise to the Super League, the club decided to use the 30,775-seater Jinzhou Stadium as its home stadium and shared it with their local rival Dalian Shide, as well as signing a more experienced manager in Chang Woe-Ryong, who had previously managed in the Chinese Super League with Qingdao Jonoon.^[5] The club initially struggled in the league and the club brought in Aleksandar Stanojević as the head coach.^[6] By July 11, 2012, Dalian Aerbin brought in a marquee player in the form of former Barcelona F.C. midfielder Seydou Keita, who departed the Spanish team on a free transfer and helped ensure Dalian Aerbin remained within the league.^[7] At the end of the 2012 league season, Stanojevć managed to not only avoid relegation but actually guided the club to fifth within the league.

On 30 November 2012, Aerbin Group acquired the local rival Dalian Shide F.C. by taking on responsibility of their 330 million RMB debt after Dalian Shide's chairman Xu Ming was arrested for bribing and corruption.^[8] In the hope of bringing in a harmonious merger of the two teams, former Dalian Shide manager Xu Hong was brought in for the start of the 2013 Chinese Super League. However, after only 63 days in charge, he had to resign after the Chinese Football Association found that he had manipulated a match while he was a manager at Sichuan First City and was given a 5-year suspension from all football activity, which forced Li Ming to start the season as their caretaker manager.^[9] The Chinese Football Association called off this merger, according to regulations, and decided that former Dalian Shide players should join the free market, while Dalian Aerbin could only sign them through a normal transfer, 5 at most, instead of taking over the whole team.^[10] This incident caused Aerbin to face some serious financial problems, being unable to pay the salaries, bonuses, or even maintenance of the stadium.^[11] At the end of the 2014 Chinese Super League, Aerbin was relegated to China League One.

Dalian Yifang (2015–2019)

With Dalian Aerbin back in the China League One division and with the loss of revenue generated from being in the top tier, the club could not afford to maintain their squad, which saw a mass exodus of players.^[12] Mikael Stahre was hired as the head coach at the start of the 2015 league campaign and looked to be pushing for promotion, which saw Dalian Yifang Group Co. Ltd on 8 July 2015, buy majority shares within the club.^[13] The purchase was promoted by Wang Jianlin and his Dalian Wanda Group, who are a main shareholder of the Yifang Group (一方, "one region"), with the investment signaling a return of football ownership from Wang Jianlin, who had previously owned Dalian Wanda F.C.^[14] The club failed to win promotion back into the top tier after finishing third place at the end of the 2015 season and officially changed their name to Dalian Yifang F.C. (Chinese: 大连一方) in December 2015.^[15] On 10 July 2015, in a press conference to confirm the Yifang Group's investment, the general manager, Shi Xueqing (石雪清), admitted that the club was still losing money.^[16]

In the 2017 China League One season, Dalian Yifang won the division title and promotion back into the top tier under head coach Juan Ramón López Caro.^[17] Despite this success, the Dalian Football Association announced that he was being replaced by Ma Lin, which saw speculation grow that the club was still in financial difficulties and was looking for the local government Dalian Sports Bureau to take over the club.^[18] On 20 February 2018, the Wanda Group took full control on the club after selling their 17% share in Atlético Madrid to Israeli businessman Idan Ofer on 14 February 2018.^[19] The Wanda Group would use the money taken from Atlético Madrid and invest it in bringing in Argentinian international Nicolás Gaitán and Belgium international Yannick Carrasco.^[20]

The team and the Wanda Group sought further influence in the 2019 season. In February 2019, the club completed another marquee signing from Europe, this time acquiring the services of Napoli man Marek Hamšík, who signed for a reported fee of about €20 million (£18m/$23m). Gaitán left the team to play for the MLS side Chicago Fire after just one season.^[21] The team signed with Korean manager Choi Kang-hee, but had less-than-expected performance as the league went halfways. In July 2019, Dalian Pro ended contract with Choi, while Rafael Benítez was introduced to the team, that he "was impressed by chairman Wang's passion and future plan on football".^[22][23] Salomon Rondon also joined from Newcastle United, as a response to Benítez's call.

Dalian Pro (2020–present)

On 21 January 2020, Dalian Yifang changed their name to Dalian Pro.^[24] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Chinese Super League did not start until July, after which, Carrasco decided to leave the team. Dalian Pro and Benitez focused on aggressive promotion of young players, putting older players down to the reserves, as the 2020 league did not have much relegation pressure.

In January 2021, Benítez and Dalian Pro parted ways.^[25] Hamsik and Rondon also decided to leave. As the CSL introduced further limits on salary cap and transfer fees, the team seemed to reach a post-marquee era by not introducing new foreign players and remained low-profile. The team appointed José González, but was relegated to China League One after the season.

On 12 March 2022, Dalian Pro announced major changes in its owners. Wanda Group decided to quit, and the team would be taken over temporarily by a government-led reforming work team. Past debts and operating costs of the first team, youth training facilities, and projects for the next three years would still be covered by Wanda Group. The Dalian Pro Academy Base was donated to DETA Holdings (德泰控股), a state-invested company in Dalian.^[26]

On 27 May 2022, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) announced that Dalian Pro, which had been relegated from the top flight at the end of last season, would compete in the 18-team top flight, as a replacement for disbanded club Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic.^[27]