Yokohama FC

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Yokohama
横浜

Full name	Yokohama Football Club
Nickname(s)	Fulie
Founded	25 December 1998; 25 years ago (25 December 1998)
Ground	Mitsuzawa Stadium Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama
Capacity	15,046
Chairman	Yuji Onodera
Manager	Shuhei Yomoda
League	J1 League
2023	J2 League, 2nd of 20 (promoted)
Website	yokohamafc.com
Home colours Away colours
Current season

Yokohama Football Club (横浜FC, Yokohama Efushī) is a Japanese professional football club based in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, part of the Greater Tokyo Area. The club was formed by fans of Yokohama Flügels as a protest against Flügels' merger with Yokohama Marinos in 1999, becoming the first supporter-owned professional sports team in Japan.^[1] They are set to play in the J1 League from 2025, the top tier of football in the country, after promotion from J2 League in 2024.

Since gaining J.League membership in 2001, Yokohama spent considerable time in the second tier of the Japanese football league system. The club gained promotion to J.League Division 1 for the 2007 season after winning the Division 2 title. However, YFC were immediately relegated in the following season. After 12 years in the J2 League, they returned to Japan's top tier, now called J1 League, for the 2020 season. The team finished 15th in its first season back in the top flight. But history would repeat itself in 2021, as they were relegated to J2 after finishing the season as J1's last-place team. The team was promoted again to J1 from 2025 after one year stint second tier in 2024.

Yokohama was formed on 25 December 1998 following the merger of Yokohama's two J.League clubs, the Flügels and the Marinos.^[2] Flügels supporters felt that their club had essentially been dissolved rather than merged with, so rejected the suggestion that they should start supporting Marinos – who had been their crosstown rivals. Instead, with money raised through donations from the general public and an affiliation with talent management company IMG, the former Flügels supporters founded the Yokohama Fulie Sports Club.^[3] Following the socio model used by FC Barcelona, the Fulie Sports Club created Yokohama Football Club, the first professional sports team in Japan owned and operated by its supporters.^[1]

For its first season in 1999, Yokohama hired former Germany national team and FIFA World Cup star Pierre Littbarski to be the manager and Yasuhiko Okudera, the first Japanese footballer to play professionally in Europe, to be the chairman.^[4] The club attempted to gain entry directly into the professional J.League, but the Japan Football Association only permitted entry to the amateur Japan Football League (JFL), at the time the third level of the Japanese football league system, and ruled that the club would not be eligible for promotion into J.League Division 2 at the end of its first season. So, despite finishing as JFL champion in 1999, Yokohama finished as JFL champion again in 2000 before being promoted to J.League Division 2.^[5]

Although they had a dire season in 2005, ending 11th out of 12, they were in the top half of table throughout the 2006 season. Yokohama had lost all of their pre-season matches, including against college teams; they later hired player-manager Takuya Takagi, under whom they saw success. On 26 November 2006, they finished in the top spot of the J2 League and were promoted to the J. League 1. Yokohama's financial situation remained poor, with no ownership of their stadium or training ground, and few staff members. One of their players, Kazuyoshi Miura, last played for the team at the age of 53, and a former player, Atsuhiro Miura (one of their main players before his 2010 retirement) was 36 when he last played for the club. These players once played for the Japan national team.

In 2007, just the ninth year of its existence, Yokohama played its first season in the top flight of Japanese football. After a poor season, the team were relegated with five games of the season still remaining. Despite their early relegation, Yokohama defeated title contenders Urawa Red Diamonds on the last day of the season, allowing Kashima Antlers to secure the J.League Division 1 title.^[6]

In 2018, Yokohama narrowly missed out on automatic promotion by goal difference. The team made it to the J2 promotion final, losing to Tokyo Verdy on an stoppage time winner. In 2019, Yokohama finished second in J2 and gained automatic promotion to J1.

After finishing in last place in 2021, Yokohama would be relegated back to J2 for the 2022 season, but they bounced back immediately to J1 League the next year. On 25 November 2023, Yokohama FC were relegated from J1 to J2 from 2024 after the club lost to Shonan Bellmare. On 11 November 2024, Yokohama FC secure promotion again to J1 from 2025 after draw against Renofa Yamaguchi 0-0 in final matchweek and ended one year stint in second tier.

Yokohama's crest features a phoenix, symbolizing the rise of Yokohama from the ashes of the Yokohama Flügels. The blue ribbon on the top represents the Blue Ribbon Movement, a movement that began at the end of the 1998 J.League season to keep the Flugels alive.

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As they could not adopt directly Flügels' white and blue strip given its similarity to that of Marinos, Yokohama decided to adopt an all-cyan kit, after NKK SC, a former company club which had closed in 1994. NKK SC was based in Kawasaki and played most matches at Todoroki Athletics Stadium, but used Mitsuzawa Stadium on days when the other Kawasaki clubs at the time (Verdy Kawasaki, Toshiba and Fujitsu) used it.

Home kit - 1st
2001	2002	2003 - 2004	2005 - 2006	2007 - 2008
2009 - 2010	2011 - 2012	2013	2014	2015
2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
2021	2022	2023	2024 -

Away kit - 2nd
2001	2002	2003 - 2004	2005 - 2006	2007 - 2008
2009 - 2010	2011 - 2012	2013	2014	2015
2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
2021	2022	2023	2024 -

As of 9 August 2024.^[7]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  JPN Kengo Nagai (on loan from Shimizu S-Pulse) 2 DF  JPN Boniface Nduka 3 DF  JPN Takumi Nakamura 4 MF  BRA Yuri Lara 5 DF  BRA Gabriel (captain) 7 MF  JPN Shion Inoue 8 MF  JPN Towa Yamane 9 FW  JPN Solomon Sakuragawa 10 FW  BRA Caprini 13 FW  JPN Keijiro Ogawa 14 MF  JPN Yoshihiro Nakano (on loan from Shonan Bellmare) 15 FW  JPN Sho Ito 17 DF  JPN Eijiro Takeda (vice-captain) 18 FW  JPN Kaito Mori 20 FW  JPN Toma Murata 21 GK  JPN Akinori Ichikawa 22 DF  JPN Katsuya Iwatake (vice-captain) 23 DF  JPN Hayato Sugita 24 DF  JPN Akito Fukumori (on loan from Consadole Sapporo)

No. Pos. Nation Player 25 MF  JPN Hirotaka Mita (vice-captain) 27 DF  BRA Léo Bahia 30 FW  BRA Michel Lima 33 FW  JPN Keisuke Muroi 34 MF  JPN Hinata Ogura 38 FW  JPN Toshiki Takahashi (on loan from Urawa Red Diamonds) 40 GK  JPN Masaki Endo 42 GK  BRA Phelipe Megiolaro 45 FW  JPN Keitaro Shoji Type 2 46 DF  JPN Soma Sato DSP 48 DF  JPN Ibuki Matsushita 49 FW  JPN Kantaro Maeda Type 2 50 DF  JPN Jui Hata Type 2 51 GK  JPN Tsubasa Okame Type 2 56 DF  JPN Jo Hashimoto 77 MF  JPN Mizuki Arai 78 FW  BRA João Paulo

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 29 FW  JPN Izumi Miyata (at Oliveirense) 39 MF  JPN Tomoya Takahashi (at Oliveirense) 47 DF  JPN Kengo Hayashi (at Tegevajaro Miyazaki) — GK  JPN Yuji Rokutan (at FC Ryukyu) — DF  JPN Shawn van Eerden (at YSCC Yokohama) — MF  JPN Kotaro Nagata (at Oliveirense)

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  JPN Yuto Shimizu (at Mito HollyHock) — MF  JPN Hayase Takashio (at Zweigen Kanazawa) — MF  JPN Kohei Tezuka (at Sagan Tosu) — MF  JPN Koshiro Uda (at Kochi United SC) — FW  JPN Koki Ogawa (at NEC Nijmegen) — FW  JPN Kazuyoshi Miura (at Atletico Suzuka)

As of 15 April 2024.

The main U-18 team of Yokohama currently plays in the Prince Takamado U-18 Premier League, the top-flight league for U-18 clubs in the country. Only the registered players for the competition will be displayed.^[8]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  JPN Toma Sakurai 2 DF  JPN Sota Matsuo 3 DF  JPN Kota Kosuki 4 DF  JPN Jui Hata 5 DF  JPN Riku Fukazawa 6 MF  JPN Tomoya Takahashi 7 MF  JPN Ayumu Sasa 8 FW  JPN Rento Tanida 9 FW  JPN Keitaro Shoji 10 MF  JPN Tomoki Asami 11 MF  JPN Shota Nakadai 13 DF  JPN Rai Okawa 14 MF  JPN Taiki Uchibori 15 DF  JPN Daiki Saito 16 GK  JPN Eitaro Nishikata 17 MF  JPN Yuki Tada 18 MF  JPN Tessei Shibakusa

No. Pos. Nation Player 19 MF  JPN Shoma Yanai 20 MF  JPN Ryosuke Iwasaki 21 GK  JPN Tsukasa Okame 22 DF  JPN Sota Tsukuda 23 FW  JPN Kantaro Maeda 24 DF  JPN Yu Serizawa 25 MF  JPN Sota Akimoto 26 MF  JPN Shion Tsuzaki 27 MF  JPN Manato Kanno 28 DF  JPN Ihaku Ieda 29 MF  JPN Yudai Fukuoka 31 GK  JPN Katsuto Yamagishi 37 MF  JPN Haruya Suzuki 39 MF  JPN Hiromu Yokka 41 GK  JPN Haruto Kikuchi 51 GK  JPN Yumeto Kagami

For the 2024 season.^[9]

Role	Name
Manager	Shuhei Yomoda
Assistant manager	Takafumi Hori
First-team coach	Seiya Takeuchi Shunsuke Nakamura Shingi Ono
Goalkeeper coach	Yoichi Doi
Assistant goalkeeper coach	Taiki Murai
Physical coach	Takeshi Ikoma
Conditioning coach	Akihiro Tanaka
Analyst	Shohei Waki

Manager	Nationality	Tenure
		Start	Finish
Pierre Littbarski	Germany	1 February 1999	31 December 2000
Yoshikazu Nagai	Japan	1 January 2001	10 September 2001
Yūji Sakakura	Japan	11 September 2001	15 September 2001
Katsuyoshi Shintō	Japan	16 September 2001	31 December 2002
Pierre Littbarski	Germany	1 February 2003	31 January 2005
Yūsuke Adachi	Japan	1 January 2005	6 March 2006
Takuya Takagi	Japan	7 March 2006	27 August 2007
Júlio César Leal	Brazil	28 August 2007	31 December 2007
Satoshi Tsunami	Japan	1 February 2008	31 January 2009
Yasuhiro Higuchi	Japan	1 February 2009	31 January 2010
Yasuyuki Kishino	Japan	1 February 2010	18 March 2012
Takahiro Taguchi	Japan	18 March 2012	21 March 2012
Motohiro Yamaguchi	Japan	21 March 2012	31 January 2015
Miloš Rus	Slovenia	1 January 2015	14 September 2015
Hitoshi Nakata	Japan	14 September 2015	1 December 2015
Miloš Rus	Slovenia	1 December 2015	15 June 2016
Hitoshi Nakata	Japan	16 June 2016	15 October 2017
Tomonobu Hayakawa	Japan	15 October 2017	17 October 2017
Yasuhiko Okudera	Japan	19 October 2017	23 October 2017
Edson Tavares	Brazil	24 October 2017	13 May 2019
Takahiro Shimotaira	Japan	14 May 2019	8 April 2021
Tomonobu Hayakawa	Japan	8 April 2021	31 January 2022
Shūhei Yomoda	Japan	1 February 2022	present

Key

The Yokohama mascot is named Fulie-maru, an alien-bird like figure. He is, supposedly, a tribute to Yokohama Flugels' mascot, Tobimaru, a flying squirrel.^[10]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yokohama FC.

• Official website (in Japanese)