The 33-year-old, currently appealing the three-year prison sentence he received in January for killing a pedestrian in a car accident, opened the scoring before Chang Lin and Li Gang struck to sink the league champions of China, Korea Republic and Japan and win the annual round-robin tournament.

Chinese champions Shandong Luneng could have secured the title with a draw against Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma in the final game of the competition but their 2-1 defeat to the K-League champions handed Shenhua the title on goal difference

Having lost 2-1 to Shandong on Sunday, Shenhua went into their final game against Urawa needing a convincing win to keep alive their hopes of winning the championship.

And they got off to the perfect start as Colombia international Ricard outpaced Reds midfielder Tomoyuki Sakai to tap home Sergio Blanco's cross from the right after only 10 minutes.

The Chinese side extended their advantage on the half-hour mark when full-back Chang volleyed a Wang Ke corner into the net and eight minutes later, midfielder Li latched onto an attempted clearance by the Urawa defence and curled home a stunning 30-yard strike.

Reds defender Marcus Tulio Tanaka scored a consolation goal for Urawa 12 minutes after the break, rising to head in a corner kick from Robson Ponte, but it was not enough to prevent Shenhua from avenging their elimination at the hands of the J.League side during the group stage of this year's AFC Champions League.

Ricard's goal was his second for Shenhua following his debut strike for the Chinese side in their 3-0 thumping of Seongnam last Thursday.

The Colombian's signing could not have come at a better time for the injury-hit side, who are currently seventh in the China Super League standings.

"My ultimate goal for this year is to win the Chinese Super League title," said Shenhua's Uruguayan manager Osvaldo Gimenez Toledo. "Ricard is an excellent striker and he will be of great value to my squad."

Shenhua finished level on six points with Shandong after the Chinese champions dropped their first points of the tournament against Seongnam.

The Koreans had lost both of their earlier games but took the lead after 31 minutes when Kim Sang-sik fired home a free-kick.

Choi Sung-kok added a second nine minutes later, latching on to a deep cross and side-stepping Shandong right-back Jiao Zhe before slotting the ball home.

Substitute Wang Xiaolong revived Shandong's hopes 11 minutes from time when he received the ball from China international Zheng Zhi and clipped the ball into the net from 30 yards.

However, Shandong were unable to break down Seongnam's defence again in the dying minutes as they suffered their second damaging defeat in three weeks against the Korean side.

They went out of the AFC Champions League on May 23 after going down to a 3-0 away defeat against Seongnam in their final group stage game.