FC Tokyo

The team started as a company team, Tokyo Gas Football Club (東京ガスサッカー部) in 1935^[2][3] The club played in the Tokyo League got promoted to the Kanto League in 1986 and suddenly achieved a good 4th-place finish. Their first appearance in the national leagues was in 1991, the last season of the old Japan Soccer League.^[4] 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 1 October 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 team changed its name to ''FC Tokyo'' and entered the second division of the J2 League, defeating three J1 League teams in a row in the J.League Cup, which they first participated in, and advancing to the top four. In the same year, FC Tokyo 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.

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 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 4 December 2010, FC Tokyo had to win their final game of the season away to already relegated Kyoto Sanga. 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 League 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 on 2010. Their 2011 win was remarkably special, as the club won the competition whilst being a J2 team. They became the first J2 team, and third among the second-tier champions overall (after NKK SC in 1981 and Júbilo Iwata in 1982), to accomplish the feat of winning the competition.

 

FC Tokyo uses Ajinomoto Stadium as its home ground (the official name of this stadium is Tokyo Stadium). It can hold up to 49,970 capacity of fans in the 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 Olympic 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. The club's training grounds are Sarue Ground in Kōtō, Tokyo, and Kodaira Ground in Kodaira, Tokyo.

In order to comply with height limitation close to the airport, the pitch is sunk below the level of the land around the stadium

As of 16 August 2024.^[5]

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 Tsuyoshi Kodama 2 DF   JPN Hotaka Nakamura 3 DF   JPN Masato Morishige (captain) 4 DF   JPN Yasuki Kimoto 5 DF   JPN Yuto Nagatomo (vice-captain) 8 MF   JPN Takahiro Ko 9 FW   BRA Diego Oliveira 10 MF   JPN Keigo Higashi 11 FW   JPN Tsuyoshi Ogashiwa 13 GK   JPN Go Hatano 14 FW   JPN Keita Yamashita 17 MF   JPN Tsubasa Terayama 22 MF   JPN Keita Endo 23 MF   JPN Ryunosuke Sato 27 MF   JPN Kyota Tokiwa DSP 28 FW   JPN Leon Nozawa 30 DF   JPN Teppei Oka 31 GK   JPN Masataka Kobayashi 32 DF   JPN Kanta Doi

No. Pos. Nation Player 33 MF   JPN Kota Tawaratsumida 37 MF   JPN Kei Koizumi (vice-captain) 38 FW   JPN Soma Anzai 39 FW   JPN Teruhito Nakagawa 40 MF   JPN Riki Harakawa 41 GK   JPN Taishi Brandon Nozawa 44 DF   BRA Henrique Trevisan 49 DF   JPN Kashif Bangnagande 50 DF   JPN Renta Higashi 51 GK   JPN Wataru Goto Type 2 52 FW   JPN Rui Asada Type 2 53 MF   JPN Shuto Nagano Type 2 54 MF   JPN Yui Nakano Type 2 55 FW   JPN Divine Chinedu Otani Type 2 71 MF   JPN Ryotaro Araki (on loan from Kashima Antlers) 98 MF   BRA Everton Galdino (on loan from Grêmio) 99 MF   JPN Kosuke Shirai

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 18 MF   JPN Manato Shinada (at JEF United Chiba) 43 DF   JPN Shuhei Tokumoto (at Nagoya Grampus) 45 DF   JPN Kojiro Yasuda (at Tegevajaro Miyazaki) 48 MF   JPN Yuta Arai (at Kataller Toyama) 70 MF   BRA Jája Silva (at Sagan Tosu) — DF   KOR Baek In-hwan (at Zweigen Kanazawa) — DF   JPN Sodai Hasukawa (at Shimizu S-Pulse)

No. Pos. Nation Player — DF   JPN Rio Omori (at Iwaki FC) — DF   JPN Shuto Okaniwa (at JEF United Chiba) — MF   JPN Yuki Kajiura (at Zweigen Kanazawa) — MF   JPN Hisatoshi Nishido (at FC Gifu) — MF   JPN Koki Tsukagawa (at Kyoto Sanga) — FW   JPN Naoki Kumata (at Iwaki FC)

As of 15 April 2024.

The main U-18 team of FC Tokyo currently plays in the Prince Takamado U-18 Premier League, the top-flight league for U-18 clubs in the country.^[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 Wataru Goto 2 MF   JPN Koshi Nagaura 3 DF   JPN Yuki Iwata 4 DF   JPN Seiki Numata 5 DF   JPN Shuto Nagano 6 MF   JPN Keigo Tachibana 7 FW   JPN Hyugo Omachi 8 DF   JPN Shunsuke Kaneko 9 FW   JPN Taiyo Yamaguchi 10 MF   JPN Shuzo Osawa 11 MF   JPN Rui Asada 12 FW   JPN Yutaha Okoshi 13 DF   JPN Shoei Sasaki 14 MF   JPN Yui Nakano 15 MF   JPN Shun Koga 16 GK   JPN Rento Kitagawa 17 MF   JPN Riku Kawamura 18 MF   JPN Divine Chinedu Otani 19 FW   JPN Yuya Takahashi 20 MF   JPN Aren Nakaya 21 GK   JPN Keita Niibori 22 DF   JPN Toya Fujimori

No. Pos. Nation Player 23 DF   JPN Haruto Nitta 24 FW   JPN Kaito Eguchi 25 MF   JPN Taichi Matsuno 26 DF   JPN Haruto Tanaka 27 FW   JPN Yuito Ibe 28 MF   JPN Shugo Omachi 29 MF   JPN Haruta Tanabe 30 GK   JPN Matthew Watanabe 31 MF   JPN Kaede Suzuki 32 DF   JPN Keita Suwa 33 MF   JPN Yuta Sugawara 34 MF   JPN Rintaro Nikaido 35 FW   JPN Juda Akamatsu 36 MF   JPN Hiroki Nakano 37 MF   JPN Satsuki Kojima 38 MF   JPN Kio Tanaka 39 MF   JPN Taiga Nakajima 40 FW   JPN Haruto Yoshida 41 DF   JPN Riku Tanaka 42 DF   JPN Toma Nagata 43 DF   JPN Yuki Tomomatsu

Club officials for 2024 season. ^[7]

Position	Name
Manager	Peter Cklamovski
Team coaches	Takayoshi Amma   Takahsi Okuhara   Minoru Kobayashi   Yu Tokisaki
Goalkeeping coach	Hisanori Fujiwara
Assistant goalkeeping coach	Shota Yamashita
Head of analysis	Hiroaki Fujii
Coach and analyst	Daisuke Kondo   Seiya Imazaki
Analyst	Yuki Shirozu   Keito Asahara
Conditioning director	Guillerme
Physical coach	Naoki Hayakawa
Physiotherapist	Yukihisa Miyama
Athletic trainer	Masato Saegusa   Yusuke Ozawa   Yohei Kojo
Trainer	Naofumi Aoki
Chief manager	Kenta Hontani
Manager and interpreter	Kazunori Iino
Interpreter and equipment manager	Ricardo Oyafuso
Interpreter	Hiroshi Endo
Kit manager	Yukinori Yamakawa
Side manager and equipment	Fumiya Soma
Team performance advisor	Shinya Fukutomi

• J.League Best Eleven
  •   Tuto (2000)
  •   Yoichi Doi (2004)
  •   Naohiro Ishikawa (2009)
  •   Yuto Nagatomo (2009)
  •   Masato Morishige (2013, 2014, 2015, 2019)
  •   Kosuke Ota (2014, 2015)
  •   Yoshinori Muto (2014)
  •   Akihiro Hayashi (2019)
  •   Sei Muroya (2019)
  •   Kento Hashimoto (2019)
  •   Kensuke Nagai (2019)
  •   Diego Oliveira (2019)
• J.League Cup MVP
  •   Yoichi Doi (2004)
  •   Takuji Yonemoto (2009)
  •   Leandro (2020)
• J.League Cup New Hero Award
  •   Yukihiko Sato (1999)
  •   Takuji Yonemoto (2009)

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

•   Teruyuki Moniwa (2006)
•   Yoichi Doi (2006)
•   Yasuyuki Konno (2010)
•   Yuto Nagatomo (2010)
•   Shuichi Gonda (2014)
•   Masato Morishige (2014)

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

•   Naohiro Ishikawa (2004)
•   Teruyuki Moniwa (2004)
•   Yasuyuki Konno (2004)
•   Yuhei Tokunaga (2004, 2012)
•   Yōhei Kajiyama (2008)
•   Yuto Nagatomo (2008)
•   Shuichi Gonda (2012)
•   Sei Muroya (2016)
•   Shoya Nakajima (2016)

Key

FC Tokyo (1999–Present) / Tokyo Gas SC (1935–1999)

• FC Tokyo (volleyball)
• FC Tokyo U-23

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to FC Tokyo.

• Official website. Archived 5 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine (in Japanese and English).