Thespa Gunma

For the club in Kusatsu, Shiga, see MIO Biwako Kusatsu.

Thespa Kusatsu
ザスパ草津

logo
Full name	Thespa Kusatsu
Nickname(s)	-
Founded	1995
Ground	Shikishima Stadium
Capacity	10,050
Chairman	Yuichi Mototani
Manager	Toru Sano (2009 - )
League	J. League Div.2
2009	10th Place
Home colours Away colours

Thespa Kusatsu (ザスパ草津, zasupa kusatsu) is a professional football (soccer) club based in Gunma Prefecture in Japan. The club plays in J. League division 2. J. League is the top professional football league in Japan.

The club was founded in 1995 in Kusatsu town, one of the most well-known spa resorts in Japan. Its name basically means "The Spa, Kusatsu." Because of J. League restrictions on stadiums, they play at Shikishima Stadium in nearby Maebashi, the prefectural capital.

History

The club was founded in 1995 as Liaison Kusatsu Football Club. The players were the students of specialized training college Higashi Nihon Soccer Academy. When the school was closed in 1999 due to financial difficulties, the players decided to stay in Kusatsu and keep the club alive. In 2002, the club was incorporated as K.K. Kusatsu Onsen Football Club with a future promotion to J. League in mind and adopted new team name Thespa Kusatsu.

Current players

As of June 20, 2009 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	Seiji Honda
2	DF	JPN	Takeshi Terada
3	DF	JPN	Kei Omoto
4	DF	JPN	Jun Tanaka
5	DF	KOR	Choi Sung-Yong
6	MF	JPN	Kazuki Sakurada
7	DF	JPN	Sotaro Sada
8	MF	JPN	Wataru Yamazaki
9	FW	JPN	Yasunori Takada
10	MF	JPN	Nozomi Hiroyama
11	FW	JPN	Ryoji Ujihara
13	MF	JPN	Daiki Sato
14	MF	JPN	Shingo Kumabayashi
15	DF	JPN	Yasushi Kita
17	MF	JPN	Tadahiro Akiba
18	FW	JPN	Junki Koike

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
19	FW	JPN	Ryo Goto
20	MF	JPN	Jun Tamano
21	GK	JPN	Satoshi Tokizawa
22	GK	JPN	Kazuma Kita
23	DF	JPN	Tatsuya Kawahara
24	DF	JPN	Keiichi Misawa
25	MF	JPN	Minori Sato
26	DF	JPN	Daisuke Fujii
27	FW	JPN	Ken Tokura
28	GK	JPN	Itta Terada
29	GK	JPN	Takuma Ito
30	MF	JPN	Yuki Matsushita
32	DF	JPN	Shingo Arizono
33	FW	JPN	Hiroyuki Sugimoto
34	MF	JPN	Kobayashi
—	MF	JPN	Kazuyuki Toda

For recent transfers, see List of Japanese football transfers winter 2009-10.

Season by season results and managers

Year	League	Played	Point	Win	Loss	Draw	Place	Manager	General Maanger
1995	Gunma Prefectual Div 4	?	?	?	?	?	Champions	Ratko Stevović	―
1996	Gunma Prefectual Div 3	?	?	?	?	?	Champions		―
1997	Gunma Prefectual Div 2A	?	?	?	?	?	Champions		―
1998	Gunma Prefectual Div 1	?	?	?	?	?	7th	Naoki Kimura	―
1999	Gunma Prefectual Div 2	?	?	?	?	?	?		―
2000	Gunma Prefectual Div 2B	?	?	?	?	?	2nd	Ratko Stevović	―
2001	Gunma Prefectual Div 2B	?	?	?	?	?	Champions		―
2002	Gunma Prefectual Div 1	14	42	14	0	0	Champions	Ryosuke Okuno	Shigeharu Ueki
2003	Kanto Regional Div 2	14	35	11	1	2	Champions
2004	JFL	30	62	19	6	5	3rd	Shigeharu Ueki	―
2005	J2	44	23	5	31	8	12th	Satoshi Tezuka	―
2006	J2	48	42	9	24	15	12th	Shigeharu Ueki	―
2007	J2	48	42	7	20	21	11th		―
2008	J2	44	13	7	15	14	9th		―

Former players

• Santos
• Nobuyuki Kojima
• Hideyuki Ujiie
• Leo Shin

External links

• Official Site Template:Ja icon

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