Sagan Tosu

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Sagan Tosu

Full name	Sagan Tosu Football Club
Nickname(s)	Sagan
Founded	1997; 24 years ago (1997)
Ground	Tosu Stadium Tosu, Saga
Capacity	24,130
Chairman	Minoru Takehara
Manager	Kim Myung-hwi
League	J1 League
2020	J1 League, 13th of 18
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

Sagan Tosu (サガン鳥栖, Sagan Tosu) is a Japanese professional football club, currently playing in the J1 League. The team is located in Tosu, Saga Prefecture.

Sagan is a coined word with a couple of meanings behind it. One of its homophones is sandstone (砂岩, sagan) in Japanese. This symbolises many small elements uniting to form one formidable object, for example as a metaphor for a team. Also, Sagan Tosu can be interpreted as "Tosu of Saga (Prefecture)" (佐賀ん鳥栖, Saga-n Tosu) in the area's dialect.

History[]

In February 1997, Sagan was established as a new club which virtually takes over Tosu Futures, which became insolvent in the previous month, and admitted to participate Japan Football League from 1997 to 1998, as well as J. League Cup in 1997 as a preferential measure, although J. League Associate Membership status is not awarded to Sagan. In 1999 they were admitted to the new J. League Division 2 (J2) as the original ten teams, where they remained until their promotion to J1 at the end of the 2011 season. Things have changed and started to turn positive with the new President & Chief Operating Officer , who is also part owner of the club.^[1]

In their first season at the J. League Division 1 in 2012, confounding the prediction of many critics about their immediate relegation to J2, they have been maintaining their position between 5th and 11th places all the way through the season, only except after the 2nd week in which they were ranked as 13th. They were ranked third after the 33rd week, having a chance to qualify for the 2013 AFC Champions League if they would not lose to Yokohama F. Marinos in the last match of the 2012 season. However, they have lost to Yokohama 0–1 then ended up in 5th, while Urawa Red Diamonds defeated Nagoya Grampus and ranked in 3rd. They also became the first club in Asia to sign a partnership with Warrior Sports^[2] who also sponsors English side Liverpool FC and others.

In 2013, they made it to the semifinal of the 2013 Emperor's Cup first time in the club's history, becoming the first club based in Kyushu to make it to the semifinal of the Emperor's Cup since Nippon Steel Yawata SC had done in the 1981 edition. In 2013, they also invited Sydney FC from the A-League along with the former Italian national team player Alessandro Del Piero for a Japan Tour for the first time.^[3]

In 2014, the club have been in the most successful season in J. League Division 1, as being ranked on the top of 2014 J. League Division 1 after the 1st, 2nd, 13th, and 18th week. However, the club made an announcement on 8 August, several days after the 18th week match when Sagan moved back to the top of the league, to terminate the contract with the head coach Yoon Jung-Hwan as of 7 August all by sudden.^[4] In 2014, they continued on its international expansion and initiated a relationship with Italian side Juventus FC for its Juventus Under-16 Japan Tour 2014.^[5] On July 10th, 2018, the club reached an agreement with former World Cup, UCL and Europa League winner, Fernando Torres. The aging star would play 35 games for the side netting 5 goals before finally hanging up his boots on his star studded career.

Record as J. League member[]

Champions

Runners-up

Third place

Promoted

Relegated

League													J. League Cup	Emperor's Cup
Season	Div.	Teams	Pos.	P	W (OTW)	D	L (OTL)	F	A	GD	Pts	Attendance/G
1999	J2	10	8th	36	11 (1)	2	20 (2)	52	64	-12	37	3,385	1st round	3rd round
2000		11	6th	40	13 (2)	5	15 (5)	41	52	-11	48	3,714	1st round	3rd round
2001		12	10th	44	8 (2)	4	28 (2)	45	82	-37	32	3,479	1st round	4th round
2002		12	9th	44	9	14	21	41	64	-23	41	3,890	–	3rd round
2003		12	12th	44	3	11	30	40	89	-49	20	3,172		1st round
2004		12	11th	44	8	11	25	32	66	-34	35	3,610		4th round
2005		12	8th	44	14	10	20	58	58	0	52	7,855		4th round
2006		13	4th	48	22	13	13	64	49	15	79	7,465		4th round
2007		13	8th	48	21	9	18	63	66	-3	72	6,114		5th round
2008		15	6th	42	19	7	16	50	51	-1	64	7,261		Quarter-final
2009		18	5th	51	25	13	13	71	51	20	88	5,939		4th round
2010		19	9th	36	13	12	11	42	41	1	51	6,633		3rd round
2011		20	2nd	38	19	12	7	68	34	34	69	7,731		2nd round
2012	J1	18	5th	34	15	8	11	48	39	9	53	11,991	Group stage	2nd round
2013		18	12th	34	13	7	14	54	63	-9	46	11,515	Group stage	Semi-final
2014		18	5th	34	19	3	12	41	33	8	60	14,137	Group stage	Round of 16
2015		18	11th	34	9	13	12	37	54	-17	40	13,450	Group stage	Quarter-final
2016		18	11th	34	12	10	12	36	37	-1	46	12,636	Group stage	Round of 16
2017		18	8th	34	13	8	13	41	44	-3	47	14,194	Group stage	3rd round
2018		18	14th	34	10	11	13	29	34	-5	41	15,000	Group stage	Quarter-final
2019		18	15th	34	10	6	18	32	53	-21	36	15,050	Group stage	Quarter-final
2020 †		18	13th	34	7	15	12	37	43	-6	36	4,675	Group stage	Did not qualify
2021		20		38									Group stage

Key

• Pos. = Position in league; GP = Games Played; W = Games won; D = Games Drawn; L = Games Lost; F = Goals scored; A = Goals conceded; GD = Goals Difference; Pts = Points gained
• Attendance/G = Average home league attendance
• † 2020 season attendance reduced by COVID-19 worldwide pandemic
• Source: J.League Data Site

Players[]

Current squad[]

As of 19 August 2021^[6]

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  JPN Tatsuya Morita 3 DF  BRA Eduardo 4 MF  JPN Toshio Shimakawa 6 DF  JPN Yuto Uchida 7 MF  JPN Yoshihiro Nakano (on loan from Consadole Sapporo) 9 FW  JPN Keita Yamashita 10 MF  JPN Yuta Higuchi 12 GK  JPN 13 MF  JPN Ryōhei Shirasaki (on loan from Kashima Antlers) 14 MF  JPN Yoshiki Takahashi 15 MF  JPN Noriyoshi Sakai 18 FW  JPN Ryo Wada 20 DF  KOR Hwang Seok-ho 21 GK  KOR 22 MF  JPN Tomoya Koyamatsu 23 MF  JPN Fuchi Honda 24 DF  JPN Nanasei Iino

No. Pos. Nation Player 25 FW  NGA Chikeluba Ofoedu 27 MF  JPN Ryunosuke Sagara 29 FW  JPN Yuto Iwasaki (on loan from Consadole Sapporo) 30 DF  JPN Masaya Tashiro 31 DF  JPN Ayumu Ohata 32 MF  JPN Yosuke Yuzawa 33 FW  KEN Ismael Dunga 37 DF  JPN Kei Koizumi 39 DF  JPN Daisuke Matsumoto 40 GK  KOR Park Iru-gyu 43 MF  JPN Taichi Fukui 44 MF  JPN Keiya Sento 45 DF  JPN 46 DF  JPN 47 DF  JPN Shinya Nakano 48 DF  KOR Taiga Son 50 MF  PRK Ryang Yong-gi

Out on loan[]

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

No. Pos. Nation Player — DF  JPN Koki Imakake (on loan at Mito Hollyhock) — FW  JPN Rio Nitta (on loan at FC Wacker Innsbruck II) — DF  JPN Kazuki Anzai (at Tokyo Verdy) — GK  KOR (at Nagano Parceiro) — FW  JPN Reoto Kodama (at SC Sagamihara) — FW  JPN Kaisei Ishii (at Ehime FC)

Retired number[]

• 17  – A former professor of Saga University and the person which backed up in both the establishment of Tosu Futures and the team's revival as Sagan Tosu. He died due to kidney cancer on January 7, 2000. The number 17 indicates his day of death.

Managers[]

• Ikuo Matsumoto (2004–06)
• Yasuyuki Kishino (Jan 2007 – Dec 09)
• Ikuo Matsumoto (Jan 2010 – Dec 10)
• Yoon Jung-Hwan (Jan 2011–7 Aug 14)
• Megumu Yoshida (8 Aug 2014) – Dec 2014)
• Hitoshi Morishita (Dec 2014 – Dec 2015)
• Massimo Ficcadenti (Jan 2016 –2019)

References[]

External links[]

• (in Japanese) Official Site