Azul Claro Numazu

Azul Claro Numazu
アスルクラロ沼津
Full name	Football Club Azul Claro Numazu
Short name	AZN
Founded	1990; 34 years ago as Numazu Arsenal SC
Ground	Shizuoka Ashitaka Athletic Stadium; Numazu, Shizuoka
Capacity	10,000
Managing; Organisation	Azul Claro Suruga Corporation (NPO)
Chairman	Takehiro Takashima
Manager	Masashi Nakayama
League	J3 League
2023	J3 League, 13th of 20
Website	http://www.azul-claro.jp/
Home colours	Away colours

Azul Claro Numazu (アスルクラロ沼津, Asuru Kuraro Numazu) is a Japanese professional football team based in Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture. They currently play in J3 League, the Japanese third tier of professional football.

History

Azul Claro Numazu was established in 1977 as Numazu Arsenal and slowly progressed through the tiers of Shizuoka prefectural leagues. In 2006 the club began the process of transformation into a professional organisation with the ultimate goal of joining the J.League. The same year the club adopted its current name, Azul Claro (Meaning "light blue" in Portuguese and Spanish).

In 2012 Azul Claro won promotion to Tōkai Adult Soccer League and quickly progressed through its ranks, spending only a season in each of its divisions. Though they have finished only fourth in 2013 Tōkai League, they were considered as serious contenders for admission to the newly created J3 League. On September 17, 2013, the club has been granted the J. League Associate Membership and passed all stages of licensing and inspection by the league. However, they were only the 3rd choice club for the only Regional League spot in J3 so eventually, they had to give way to Iwate Grulla Morioka. The club has won the promotion anyway though—they were selected by the Japan Football League board as one of the teams to play in the 2014 season.

After a 3rd-place finish in the 2016 season, they've been welcomed to play professional football from 2017 and onward, as they'll be the 14th original club in the J3 League.^[1]

On 24 October 2023, Azul Claro Numazu announced that the club was officially granted a J2 license after a decision by the J.League's Club Licensing Board.^[2]

League & cup record

Champions	Runners-up	Third place	Promoted	Relegated

League													J. League Cup	Emperor's Cup
Season	Division	Tier	Pos.	P	W	L	D	F	A	GD	Pts	Attendance/G	J. League Cup	Emperor's Cup
Numazu Arsenal
2004	Shizuoka Prefectural League (Div. 2)	7	4th	11	6	0	5	33	24	9	18	-	Not eligible	Did not qualify
2005	Shizuoka Prefectural League (Div. 2)	7	1st	11	9	2	0	54	26	28	29	-	Not eligible	Did not qualify
Azul Claro Numazu
2006	Shizuoka Prefectural League (Div. 1)	6	9th	11	3	2	6	14	25	-11	11	-	Not eligible	Did not qualify
2007			11th	11	3	1	7	11	27	-16	10	-
2008^[3]			8th	11	2	4	5	20	27	-7	10	-
2009^[4]			2nd	11	6	2	3	32	30	2	20	-
2010^[5]			3rd	11	6	3	2	27	18	9	21	-
2011^[6]			2nd	11	9	0	2	50	23	27	27	-
2012	Tokai Football League (Div. 2)	5	2nd	14	8	2	4	22	15	7	26	-
2013	Tokai Football League (Div. 1)	4	4th	14	8	1	5	20	21	–1	25	-
2014	JFL		8th	26	8	8	10	26	35	–9	32	1,777
2015			5th	30	16	6	8	36	28	8	54	2,198
2016			3rd	30	18	5	7	47	24	23	59	2,332
2017	J3	3	3rd	32	16	11	5	60	27	33	59	3,029		3rd round
2018			4th	32	14	10	8	40	29	11	52	2,857		Did not qualify
2019			12th	34	11	6	17	35	43	–8	39	2,470
2020 †			12th	34	12	5	17	36	40	–4	41	925
2021 †			14th	28	7	6	15	32	44	–12	27	1,482
2022			15th	34	8	7	19	27	46	-19	31	1,684
2023			13th	38	15	6	17	48	48	0	51	1,961		1st round
2024			TBA	38									2nd round	1st round

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
Attendance/G = Average home league attendance
† 2020 & 2021 seasons attendances reduced by COVID-19 worldwide pandemic
Source: J.League Data Site

Honours

Azul Claro Numazu Honours
Honour	No.	Years
Shizuoka Prefectural League (Div. 2)	1	2005

Players

Current squad

As of 24 July 2024.^[7]^[8]

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


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
3	DF	JPN	Tatsuya Anzai
7	MF	JPN	Kyota Mochii
8	MF	JPN	Kenshiro Suzuki
9	FW	JPN	Seiya Nakano (on loan from Omiya Ardija)
10	MF	JPN	Naoki Sato
11	MF	JPN	Kazuki Someya
13	DF	JPN	Yuya Tsukegi
14	MF	JPN	Kotaro Tokunaga
18	MF	JPN	Takuya Sugai
19	MF	JPN	Manabu Saito
20	FW	JPN	Kengo Kawamata
21	MF	JPN	Yuma Mori
22	DF	JPN	Terukazu Shinozaki
23	FW	JPN	Takumi Tsukui
25	MF	JPN	Teruyoshi Ito


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
26	DF	JPN	Shigeo Miyawaki
27	FW	JPN	Hagumi Wada
28	DF	JPN	Koki Inoue
31	GK	JPN	Ryusuke Otomo
33	MF	JPN	Mikhael Akatsuka
34	DF	BRA	Gustavo Rissi
35	MF	JPN	Hinata Mukai
36	DF	JPN	Yuta Nakamura
40	MF	JPN	Kosei Numata
41	MF	JPN	Haruki Toyama
44	MF	JPN	Kaiyo Yanagimachi
50	GK	JPN	Kenta Watanabe
55	GK	JPN	Hiromu Musha
77	GK	KOR	Park Seung-ri
88	DF	JPN	Takumi Hama

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
29	FW	JPN	Taiga Sugimoto (at Blancdieu Hirosaki)
46	MF	JPN	Keigo Iwasaki (at Gakunan F. Mosuperio)


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	GK	JPN	Shunkun Tani (at Vikings)

Club officials

Position	Name
Manager	Masashi Nakayama
Assistant manager	Hideto Suzuki
First-team coach	Daiki Tajiri
Transition coach	Keita Goto
Coach and interpreter	Landow Takai
Goalkeeper coach	Yukio Takeda
Physical coach	Yoshiki Hirano
Doctor	Shunsuke Mukoyama
Trainer	Takuya Kawasaki Kentaro Taki Takashi Tanaka
Manager	Daiki Ito

Managerial history

Manager	Nationality	Tenure
Manager	Nationality	Start	Finish
Kazuhito Mochizuki	Japan	1 February 2014	31 January 2015
Ken Yoshida	Japan	1 February 2015	31 January 2020
Masataka Imai	Japan	1 February 2020	23 August 2022
Kazuhito Mochizuki	Japan	24 August 2022	31 January 2023
Masashi Nakayama	Japan	1 February 2023	current

Kit evolution

Home kit - 1st
2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
2024 -

Away kit - 2nd
2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
2024 -

Other kit - 3rd
2021 30th Anniversary Memorial	2022 Love Live! Sunshine!! edition	2023 Love Live! Sunshine!! edition

Colour, sponsors and manufacturers

Season(s)	Main Shirt Sponsor	Collarbone Sponsor		Additional Sponsor(s)				Kit Manufacturer
2013	SURUGA bank	–	–	–	–	NNH	–	Puma
2014	SURUGA bank			USUi		MEIDEN	雄大
2015	USUi			SURUGA Bank		–	MEIDEN
2016						MEIDEN	–
2017
2018		Kawata Construction (Left)	Kawata Construction (Right)
2019		Kawata Construction (Left)	Kawata Construction (Right)
2020		MEIDEN (Left)	MEIDEN (Right)			Kawata Construction

References

^ "Azul Claro Numazu join J3：en". J. LEAGUE.JP JAPAN PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
^ "２０２４シーズン・Ｊ２クラブライセンス取得のお知らせ". Azul Claro. 24 October 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
^ "2008". RSSSF. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
^ "2009". RSSSF. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
^ "2010 data source". RSSSF. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
^ "2011 data source". RSSSF. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
^ "２０２４シーズン新体制発表". Azul Claro (in Japanese). Retrieved 24 January 2024.
^ "Players". Azul Claro (in Japanese). Retrieved 14 April 2022.

External links

Official website (in Japanese)

[1] "Azul Claro Numazu join J3：en". J. LEAGUE.JP JAPAN PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE. Retrieved 4 March 2019.

[2] "２０２４シーズン・Ｊ２クラブライセンス取得のお知らせ". Azul Claro. 24 October 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2023.

[3] "2008". RSSSF. Retrieved 20 November 2021.

[4] "2009". RSSSF. Retrieved 20 November 2021.

[5] "2010 data source". RSSSF. Retrieved 12 July 2021.

[6] "2011 data source". RSSSF. Retrieved 12 July 2021.

[7] "２０２４シーズン新体制発表". Azul Claro (in Japanese). Retrieved 24 January 2024.

[8] "Players". Azul Claro (in Japanese). Retrieved 14 April 2022.

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