FC Tokyo

For volleyball club, see F.C. Tokyo (volleyball).
Full name Football Club Tokyo
Founded 1999 (1999) as F.C. Tokyo
1935 as Tokyo Gas F.C.
Ground Ajinomoto Stadium
Chōfu, Tokyo
Ground Capacity 49,970
Chairman Naoki Ogane
Manager Yoshiyuki Shinoda
League J1 League
2016 J1 League, 9th
Website Club home page

F.C. Tokyo (FC東京 Efushī Tōkyō) is a Japanese association football club playing in J1 League. Its hometown is Tokyo prefecture. The team is one of only four in the J. League to be simply called Football Club without an extended name.

History

Tokyo Gas F.C.

The team started as a company team, Tokyo Gas Football Club (東京ガスFC)[1] Their first appearance in the national leagues was in 1991, the last season of the old Japan Soccer League.[2] With addition of the Brazilian football player Amaral and the manager Kiyoshi Okuma at the helm, the team gradually became competitive and in 1997, the team finished second, winning the JFL championship the next year. However, at the time the team lacked the necessary qualifications for a promotion to the J1 league and so stayed in J2.

Following this, on October 1, 1998, companies like Tokyo Gas, TEPCO, ampm, TV Tokyo, and Culture Convenience Club, set up a joint company Tokyo Football Club Company with the aim of making the team eligible for joining the J. League. In 1999, the same year the team became eligible, they finished second in the J2 league and were automatically promoted to J1 beginning in the 2000 season. Despite a widespread belief that the team would barely win enough to stay in the J1, the team won four games in a row since its opening game and managed to finish at the 7th spot.

Tokyo Dorompa, the club's mascot ranked second in the 2016 J. League mascots popularity poll.[3]

Helped by its winning record, the attendance shot up and it is still above that of well-known Tokyo Verdy 1969 that moved its home town from Kawasaki, Kanagawa in 2001. Since 2002, the team welcomed Hiromi Hara as its manager and aimed for a championship with a strong offense. The 2003 season had the team finish in 4th, its highest ever. In August of the same year, it held a friendly match against one of the greatest football clubs, Real Madrid losing 3–0 but gaining valuable experiences both on and off the field for what it takes to be a great football club.

Long-time leader Amaral, nicknamed The King of Tokyo by his fans, departed the team to join Shonan Bellmare in 2004. He was replaced by Athens Olympics national football team player Yasuyuki Konno from Consadole Sapporo. In November of the same year, it won the J. League Yamazaki Nabisco Cup for its first major title since joining the J. League.

After 10 years of participation in the J. League without a mascot character, the team adopted Tokyo Dorompa, a tanuki-like figure, as its mascot in January, 2009.

On December 4, 2010 FC Tokyo had to win their final game of the season away to already relegated Kyoto Sanga FC. FC Tokyo lost 2–0 and went back down to the second tier for the first time in 11 years. Nevertheless, they bounced back at the first attempt, winning the J2 title in November 2011.

Before their 2011 Emperor's Cup win, FC Tokyo reached the semifinals of the competition three times: in 1997 (as Tokyo Gas), 2008, and 2010. Their 2011 win was remarkable in that the club was a second division team during the season. They became the first J2 champions, and third second-tier champions overall (after NKK S.C. in 1981 and Júbilo Iwata in 1982), to accomplish the feat.

Stadium

Main article: Ajinomoto Stadium
Ajinomoto Stadium

F.C. Tokyo uses Ajinomoto Stadium as its home ground (the official name of this stadium is Tokyo Stadium). For a long time it did not have a home stadium of its own and played at various football fields such as the National Yoyogi Stadium, the National Nishigaoka Football Field, Edogawa Special Ward Stadium, and the Komazawa Olympic Park Stadium, but in 2001 it finally found a permanent home. Club's training grounds are Sarue Ground in Koto, Tokyo and Kodaira Ground in Kodaira, Tokyo.

Players

Current squad

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

No. Position Player
2 Japan DF Yuhei Tokunaga
3 Japan DF Masato Morishige (captain)
4 Japan MF Hideto Takahashi
5 Japan DF Yuichi Maruyama
6 Japan DF Sei Muroya
7 Japan MF Takuji Yonemoto
9 Japan FW Sota Hirayama
10 Japan MF Yohei Kajiyama
11 Brazil FW Muriqui
13 Japan GK Tatsuya Enomoto
16 Australia FW Nathan Burns
17 Japan MF Hiroki Kawano
18 Japan MF Naohiro Ishikawa
19 Japan MF Tasuku Hiraoka
20 Japan FW Ryoichi Maeda
22 Japan MF Naotake Hanyu
23 Japan FW Yohei Hayashi
No. Position Player
24 Japan DF Wataru Sasaki
25 Japan DF Ryoya Ogawa
26 Japan DF Takahiro Yanagi
27 Japan MF Sotan Tanabe
28 Japan MF Shuto Kono
29 Japan DF Kazunori Yoshimoto
31 Japan GK Kentaro Kakoi
32 South Korea MF Yu In-soo
34 Japan MF Hideyuki Nozawa
37 Japan MF Kento Hashimoto
38 Japan MF Keigo Higashi
39 Japan MF Shoya Nakajima
44 Japan FW Takuma Abe
47 Japan GK Yota Akimoto
48 Japan MF Kota Mizunuma
50 Japan DF Yuichi Komano

Out on loan

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

No. Position Player
Japan GK Shuichi Gonda (at SV Horn)
Japan MF Hirotaka Mita (at Vegalta Sendai)

World Cup players

The following players have represented their country at the World Cup whilst playing for F.C. Tokyo:

Olympic players

The following players have represented their country at the Summer Olympic Games whilst playing for F.C. Tokyo:

Managers

ManagerNat.Tenure
Kiyoshi Okuma  Japan Jan 1, 1995 – Dec 31, 2001
Hiromi Hara  Japan Jan 1, 2002 – Dec 19, 2005
Alexandre Gallo  Brazil Dec 20, 2005 – Aug 14, 2006
Hisao Kuramata  Japan Aug 15, 2006 – Dec 6, 2006
Hiromi Hara  Japan Dec 7, 2006 – Dec 31, 2007
Hiroshi Jofuku  Japan Jan 1, 2008 – Sept 19, 2010
Kiyoshi Okuma  Japan Sept 20, 2010 – Jan 2, 2011
Ranko Popović  Serbia Jan 2, 2012 – Dec 31, 2013
Massimo Ficcadenti  Italy Jan 2, 2014 – Dec 31, 2015
Hiroshi Jofuku  Japan Jan 1, 2016 – Jul 24, 2016
Yoshiyuki Shinoda  Japan Jul 26, 2016 –

Record as J. League member

Season Div. Tms. Pos. Attendance/G J. League Cup Emperor's Cup AFC CL
1999 J2 10 2 3,498 Semi-final 4th Round -
2000 J1 16 7 11,807 2nd Round 3rd Round -
2001 J1 16 8 22,313 2nd Round 3rd Round -
2002 J1 16 9 22,173 Quarter-final 3rd Round -
2003 J1 16 4 24,932 Quarter-final 4th Round -
2004 J1 16 8 25,438 Winner Quarter-final -
2005 J1 18 10 27,101 Group Stage 5th Round -
2006 J1 18 13 24,096 Group Stage 5th Round -
2007 J1 18 12 25,290 Group Stage Quarter-final -
2008 J1 18 6 25,716 Quarter-final Semi-final -
2009 J1 18 5 25,884 Winner 4th Round -
2010 J1 18 16 25,112 Quarter-final Semi-final -
2011 J2 20 1 17,562 - Winner -
2012 J1 18 10 23,955 Semi-final 2nd Round Round of 16
2013 J1 18 8 25,073 Group Stage Semi-final -
2014 J1 18 9 25,187 Group Stage Round of 16 -
2015 J1 18 4 28,784 Quarter-final Quarter-final -
2016 J1 18 9 24,037 Semi-final Round of 16
Key

Honours

Domestic

F.C. Tokyo

Tokyo Gas Football Club (Amateur era)

International

F.C. Tokyo

Personnel awards

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.jfa.or.jp/jfa/history/.
  2. ↑ Basic infos and history of FC Tokyo
  3. ↑ "Ｊリーグマスコット総選挙 2016年の結果". jleague.jp. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
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