Sagan Tosu

Sagan is a coined word with a couple of meanings behind it. One of its homophones is sandstone (砂岩, sagan) in Japanese. This symbolises many small elements uniting to form one formidable object, for example as a metaphor for a team. Also, Sagan Tosu can be interpreted as "Tosu of Saga (Prefecture)" (佐賀ん鳥栖, Saga-n Tosu) in the area's dialect.

In February 1997, Sagan was established as a new club which virtually took over Tosu Futures, which became insolvent in the previous month, and were admitted to participate Japan Football League from 1997 to 1998, as well as J. League Cup in 1997 as a preferential measure, although J. League Associate Membership status was not awarded to Sagan. In 1999 they were admitted to the new J. League Division 2 (J2) as one of the "Original Ten", which were the ten first members of the J2. They remained at the league until their promotion to J1 at the end of the 2011 season. Little by little, Sagan Tosu started to establish itself as one of the top clubs in the country with the new President & Chief Operating Officer Minoru Takehara, who is also part owner of the club.[1]

In their first season at the J. League Division 1 in 2012, confounding the prediction of many critics about their immediate relegation to J2, they have been maintaining their position between 5th and 11th places all the way through the season, except on Matchweek 2, in which they were ranked 13th. They were ranked third after the 33rd week, having a chance to qualify for the 2013 AFC Champions League if they hadn't lost to Yokohama F. Marinos in the last match of the season. However, they have lost to Yokohama by 0–1, wrapping up the season in 5th place, while Urawa Red Diamonds defeated Nagoya Grampus and were ranked 3rd. They also became the first club in Asia to sign a partnership with Warrior Sports,[2] who sponsor many overseas clubs, including English side Liverpool FC.

In 2013, they made it to the semifinal of the Emperor's Cup for the first time in the club's history, becoming the first club based in Kyushu to make it to the semifinal of the Emperor's Cup since Nippon Steel Yawata SC had done in the 1981 edition. In 2013, they invited A-League team Sydney FC along with the former Italian international player Alessandro Del Piero, for a Japan Tour for the first time.[3]

In 2014, the club had been in their most successful season in J. League Division 1, being ranked on the top of 2014 J. League Division 1 on the 1st, 2nd, 13th, and 18th matchweek. However, the club made an announcement on 8 August which announced the termination of contract with the head coach Yoon Jung-Hwan all of a sudden, despite the apparently good season.[4] During the course of the year, they continued on its international expansion and started a partnership with Italian side Juventus FC, for its Juventus Under-16 Japan Tour 2014.[5] On July 10, 2018, the club reached an agreement with former World Cup, UCL and Europa League winner, Fernando Torres. The aging star would play 35 games for the side, netting 5 goals before finally hanging up his boots on his star-studded career.

Key

As of 11 January 2023.[6][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 2 DF  JPN Kosuke Yamazaki 3 DF  KEN Teddy Akumu 4 MF  JPN Toshio Shimakawa 5 MF  JPN So Kawahara 6 MF  JPN Akito Fukuta 7 MF  JPN Kohei Tezuka 8 MF  JPN Fuchi Honda 10 MF  JPN Yuji Ono 12 GK  KOR Koh Bong-jo 13 DF  JPN Shinya Nakano (vice-captain) 14 MF  JPN Naoyuki Fujita (captain) 18 MF  JPN Jun Nishikawa (on loan from Cerezo Osaka) 19 MF  JPN Kentaro Moriya 20 DF  KOR Hwang Seok-ho 21 GK  KOR Ueom Ye-hoon 22 FW  JPN Cayman Togashi 23 MF  JPN Taichi Kikuchi 24 MF  JPN Yoichi Naganuma

No. Pos. Nation Player 25 FW  JPN Yuta Fujihara 26 DF  JPN Dai Hirase 27 MF  JPN Yoshiki Narahara 28 FW  JPN Oji Kawanami 29 FW  JPN Yuto Iwasaki 30 DF  JPN Masaya Tashiro 31 GK  JPN Masahiro Okamoto 32 FW  JPN Ayumu Yokoyama 33 DF  JPN Ryotaro Takeuchi 35 GK  JPN Kei Uchiyama 37 MF  JPN Shunya Sakai 38 DF  JPN Koma Osato 41 FW  JPN Ryonosuke Kabayama 42 DF  JPN Wataru Harada 44 MF  JPN Yuki Horigome 49 DF  JPN Kiriya Sakamoto (on loan from Montedio Yamagata) 71 GK  JPN Park Il-gyu (vice-captain)

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 Daisuke Matsumoto (on loan at Renofa Yamaguchi) — DF  KOR Taiga Son (on loan at Zweigen Kanazawa) — MF  JPN Tomoya Koyamatsu (on loan at Kashiwa Reysol) — MF  JPN Ryunosuke Sagara (on loan at Vegalta Sendai) — FW  JPN Rio Nitta (on loan at SKN St. Polten)

No. Pos. Nation Player — FW  JPN Yukihito Kajiya (on loan at Blaublitz Akita) — FW  JPN Shunta Araki (on loan at Machida Zelvia) — FW  JPN Ryo Wada (on loan at MIO Biwako Shiga) — FW  JPN Reoto Kodama (on loan at Suzuka Point Getters)

For the 2023 season.[9]

Role	Name
Manager	Kenta Kawai
Assistant manager	Naoya Kikuchi
First team coach	Yuzuru Suwabe Naoyuki Iwata Yoshizumi Ogawa
Goalkeeping Coach	Takuya Muro
Physical Coach	Tadashi Noda
Analyst	Shota Tamaki
Chief trainer	Toru Kawaguchi
Trainer	Daisuke Adachi Masahiro Hirano Masashi Maeda
Athletic trainer	Atsushi Shiga
Interpreter	Ichiro Takeuchi Lee Kang-haeng
Competent	Yoshito Tsuichihara
Side affairs	Naoki Egawa
Equipment manager	Ryota Kyofuji

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sagan Tosu.

• (in Japanese) Official Site