Urawa Red Diamonds

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Urawa Reds

Full name	Urawa Red Diamonds
Nickname(s)	Reds (レッズ, Rezzu) / Red Devils (赤い悪魔, Akai Akuma)
Founded	1950; 71 years ago (1950)
Ground	Saitama Stadium 2002 Midori-ku, Saitama
Capacity	63,700
Owner	Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
Chairman	Keizo Fuchita
Manager	Ricardo Rodríguez
League	J1 League
2020	J1 League, 10th of 18
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Urawa Red Diamonds (浦和レッドダイヤモンズ, Urawa Reddo Daiyamonzu), colloquially Urawa Reds (浦和レッズ) (1950–present, also Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club (April 1992–January 1996)), are a professional football club in the city of Saitama, part of the Greater Tokyo Area in Japan. The club plays in the J1 League, the top tier of football in the country. Its name comes from the former city of Urawa, now part of Saitama.

The name Red Diamonds alludes to the club's pre-professional era parent company Mitsubishi. The corporation's logo consists of three red diamonds, one of which remains within the current club badge.

History[]

Shin-Mitsubishi Heavy Industries established a football club in 1950^[1] in Kobe and moved the club to Tokyo in 1958. In 1965 it formed the Japan Soccer League (JSL) along with today's JEF United Chiba, Kashiwa Reysol, Cerezo Osaka, Sanfrecce Hiroshima and three other clubs who have since been relegated to regional leagues ("Original Eight"^[a]).

Mitsubishi first won the JSL championship in 1969, as a break in Mazda/Sanfrecce's dominance (and also with the fact that Toyo were in Bangkok, Thailand, competing in the Asian Club Cup); their runs up the first division were sporadic but steady until the 1980s when they fell into the Second Division. In 1990 they were promoted as JSL Division 2 champions, and thus were ready when the J-League implementation began in earnest. Urawa Red Diamonds was an original member ("Original Ten"^[b]) of the J.League in 1993.

Mitsubishi were the first Japanese club to complete a domestic treble, when in 1978 they won the title, the Emperor's Cup and the Japan Soccer League Cup.

The club has enjoyed mixed fortunes since the J-League advent. The club finished bottom of the league for the first two seasons of the J-League with an average crowd of under 15,000. In 1999 they suffered relegation to the second tier of Japanese football yet again. The club has since improved in form in recent years, starting with a 2003 victory in the Nabisco Cup.

In 2006 Urawa clinched their first professional league title by defeating runners-up Gamba Osaka 3–2 on December 2 before 63,000 supporters. This came after two close calls in the previous two years. In 2005, they finished 2nd, one point behind champions Gamba Osaka. In 2004, they finished 3rd in the first stage and won the second stage. Having qualified for the two-match J.League Championship decider, they lost on penalty kicks to Yokohama F. Marinos.

Urawa were back to back Emperor's Cup winners in 2005 and 2006. Winning the title for the first time since establishment as a professional club, they defeated Shimizu S-Pulse 2–1 on January 1, 2006, and retained the title in 2007 with a 1–0 win over Gamba Osaka. This win also completed a league-cup double. In the 2007 tournament they were defeated at the first hurdle by J2 outfit Ehime FC.

In 2007, despite a seemingly unassailable lead of seven points with four games remaining, Urawa picked up only two points from their final four games. This run included losing at home to Kashima Antlers; the club who would leapfrog Urawa on the final day of the season to claim their fifth J.League title. Following their capitulation in the fourth round of the Emperor's Cup to J2 outfit Ehime FC, Urawa had to be content with their 2007 Asian Champions League title. Urawa recorded their first international title after overcoming Iranian club Sepahan F.C. 3–1 on aggregate. The victory made them the first Japanese side to win the title since the competition was reorganised from the Asian Champions Cup in 2003. In the Club World Cup of the same year, Urawa became the first AFC club to finish in third place, beating Tunisian Étoile Sportive du Sahel side on penalty kicks in the third / fourth place play off.

In 2008, Urawa attempted to win their second consecutive Asian Champions League title and progressed to the semi finals where they were defeated by fellow J-League rivals, and eventual Champions League winners, Gamba Osaka 3–1 on aggregate.

On March 8, 2014, a banner which read "JAPANESE ONLY" was hung at one of the entrances to the stands.^[2] As punishment for this racist behavior, the March 23 match was played in an empty stadium.^[3]

International affiliation[]

The club is also notable in that former Feyenoord midfielder Shinji Ono began his professional career playing for Urawa. Ono returned for the 2006 season for a second stint with the club. Urawa is affiliated with German club FC Bayern Munich, whose nickname is also "The Reds".^[4] Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the chairman of the FC Bayern Munich, announced that "We have been looking for clubs which have potential ability, management stability and cordial confidence. We could fulfill the desire to affiliate with this great club, Urawa Reds."^[5] Some other foreign clubs, such as Arsenal F.C., Club Atlético Independiente, Clube de Regatas do Flamengo, VfB Stuttgart, Manchester United F.C., Feyenoord, Hamburger SV and Perth Glory FC, visited Japan and played friendly games at the Saitama Stadium.

In August 2004, Urawa appeared in a pre-season four-club friendly tournament, the Vodafone Cup, at Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United. The Japanese club, missing key players, lost their first game 5–2 against the Argentinian side Boca Juniors. The second fixture against the hosts, Manchester United, was called off due to a massive electric storm. Some 800 Urawa fans had travelled to the game and were later compensated.

The club's supporters also have an unofficial relationship with Shanghai Shenhua. The clubs' supporters will support each other in continental competition. For example, Shenhua fans will support Urawa when Urawa plays in Shanghai against Shanghai SIPG.^[6]

Stadium[]

Since the establishment of J.League in 1992, the club had used tracked Urawa Komaba Stadium as its home stadium. Due to the increasing popularity of the matches, Saitama City, owner of the stadium, expanded the seat capacity some times. The club used Ōmiya Park Soccer Stadium until the works were complete. In spite of the poor performance of the club, the stadium was filled with faithful supporters, drawing an average audience of twenty thousand people.

In October 2001, Saitama Prefecture built new football-specific Saitama Stadium in Saitama city. This stadium was used as a venue for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. After the World Cup the club gradually increased home games in Saitama Stadium and in 2003 the stadium was formally designated as the home stadium. In 2008, only two games were held at Komaba Stadium.

Facilities[]

Urawa Reds uses Ohara City Field for training. In addition to this facility, the club opened Redsland in 2005, which has three grass fields, one artificial turf field, one baseball field, futsal courts and tennis courts.^[7] Redsland is opened to the public and club members can use the facilities at relatively cheap fees.

Rivalries[]

Saitama derby[]

Urawa Red Diamonds has a local derby with Omiya Ardija, from Ōmiya-ku, Saitama city. They first met in the 1987 Emperor's Cup, with Mitsubishi defeating NTT Kanto by 5 to 0 at Nishigaoka National Stadium. The derby first took place in the JSL Second Division in the 1989–90 season, and it wouldn't take place until the 2000 season when Urawa was relegated to the second tier again. In 2003 the formerly separate Omiya and Urawa cities merged to become Saitama city, and since 2005 the derby became a top flight fixture after Omiya was promoted.

Marunouchi Gosanke[]

During the JSL years and into the 1990s, Urawa's main top flight rivals were JEF United Chiba and Kashiwa Reysol, both now based in Chiba Prefecture. Because of their former parent companies' headquarters being all based in Marunouchi, Tokyo, the three clubs were known as the Marunouchi Gosanke (丸の内御三家, "Marunouchi Big Three") and fixtures among them were known as the Marunouchi derbies, although the term is falling out of use as they are now based in different prefectures and rarely play home games in Tokyo stadiums.

Others[]

Rivals further afield include Kashima Antlers, FC Tokyo, Yokohama Marinos, Kawasaki Frontale, and, even farther away, Gamba Osaka. Old JSL championship rivalries with Sanfrecce Hiroshima, Cerezo Osaka and Shonan Bellmare have ebbed down as those clubs had nadirs in the 3 teary.

Women's and amateur teams[]

The club also has women's and amateur teams.

• Women's: Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies^[8] in WE League
• Amateur: Urawa Red Diamonds Amateur in Saitama Prefecture League Div. 1

Kit and colours[]

Colours[]

The main colour of Urawa Red Diamonds is red

Kit evolution[]

showHome
1993–1994	1995–1996	1997	1998	1999–2000
2001–2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
2017	2018	2019	2020	2021

showAway
1993–1994	1995–1996	1997	1998	1999–2000
2001–2002	2003	2004–2005	2006–2007	2008–2009
2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
2020	2021

showOthers
2012 3rd	2013 3rd	2014 3rd	2017 3rd	2019 3rd

League & cup record[]

Champions

Runners-up

Third place

Promoted

Relegated

Season	Div.	Teams	Pos.	Avg. Attd.	Emperor's Cup	J.League Cup	Super Cup	AFC CL	Others
1992	–	–	–	–	Semi-finals	Group stage	–	–	–
1993	J1	10	10th	11,459	2nd round	Group stage
1994		12	12th	18,475	3rd round	Quarter-finals
1995		14	4th	19,560	Quarter-finals	–
1996		16	6th	24,329	Semi-finals	Group stage
1997		17	10th	20,504	4th round	Quarter-finals
1998		18	6th	22,706	Quarter-finals	Group stage
1999		16	15th	21,206	4h round	Quarter-finals
2000	J2	11	2nd	16,923	4h Round	1st round
2001	J1	16	10th	26,720	Semi-finals	Quarter-finals
2002		16	11th	26,296	3rd round	Runners-up
2003		16	6th	28,855	3rd round	Winners
2004		16	2nd	36,660	Semi-finals	Runners-up
2005		18	2nd	39,357	Winners	Semi-finals
2006		18	1st	45,573	Winners	Quarter-finals	Winners
2007		18	2nd	46,667	4th round	Quarter-finals	Runners-up	Winners	A3	3rd place
									FIFA	3rd place
2008		18	7th	47,609	5th round	Group stage	–	Semi-finals	–
2009		18	6th	44,210	2nd round	Quarter-finals		–
2010		18	10th	39,941	Quarter-finals	Group stage
2011		18	15th	33,910	Quarter-finals	Runners-up
2012		18	3rd	36,634	4th round	Group stage
2013		18	6th	37,100	3rd round	Runners-up		Group stage
2014		18	2nd	35,516	3rd round	Quarter-finals		–
2015		18	3rd	38,745	Runners-up	Quarter-finals	Runners-up	Group stage
2016		18	2nd	36,935	4th round	Winners	–	Round of 16
2017		18	7th	33,542	4th round	Quarter-finals	Runners-up	Winners	Suruga	Winners
									FIFA	5th place
2018		18	5th	34,798	Winners	Play-off stage	–	–	–
2019		18	14th	34,184	4th round	Quarter-finals	Runners-up	Runners-up
2020 †		18	10th	7,869	–	Group stage	–	–
2021		20			–		–	–

Key

• Pos. = Position in league
• Attendance/G = Average home league attendance
• † 2020 season attendance reduced by COVID-19 worldwide pandemic

Honours[]

Domestic competitions[]

Mitsubishi (Amateur era)

• Japan Soccer League Division 1
  • Champions: 1969, 1973, 1978, 1982
  • Runners-up (6): 1970, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977
• Japan Soccer League Second Division
  • Champions: 1989–90
• Emperor's Cup
  • Winners: 1971, 1973, 1978, 1980
  • Runners-up: 1967, 1968, 1979
• JSL Cup
  • Winners: 1978, 1981
• Japanese Super Cup
  • Winners: 1979, 1980, 1983
  • Runners-up: 1981

Urawa Red Diamonds (Professional era)

• J.League Division 1
  • Champions: 2006
  • Runners-up (5): 2004, 2005, 2007, 2014, 2016
• J.League Division 2
  • Runners-up: 2000
• Emperor's Cup
  • Winners: 2005, 2006, 2018
  • Runners-up: 2015
• J.League Cup
  • Winners: 2003, 2016
  • Runners-up: 2002, 2004, 2011, 2013
• Japanese Super Cup
  • Winners: 2006
  • Runners-up: 2007, 2015, 2017, 2019

Continental[]

• AFC Champions League
  • Winners (2): 2007, 2017
  • Runners-up (1): 2019

International[]

• FIFA Club World Cup
  • Third place (1): 2007
• Suruga Bank Championship
  • Winners (1): 2017

Individual awards[]

Players[]

Current squad[]

As of 30 August 2021^[9]

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 Shusaku Nishikawa 2 DF  JPN Hiroki Sakai 3 MF  JPN Tomoya Ugajin 4 DF  JPN Takuya Iwanami 5 DF  JPN Tomoaki Makino 6 DF  JPN Ryosuke Yamanaka 7 FW  DEN Kasper Junker 8 DF  JPN Daigo Nishi 11 MF  JPN Tatsuya Tanaka 12 GK  JPN Zion Suzuki 15 MF  JPN Takahiro Akimoto 16 FW  JPN Kosuke Kinoshita 17 MF  JPN Atsuki Ito 18 MF  JPN Yoshio Koizumi 19 MF  JPN Daiki Kaneko

No. Pos. Nation Player 20 DF  AUS Thomas Deng 21 MF  JPN Tomoaki Okubo 22 MF  JPN Yuki Abe 24 MF  JPN Koya Yuruki 25 GK  JPN Hitoshi Shiota 28 DF  DEN Alexander Scholz 29 MF  JPN Kai Shibato 30 FW  JPN Shinzo Koroki 33 FW  JPN Ataru Esaka 35 DF  JPN 36 DF  JPN Ryuya Fukushima 40 MF  JPN Yuichi Hirano 41 MF  JPN Takahiro Sekine 42 DF  JPN Kota Kudo 43 GK  JPN

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 — GK  JPN Haruki Fukushima (On loan at Kyoto Sanga) — GK  JPN Ryo Ishii (On loan at Renofa Yamaguchi) — DF  JPN Yudai Fujiwara (On loan at SC Sagamihara) — DF  JPN Daiki Hashioka (On loan at Sint-Truidense VV) — DF  JPN Takuya Ogiwara (On loan at Kyoto Sanga)

No. Pos. Nation Player — DF  JPN Kei Oshiro (On loan at YSCC Yokohama) — MF  JPN Nobuki Iketaka (On loan at Fukushima United) — MF  JPN Ryotaro Ito (On loan at Mito HollyHock) — MF  JPN Hidetoshi Takeda (On loan at FC Ryukyu) — FW  BRA Fabrício (On loan at Portimonense)

World Cup players[]

The following players have represented their country at the World Cup whilst playing for Urawa Red Diamonds:

World Cup 1998

• Masayuki Okano
• Shinji Ono
• Željko Petrović

World Cup 2006

• Alex
• Shinji Ono
• Keisuke Tsuboi

World Cup 2010

• Yuki Abe

World Cup 2014

• Shusaku Nishikawa

World Cup 2018

• Wataru Endo
• Tomoaki Makino
• Andrew Nabbout

Club captains[]

• Koichi Shitani 1992-1993
• Masahiro Fukuda 1994-1997
• Takashi Tsuchida 1998-1999
• Shinji Ono 2000-2001
• Masami Ihara 2001-2002
• Hideki Uchidate 2003
• Nobuhisa Yamada 2004-2008
• Keita Suzuki 2009-2011
• Yuki Abe 2012-2017
• Yōsuke Kashiwagi 2018-2019
• Shusaku Nishikawa 2020

Former players[]

International capped players[]

JFA. Masayuki Okano Shinji Ono Keisuke Tsuboi Alex Masahiro Fukuda Yuichiro Nagai Nobuhisa Yamada Marcus Tulio Tanaka Tatsuya Tanaka Teruaki Kurobe Tomoyuki Sakai Hiromitsu Isogai Ryōta Tsuzuki Naohiro Takahara Hajime Hosogai Yuki Abe Makoto Hasebe Keita Suzuki Tadanari Lee Ryota Moriwaki Naoki Yamada Genki Haraguchi Shusaku Nishikawa Wataru Endo Tomoaki Makino Shinzo Koroki Yōsuke Kashiwagi Tomoya Ugajin Yuki Muto Kazuki Nagasawa

AFC/ CAF/ OFC. Matthew Spiranovic Ned Zelić Andrew Nabbout Emerson Cho Kwi-jea Gwak Kyung-keun Wilfried Sanou Faisal Mohammed

UEFA. Michael Baur Tomislav Marić Brian Steen Nielsen Basile Boli Uwe Bein Guido Buchwald Uwe Rahn Michael Rummenigge Giuseppe Zappella Željko Petrović Alfred Nijhuis Andrzej Kubica Yuriy Nikiforov Ranko Despotović Ľubomír Luhový Miroslav Mentel Zlatan Ljubijankič Txiki Begiristain Alpay Özalan

CONMEBOL. Osvaldo Escudero Victor Ferreyra Marcelo Morales Marcelo Trivisonno Adiel Adriano Donizete Oliveira Edmilson Edmundo Harison Márcio Richardes Mazola Nenê Robson Ponte Popo Santos Toninho Tuto Washington Fernando Picun

Managers[]

Manager	Nationality	Tenure
		Start	Finish
Hiroshi Ninomiya	Japan	February 1, 1967	January 31, 1975
Kenzo Yokoyama	Japan	February 1, 1975	January 31, 1983
Kuniya Daini	Japan	February 1, 1984	une 30, 1989
Kazuo Saito	Japan	July 1, 1989	June 30, 1992
Takaji Mori	Japan	July 1, 1993	January 31,1994
Kenzo Yokoyama	Japan	February 1, 1994	January 31, 1995
Holger Osieck	Germany	February 1, 1995	December 31, 1996
Horst Köppel	Germany	February 1, 1997	December 31, 1998
Hiromi Hara	Japan	February 1, 1998	June 30, 1999
Aad de Mos	Netherlands	July 1, 1999	December 3, 1999
Yasushi Yoshida	Japan	December 4,1999	January 31, 2000
Kazuo Saito	Japan	February 1, 2000	October 2, 2000
Kenzo Yokoyama	Japan	October 3, 2000	January 31, 2001
Tita	Brazil	February 1, 2001	August 27, 2001
Pita	Brazil	August 28, 2001	January 31, 2001
Hans Ooft	Netherlands	February 1, 2002	January 31, 2004
Guido Buchwald	Germany	February 1, 2004	January 31, 2006
Holger Osieck	Germany	February 1, 2007	March 16, 2008
Gert Engels	Germany	March 16, 2008	November 27, 2008
Volker Finke	Germany	February 1, 2009	January 31, 2011
Željko Petrović	Montenegro	February 1, 2011	October 20, 2011
Takafumi Hori (caretaker)	Japan	October 20, 2011	January 31, 2012
Mihailo Petrović	Serbia	February 1, 2012	July 30, 2017
Takafumi Hori	Japan	July 31, 2017	April 2, 2018
Tsuyoshi Otsuki	Japan	April 3, 2018	April 24, 2018
Oswaldo de Oliveira	Brazil	April 25, 2018	May 28, 2019
Tsuyoshi Otsuki	Japan	May 29, 2019	December 22, 2020
Ricardo Rodríguez	Spain	December 22, 2020

League history[]

Excepting two seasons in which they were in the second tier, Mitsubishi/Urawa has always competed in the top flight, thereby being the club with the most top flight seasons total.

• Mitsubishi (Amateur era)
  • Division 1 (JSL and JSL Div.1): 1965–66, 1988–89
  • Division 2 (JSL Div.2): 1989–90
  • Division 1 (JSL Div.1): 1990–91, 1991–92
• Urawa Red Diamonds (Professional era)
  • Division 1 (J.League): 1993–99
  • Division 2 (J.League Div.2): 2000
  • Division 1 (J.League Div.1): 2001–
• Top scorer: Masahiro Fukuda with 152 goals

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Urawa Red Diamonds.

• Urawa Red Diamonds official website (in Japanese and English)
• Urawa Red Diamonds Supporters Media website (unofficial) (in Japanese)

Sporting positions
Preceded by Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	Champions of Asia 2007	Succeeded by Gamba Osaka
Preceded by Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	Champions of Asia 2017	Succeeded by Kashima Antlers