Nara Club

Nara Club
奈良クラブ
Nickname(s)	Nara
Founded	1991; 33 years ago
Stadium	Rohto Field Nara, Nara
Capacity	30,600
Coordinates	34°41′54″N 135°49′45″E / 34.69833°N 135.82917°E
Chairman	Mitsuru Hamada
Manager	Ichizo Nakata
League	J3 League
2024	J3 League, 17th of 20
Website	http://naraclub.jp//
Home colours	Away colours

Nara Club (奈良クラブ, Nara Kurabu) is a Japanese football (soccer) club based in the Nara city, capital of Nara Prefecture. They currently play in J3 League, the third tier professional in the Japanese football.

History

The club was originally established in Nara in 1991 under the name Tonan Club (都南クラブ, Tonan Kurabu) and it became a member of the Football Association of Nara. The club went up to the top division in 1997.

It was renamed to its current name in 2008, and was promoted to the regional league in 2009. In 2014, they won the Regional League promotion series, earning promotion to the Japan Football League, where they played from 2015 to 2022.

On 5 November 2022, Nara was promoted to the J3 League for the first time in their history, after beating Veertien Mie in a narrow 1–0 win, with Sotaro Yamamoto scoring the winning goal in the 86th minute, to confirm their early access to the J3, a few rounds before the end of the season. The Nara-based club was promoted after eight consecutive seasons in the JFL. 15 days later at the same month, Nara secured their first JFL title, after drawing 1–1 with Sony Sendai at the last round of the competition. A ten-goal difference in Nara's favor them and FC Osaka was the determining factor that gave Nara the league title.

On 24 October 2023, Nara Club announcement officially granted J2 License after approval of Club Licensing Board.^[3]

Stadium

Nara Club currently plays its home matches at the Rohto Field Nara. The stadium is confirmed to host every Nara Club home match at the 2023 J3 League, after its schedule was revealed on 20 January 2023.

League and cup record

Champions	Runners-up	Third place	Promoted	Relegated

League													Emperor's Cup	J.League Cup	Shakaijin Cup
Season	Division	Tier	Teams	Pos.	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts	Emperor's Cup	J.League Cup	Shakaijin Cup
Tonan Club
1992	Nara Pref. League Edu.	11	*	3rd	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	Not eligible	*
1993	Nara Pref. League Div. 5	10		1st	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
1994	Nara Pref. League Div. 4	8		1st	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
1995	Nara Pref. League Div. 3	7		1st	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
1996	Nara Pref. League Div. 2	6		1st	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
1997	Nara Pref. League (Div. 1)	5		6th	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
1998		5		4th	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
1999		6		3rd	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
2000				2nd	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
2001				1st	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
2002			11	7th	10	3	3	4	14	14	0	12	Did not qualify		Did not qualify
2003				5th	10	6	0	4	17	14	3	18
2004				1st	10	8	1	1	25	8	17	25
2005 ^{[* 1]}				3rd	10	6	1	3	25	11	14	19
2006 ^{[* 2]}				1st	10	8	1	1	31	11	20	25
2007			12	3rd	11	6	1	4	22	10	12	22
Nara Club
2008	Nara Pref. League (Div. 1)	6	12	2nd	11	8	3	0	39	9	30	27	Did not qualify	Not eligible	1st round
2009	Kansai Soccer League (Div. 2)	5	8	1st	14	9	3	2	47	18	29	30	2nd round		Did not qualify
2010	Kansai Soccer League (Div. 1)	4		4th	14	6	6	2	36	24	12	24	1st round
2011				1st	14	11	2	1	42	13	29	35	1st round
2012				2nd	14	8	5	1	28	11	17	29	2nd round
2013				5th	14	3	4	7	11	22	−11	14	2nd round
2014		5		1st	14	10	3	1	30	11	19	33	3rd round		Quarter-finals
2015	JFL	4	16	7th	30	13	7	10	33	28	5	46	1st round		Not eligible
2016				10th	30	11	7	12	41	48	-7	37	1st round
2017				7th	30	10	10	10	41	51	-10	40	1st round
2018				8th	30	12	6	12	33	32	1	42	2nd round
2019				14th	30	8	10	12	27	32	-5	34	1st round
2020				13th	15	5	3	7	21	21	0	18	2nd round
2021			17	10th	32	10	13	9	39	36	3	43	Did not qualify
2022			16	1st	30	16	11	3	48	25	23	59	1st round
2023	J3	3	20	5th	38	15	12	11	45	32	13	57	1st round
2024				17th	38	7	18	13	43	56	-13	39	2nd round	2nd round
2025				TBD	38								TBD	TBD

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
Source: http://naraclub.jp/club

^ It was originally 12 teams participating. Tenri Univ. FC was disqualified, and the rest of 11 teams had to compete.^[4]
^ It was originally 12 teams participating. Ikoma SC was disqualified, and the rest of 11 teams had to compete.^[5]

Honours

Nara Club Honours
Honour	No.	Years
Nara Prefecture League Division 5	1	1993
Nara Prefecture League Division 4	1	1994
Nara Prefecture League Division 3	1	1995
Nara Prefecture League Division 2	1	1996
Nara Prefecture League Division 1	3	2001, 2004, 2006
Kansai League Division 2	1	2009
Kansai League Division 1	2	2011, 2014
KSL Cup	1	2012
Japan Football League	1	2022

Players

Current squad

As of 9 August 2024^[update].^[6] Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	JPN	Shinji Okada
2	DF	JPN	Rikuto Iida (on loan from Kyoto Sanga)
3	DF	JPN	Yudai Sawada
4	DF	JPN	Wataru Ise
5	DF	JPN	Daisei Suzuki
6	DF	JPN	Haruhi Terashima
8	MF	JPN	Hayato Horiuchi
9	FW	JPN	Tatsuma Sakai
10	MF	JPN	Sotaro Yamamoto
11	MF	JPN	Megumu Nishida
13	DF	JPN	Yuta Tsunami
14	MF	JPN	Kensei Nakashima
15	FW	THA	Patrik Gustavsson (on loan from BG Pathum United)
17	FW	JPN	Manato Hyakuda
20	MF	JPN	Yuto Kunitake


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
22	DF	JPN	Kei Ikoma (on loan from Tiamo Hirakata)
23	DF	JPN	Yuki Kotani (captain)
25	MF	JPN	Riku Kamigaki
27	FW	JPN	Tomoya Sekiguchi ^{Type 2}
28	MF	JPN	Daichi Kawai ^{Type 2}
29	MF	JPN	Katsutoshi Hayashi ^{Type 2}
31	MF	JPN	Yuki Okada
39	MF	JPN	Shota Yomesaka
40	DF	JPN	Yuzuru Yoshimura
41	MF	JPN	Rin Morita (on loan from Tokushima Vortis)
43	MF	JPN	Ryosuke Tamura
49	DF	JPN	Yota Shimokawa
51	GK	JPN	Noa Sekinuma
96	GK	ESP	Marc Vito

Out on loan

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


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
7	MF	JPN	Ryota Kuwajima (at Veertien Mie)

Club staff

Position	Staff
Manager	Ichizo Nakata
Assistant manager	Kenta Betsuki
Goalkeeper coach	Masatoshi Hayashi
Interpreter	Yosuke Fukuda
Analyst and side affairs	Kazuki Fujiwara
Chief trainer	Hiroshi Fujimoto
Chief tainer	Kazushi Matsumura

Managerial history

As of November 2024

Manager	Nationality	Tenure
Manager	Nationality	Start	Finish
Koji Yamaguchi	Japan	1991	2009
Ken'ichiro Fujimoto	Japan	2010
Satoru Yoshida	Japan	1 January 2011	31 December 2011
Masashi Hachūda	Japan	1 February 2012	3 January 2013
Jiro Yabe	Japan	3 July 2012	7 October 2013
Jun Mizukoshi	Japan	8 October 2013	31 January 2014
Atsushi Nakamura	Japan	1 February 2014	31 January 2017
Norihiro Satsukawa	Japan	12 February 2017	31 January 2019
Koichi Sugiyama	Japan	12 February 2019	31 January 2020
Maiki Hayashi	Japan	1 February 2020	31 January 2021
Julián Marín Bazalo	Spain	1 February 2021	4 September 2024
Ichizo Nakata	Japan	4 September 2024	present

Kit evolution

Home kit - 1st
2009 - 2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
2020	2021	2022	2023	2024 -

Away kit - 2nd
2009 - 2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
2020	2021	2022	2023	2024 -

References

^ "Jリーグ準加盟審査結果について" (Press release) (in Japanese). Japan Professional Football League. 17 September 2013. Archived from the original on 20 September 2013. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
^ 今後のクラブ運営体制について. Nara Club (in Japanese). 26 December 2019. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
^ "2024年シーズン「Ｊ2クラブライセンス」交付のお知らせ". naraclub.jp. 24 October 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
^ "１部リーグ勝敗表" (PDF). Nara Football Federation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 March 2019. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
^ "平成18年度奈良県社会人サッカーリーグ１部星取表" (PDF). Nara Football Federation. 23 November 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 March 2019. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
^ "2024トップチーム". naraclub.jp (in Japanese). 3 February 2024. Retrieved 15 April 2024.

External links

(in Japanese) Official website

[5] It was originally 12 teams participating. Tenri Univ. FC was disqualified, and the rest of 11 teams had to compete.^[4]

[7] It was originally 12 teams participating. Ikoma SC was disqualified, and the rest of 11 teams had to compete.^[5]

[100_Year_Plan_clubs-1] "Jリーグ準加盟審査結果について" (Press release) (in Japanese). Japan Professional Football League. 17 September 2013. Archived from the original on 20 September 2013. Retrieved 25 January 2015.

[2] 今後のクラブ運営体制について. Nara Club (in Japanese). 26 December 2019. Retrieved 11 December 2020.

[3] "2024年シーズン「Ｊ2クラブライセンス」交付のお知らせ". naraclub.jp. 24 October 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2023.

[4] "１部リーグ勝敗表" (PDF). Nara Football Federation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 March 2019. Retrieved 27 March 2019.

[6] "平成18年度奈良県社会人サッカーリーグ１部星取表" (PDF). Nara Football Federation. 23 November 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 March 2019. Retrieved 27 March 2019.

[8] "2024トップチーム". naraclub.jp (in Japanese). 3 February 2024. Retrieved 15 April 2024.

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Stadium	Rohto Field Nara
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