Kashiwa Reysol

Kashiwa Reysol is a Japanese professional football club based in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, part of the Greater [Tokyo Area]. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. Their home stadium is Sankyo Frontier Kashiwa Stadium, also known as "Hitachidai". Reysol is a portmanteau of the Spanish words Rey and Sol, meaning "Sun King". The name alludes to their parent company Hitachi, whose name means "rising sun" in Japanese.
The club was formed in 1940 and was a founding member of the Japan Soccer League in 1965. Since the league's inception, they have spent the majority of their existence in the top tier of Japanese football. They have been Japanese League champions twice in 1972 and 2011, and have won three League Cups in JSL Cup|1976], 1999 and 2013, and three Emperor's Cups in 1972, 1975 and 2012.

History

Hitachi SC (1939–1992)

The club started in 1939 and was officially formed as the company team, Hitachi, Ltd. Soccer Club in 1940 in Kodaira, Tokyo. The club formed the Japan Soccer League in 1965, along with today's Urawa Reds, JEF United Chiba, Cerezo Osaka, Sanfrecce Hiroshima and three other clubs. They had some successes during the mid-1970s, winning Emperor's Cups and JSL titles and contributing several players to the Japanese national team.
The club relocated from Kodaira to Kashiwa in 1986, but it took a while to adapt to the new town, as they were relegated to the JSL Division 2 at end of the 1986. They made it back to the top flight in 1989–90, but dropped back in 1990–91 and returned again in 1991–92. As the J.League was formed while they were not strong enough, the club abandoned any attempt to once again be a founding member of the newly formed professional league. Instead, the club joined the Japan [Football League |Japan Football League] Division 1 in 1992, the second tier of the Japanese [association football league system|Japanese football hierarchy] at the time, below the J.League.

Kashiwa Reysol (1993–)

The club changed its name to Kashiwa Reysol in 1993. Reysol added Careca of the Brazil national football team to their squad in the autumn of this year with the aim of winning the JFL champion and winning promotion to the J1 League. The club struggled in the 1993 season. However, with the help of Careca and Brazilian manager Zé Sérgio, they secured the 2nd place in the JFL in 1994, earning promotion to the top league.
Reysol debuted in the J1 League in 1995. In 1998 they welcomed Akira Nishino, the former manager of Japan's Olympic team as their new manager, along with player Hristo Stoichkov of the Bulgaria national football team. In 1999 Hong Myung-bo of the Korea national football team was added to the squad. The team won the J.League Cup in 1999, their first title as Kashiwa Reysol.
However, their next manager, Englishman Steve Perryman, unsettled the team and the club struggled over the next several seasons. After finishing at the 16th place out of 18 clubs in 2005, the club lost the J.League promotion / relegation series against Ventforet Kofu, the 3rd placed team in the J2 League that year, and was relegated to the J2 League.
A new manager, Nobuhiro Ishizaki, led an almost entirely new squad in 2006 and the club secured automatic promotion to the J1 League in the last game of the season.
The club was relegated again at the end of 2009. However, in 2010 they won the J2 League led by Nelsinho Baptista in and returned to the top flight. The club immediately won the J1 League in 2011 with talented footballers such as Hiroki Sakai, Junya Tanaka, Jorge Wagner and Leandro Domingues, and became the first Japanese club to win the second tier and the top tier back to back. The club qualified for the FIFA Club World Cup as the host nation's league champion and became a semifinalist after defeating Auckland City and Monterrey.
During the period from 2010 through 2014, Reysol won six different titles in five consecutive seasons; the J2 League in 2010, the J1 League in 2011, the Emperor's Cup and the Super Cup in 2012, the J.League Cup in 2013 and the J.League Cup / [Copa Sudamericana Championship|Suruga Bank Championship] in 2014.

Rivalries

Marunouchi Gosanke

Historically, Kashiwa Reysol's fiercest rivals have been JEF United Chiba and the Urawa Reds, both close neighbors. The three were co-founders of the Japan Soccer League in 1965, and spent most seasons in the top tier through the JSL era. Because of their former parent companies' headquarters all being based in Marunouchi, Tokyo, the three clubs were known as the Marunouchi Gosanke and fixtures among them were known as the Marunouchi derbies.

Chiba derby

Reysol and JEF United Chiba first met in 1941 in the ancient Kanto regional football league. The two clubs are both now based in Chiba Prefecture, and their rivalry is known as the Chiba derby. They play a pre-season friendly match every year, popularly known as the Chibagin Cup since 1995.

Others

Reysol also has a rivalry with Kashima Antlers, FC Tokyo and Omiya Ardija.

Anthem

Kashiwa Reysol's anthem is We Are Reysol, which is sung by anime singer Hironobu Kageyama. The song released in 1994, the same year Reysol got promoted to J1.

Record as J.League member

Season	Div.	Teams	Pos.	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts	Attendance/G	J.League Cup	Emperor's Cup	AFC	FIFA CWC
1995	J1	14	12th	52	21	–	29	18	30	–12	22	16,102	–	2nd round	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
1996	J1	16	5th	30	20	–	10	67	52	15	60	13,033	Semi-finals	4th round	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
1997	J1	17	7th	32	16	–	11	63	49	14	52	8,664	Quarter-finals	Quarter-finals	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
1998	J1	18	8th	34	14	–	13	56	61	–5	47	9,932	Group stage	4th round	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
1999	J1	16	3rd	30	17	1	8	49	36	13	58	10,122	Winners	Semi-finals	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2000	J1	16	3rd	30	15	1	7	48	32	16	58	10,037	2nd round	4th round	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2001	J1	16	6th	30	12	3	11	58	46	12	43	12,477	2nd round	3rd round	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2002	J1	16	12th	30	9	3	17	38	48	–10	32	11,314	Quarter-final	3rd round	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2003	J1	16	12th	30	9	10	11	35	39	–4	37	10,873	Group stage	4th round	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2004	J1	16	16th	30	5	10	15	29	49	–20	25	10,513	Group stage	4th Round	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2005	J1	18	16th	34	8	11	15	39	54	–15	35	12,492	Group stage	5th round	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2006	J2	13	2nd	48	27	7	14	84	60	24	88	8,328	Not eligible	4th Round	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2007	J1	18	8th	34	14	8	12	43	36	7	50	12,967	Group stage	4th Round	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2008	J1	18	11th	34	13	7	14	48	45	3	46	12,308	Group stage	Runners-up	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2009	J1	18	16th	34	7	13	14	41	57	–16	34	11,738	Group stage	3rd round	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2010	J2	19	1st	36	23	11	2	71	24	47	80	8,098	Not eligible	4th round	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2011	J1	18	1st	34	23	3	8	65	42	23	72	11,917	1st round	4th round	Did not qualify	4th place
2012	J1	18	6th	34	15	7	12	57	52	5	52	13,768	Semi-finals	Winners	2012 [AFC Champions League\|Round of 16]	Did not qualify
2013	J1	18	10th	34	13	9	12	56	59	–3	48	12,553	Winners	4th round	AFC Champions League\|Semi-finals]	Did not qualify
2014	J1	18	4th	34	17	9	8	48	40	8	60	10,715	Semi-finals	3rd round	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2015	J1	18	10th	34	12	9	13	46	43	3	45	10,918	Quarter-finals	Semi-finals	Quarter-finals	Did not qualify
2016	J1	18	8th	34	15	9	10	52	44	8	54	10,728	Group stage	4th round	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2017	J1	18	4th	34	18	8	8	49	33	16	62	11,820	Group stage	Semi-finals	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2018	J1	18	17th	34	12	3	19	47	54	–7	39	11,298	Semi-finals	3rd round	Group stage	Did not qualify
2019	J2	22	1st	42	25	9	8	85	33	52	84	9,471	Group stage	3rd round	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2020 †	J1	18	7th	34	15	7	12	60	46	14	52	3,484	Runners-up	Did not qualify	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2021 †	J1	20	15th	38	12	5	21	37	56	–19	41	4,444	Group stage	3rd round	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2022	J1	18	7th	34	13	8	13	43	44	–1	47	8,499	Group stage	Round of 16	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2023	J1	18	17th	34	6	15	13	33	47	−14	33	11,130	Group stage	Runners-up	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2024	J1	20	17th	38	9	14	15	39	51	-12	41	12,070	Playoff round	Round of 16	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2025	J1	20	2nd	38	21	12	5	60	34	26	75	13,017	Runners-up	2nd round	Did not qualify	Did not qualify
2026	J1	10	TBD	18									N/A	N/A	-	-
2026-27	J1	20	TBD	38									TBD	TBD	-	-

;Key

Honours

Honour	No.	Years
Japan Soccer League Division 1/J1 League	2	1972, 2011
Japan Soccer League Division 2/J2 League	3	1990–91, 2010, 2019
All Japan Works Football Championship	2	1958, 1960
All Japan Inter-City Football Championship	1	1963
Emperor's Cup	3	1972, 1975, 2012
JSL Cup/J.League Cup	3	1976, 1999, 2013
Japanese Super Cup	1	2012
Suruga Bank Championship	1	2014

League history

Division 1 : 1965–1971
Division 1 : 1972 to 1986–87
Division 2 : 1987–88 to 1988–89
Division 1 : 1989–90
Division 2 : 1990–91
Division 1 : 1991–92
Division 2 : 1992–1993
Division 2 : 1994
Division 1 : 1995–1998
Division 1 : 1999–2005
Division 2 : 2006
Division 1 : 2007–2009
Division 2 : 2010
Division 1 : 2011–2018
Division 2 : 2019
Division 1 : 2020–present
Current squad

Out on loan

Club captains

Club officials

Club staff 2025

Position

Name

Manager

Managerial history

Kit and colours

Colours

Kashiwa Reysol's main colour is yellow, like sunshine that is based on the club's name "Sun King". The uniform is yellow-black reminiscent of Peñarol or Borussia Dortmund. Reysol is the only top division club in the country to wear yellow-black.