Roasso Kumamoto

Roasso Kumamoto
ロアッソ熊本

Full name	Roasso Kumamoto
Nickname(s)	Roasso
Founded	1969 (1969) as NTT Kumamoto SC
Stadium	Egao Kenkō Stadium Kumamoto, Kumamoto
Capacity	32,000
Chairman	Tomoyoshi Ikeya
Manager	Takeshi Oki
League	J2 League
2023	J2 League, 14th of 22
Website	http://roasso-k.com/
Home colours Away colours

Roasso Kumamoto (ロアッソ熊本, Roasso Kumamoto) is a Japanese football club based in Kumamoto, the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture. The club currently plays in the J2 League, Japan's 2nd tier of professional league football.

Name origin

Roasso is a portmanteau of the Italian words rosso and asso, meaning "red ace".

History

Early years (1969–2004)

The club was founded as the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation (Den-Den Kōsha, current NTT) Kumamoto Soccer Club in 1969. The club was promoted to the Kyushu Soccer League in 1983.

According to the NTT's privatization in 1985, the club was renamed as NTT Kyushu Soccer Club in 1988. During the NTT Kyushu era, the club won five Kyushu Soccer League titles and one All Japan Senior Football Championship. The club changed their name again to NTT Kumamoto Football Club in 2000.

The club changed their name to NTT West Kumamoto Football Club in 2001 as the NTT was divided into NTT East and NTT West. The club was promoted to the JFL in 2001. The NTT relinquished the ownership of the club in 2002 and community-oriented Alouette Kumamoto Football Club was born. Alouette is a French word meaning skylark, the bird of Kumamoto Prefecture. The club finished at the 17th in this season and was relegated to the Kyushu Soccer League.

Roasso Kumamoto (2005–)

The club name was changed again to Rosso Kumamoto in 2005. Rosso means red in Italian. After they won the Kyushu Soccer League and finished at the 3rd in the Regional League play-off tournament, the club was promoted to the JFL.

The club was recently featured in J.League program to introduce the club to followers of the professional league. Rosso's second-place finish in the 2007 JFL season was enough to earn promotion into the J.League (J2 League) for the 2008 season.

The club changed their name to current Roasso Kumamoto in 2008. The previous name Rosso was a registered trademark of another company, so the club could not use it due to a risk of copyright infringement.

After 11 years spent in the J2 League, Kumamoto was relegated to the J3 League on 2018.

After three years at J3 League, Kumamoto returned to J2, after being promoted as the J3 champions on 2021, just a point ahead of Iwate Grulla Morioka in the league table.

In 2022, Kumamoto finished in 4th place with 62 points and advanced to J1 promotion/relegation playoffs after a arguably surprising performance in the 2022 J2 League. Roasso played against the 4th and 5th-placed teams of the J2 season, being them Oita Trinita and Montedio Yamagata, in matches that ended 1–1 and 2–2, respectively. As the league gave the advantage for the higher-placed team in the league standings to qualify for the next round, Roasso were able to qualify for the play-off finals, despite not winning any match. This time, Kyoto Sanga, as the J1 League team in question, earned the seeding advantage, meaning that Roasso needed to win this match in order to earn promotion. The match ended in a 1–1 draw and Roasso were not promoted for the J1.

Rivalries

The traditional rival of Roasso Kumamoto is Kagoshima United, the prefectural neighbors and former Kyushu Soccer League fellows since 1983 until 2005, except 2001–2002. Matches between the two clubs are labelled Hisatsu derby (肥薩ダービー, "Kumamoto-Kagoshima derby") and generate a lot of interest in both prefectures.

League & cup record

Champions

Runners-up

Third place

Promoted

Relegated

League														J.League Cup	Emperor's Cup
Season	Div.	Tier	Teams	Pos.	P	W (PK)	D	L (PK)	F	A	GD	Pts	Attendance/G
2003	KSL	4	12	5th	22	11 (3)	-	6 (2)	47	35	+12	41	-	Not eligible	1st round
2004			10	4th	18	10 (0)	-	7 (1)	63	38	+25	31	-		3rd round
2005			10	1st	18	15 (0)	-	1 (2)	45	11	+34	47	-		1st round
2006	JFL	3	18	5th	34	20	6	8	64	39	+25	66	3,765		3rd round
2007			18	2nd	34	21	6	7	65	34	+31	69	3,569		1st round
2008	J2	2	15	12th	42	10	13	19	46	72	−26	43	5,279		3rd round
2009			18	14th	51	12	11	25	66	82	−16	58	6,006		2nd round
2010			19	7th	36	14	12	10	39	43	−4	54	6,907		3rd round
2011			20	11th	38	13	12	13	33	44	−11	51	6,928		2nd round
2012			22	14th	42	15	10	17	40	48	−8	55	5,855		4th round
2013			22	19th	42	10	13	19	40	70	−30	43	6,228		3rd round
2014			22	13th	42	13	15	14	45	53	−8	54	7,002		2nd round
2015			22	13th	42	13	14	15	42	45	−3	53	7,037		3rd round
2016			22	16th	42	12	10	20	38	53	−15	46	5,543		2nd round
2017			22	21st	42	9	10	23	36	59	−23	37	6,557		3rd round
2018			22	21st	42	9	7	26	50	79	−29	34	5,269		2nd round
2019	J3	3	18	5th	34	16	9	9	45	39	+6	57	5,533		2nd round
2020 †			18	8th	34	16	6	12	56	47	+9	54	1,422		Did not qualify
2021 †			15	1st	28	15	9	4	39	20	+19	54	3,342		2nd round
2022	J2	2	22	4th	42	18	13	11	58	48	+10	67	4,039		3rd round
2023			22	14th	42	13	10	19	52	53	−1	49	6,278		Semi-finals

Key

• Pos. = Position in league; P = Games played; W = Games won; D = Games drawn; L = Games lost; F = Goals scored; A = Goals conceded; GD = Goals difference; Pts = Points gained
• W (PK) = Games Won on penalty kicks; L (PK) = Games Lost on penalty kicks
• Attendance/G = Average home league attendance
• † 2020 & 2021 seasons attendances' reduced by COVID-19 worldwide pandemic
• Source: J.League Data Site
• KSL = Kyushu Soccer League (regional league)

Honours

• Japan Football League / J3 League (3rd tier)
  • Champions (1): 2021
  • Runners-up (1): 2007
• Kyushu Soccer League (1973–)
  • Champions (7):1991, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2005
  • Runners-up (2): 1989, 1992
• All Japan Senior Football Championship (1965–)
  • Winners (2): 1998, 2005 (shared)

League history

• Regional (Kyushu): 1983–2000
• Division 3 (JFL): 2001–2002
• Regional (Kyushu): 2003–2005
• Division 3 (JFL): 2006–2007
• Division 2 (J2): 2008–2018
• Division 3 (J3): 2019–2021
• Division 2 (J2): 2022–

Current squad

As of 1 February 2024.

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	Ryuga Tashiro
2	DF	JPN	Kohei Kuroki
3	MF	JPN	Ryotaro Onishi
4	MF	JPN	Itto Fujita
5	DF	JPN	Kaito Abe
6	DF	JPN	Makoto Okazaki
7	MF	JPN	Yuhi Takemoto
8	MF	JPN	Shuhei Kamimura
9	MF	JPN	Yuki Omoto
10	MF	JPN	Shun Ito
11	FW	KOR	Bae Jeong-min
13	DF	JPN	Wataru Iwashita (on loan from Kashiwa Reysol)
14	DF	JPN	Takumi Sakai
15	MF	JPN	Shohei Mishima
16	MF	JPN	Rimu Matsuoka

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
17	MF	JPN	Koya Fujii
18	FW	JPN	Daiki Ishikawa
19	MF	JPN	Chihiro Konagaya
20	FW	JPN	Shun Osaki
21	MF	JPN	Ayumu Toyoda
23	GK	JPN	Yuya Sato
24	DF	JPN	Takuro Ezaki
25	MF	JPN	Tsubasa Togo
26	DF	JPN	Kaito Miyazaki
28	FW	JPN	Keito Kumashiro
29	FW	JPN	Yutaka Michiwaki
30	MF	JPN	Tatsuki Higashiyama
31	GK	JPN	Shibuki Sato
41	GK	JPN	Tetsuhiro Miyamoto
42	GK	JPN	Tomoki Uemura

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	Yuya Aizawa (on loan at Criacao Shinjuku)
—	MF	JPN	Yuto Taniyama (on loan at FC Tokushima)

Coaching staff

For the 2023 season.

Name	Role
Manager	Takeshi Oki
Assistant manager	Chikara Fujimoto
First-team coach	Yasushi Takahashi Shinya Masushima
Goalkeeper Coach	Ryuichi Ito
Chief trainer	Ryoichi Yamamoto
Athletic trainer	Shumpei Kawamura
Masseur	Tsuyoshi Harada
Side affairs	Sho Nakamura Kenta Shioigawa
Physical advisor	Fumihiko Nagasaki
Competent	Satoshi Sekigami

Managerial history

Manager	Nationality	Tenure
		Start	Finish
Tomoyoshi Ikeya	Japan	1 February 2005	31 January 2009
Makoto Kitano	Japan	1 February 2009	31 January 2010
Takuya Takagi	Japan	1 February 2010	31 January 2013
Yasushi Yoshida	Japan	1 February 2013	10 July 2013
Tomoyoshi Ikeya	Japan	10 July 2013	31 January 2014
Takeshi Ono	Japan	1 February 2014	25 November 2015
Hiroyuki Kiyokawa	Japan	28 November 2015	14 June 2017
Tomoyoshi Ikeya	Japan	14 June 2017	31 January 2018
Hiroki Shibuya	Japan	1 February 2018	31 January 2020
Takeshi Ōki	Japan	1 February 2020	Current

Kit and colours

Colour, sponsors and manufacturers

Roasso Kumamoto's club colour is red, representing burning passion and desire for victory.

Season(s)	Main Shirt Sponsor	Collarbone Sponsor		Additional Sponsor(s)				Kit Manufacturer
2018	Hirata	-	-	Mynavi	Shiratake (1st) Shiratake White (2nd)	Kumamoto Electric Power	-	Puma
2019							サトウロジック
2020				Shiratake (1st) Shiratake White (2nd)	-	-
2021		-	-
2022		RKKCS	Out-Sourcing Technology
2023					Higo Bank		-

Kit evolution

Home Kit- 1st
2005-2006	2007	2008	2009-2011	2012-2013
2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
2019	2020	2021	2022	2023 -

Away Kit - 2nd
2005-2006	2007	2008-2009	2010-2011	2012-2013
2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
2019	2020	2021	2022	2023 -

Past seasons

• Shota Aizawa (2020)

External links

• Official website (in Japanese)