# Criacao Shinjuku

Criacao Shinjuku (クリアソン新宿, Kuriason Shinjuku) is a Japanese semi-professional football club based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. They currently play in the Japan Football League, Japanese fourth tier football league, since 2022.

## History

The club was founded by the current chairman Kazutomo Maruyama as a leisure club under the name Criacao in 2005 to create an opportunity to play football even after completing his studies at Rikkyō University. After Maruyama's professional return to Tokyo, he first registered for the Japan Football Association in 2009.

### Club name

Criacao is from the Portuguese criação and means translated as much as "creation", "production". In doing so, the club alludes to the club's philosophy, which states it aims to achieve "continuous generation of enthusiasm in the world through football".

### Road to the JFL

From 2010 to 2018, the club only played in the Tokyo Leagues, not going further than it until the club saw promotion on 2018, after finishing as runners-up in Tokyo's 1st division. After nine seasons the club finally got to debut at regional level, in the 2nd division of the Kantō Soccer League.
Immediately after being promoted to it, the club earned the division's title after winning 43 out of 51 possible points, and then, were promoted to the 1st division. Debuting on it in 2020, the club only earned a 5th-place finish.
In 2021, Criacao Shinjuku secured promotion for the Japan Football League (JFL), the 4th tier of Japanese football, via the Japanese Regional Football Champions League, which is JFL's promotion/relegation series.

### JFL (2022–)

In 2022, Criacao Shinjuku finished in the 15th place of the competition, out of the 16 participating teams for the season. The club, however, was not relegated back to the Kantō League, as JFL's top 2 teams were promoted to the J3. Under the league system, Criacao would only be relegated as the 15th-placed team if no team earned promotion to the J3 during the season, which was not the case. The club also currently holds the Japan Football League attendance record, made on 9 October 2022. A crowd of 16,218 people watched the match between Suzuka Point Getters and Criacao Shinjuku at the Japan National Stadium, in Shinjuku, being the record heavily influenced by the presence of Japan former international Kazuyoshi Miura. The match ended in a 1–0 loss for Criacao.
On 26 September 2023, Criacao Shinjuku officially obtained a J3 League license.
The 2025 season is Criacao's fourth consecutive season in JFL.

## League & cup record

| Champions | Runners-up | Third place | Promoted | Relegated |
| League | League | League | League | League | League | League | League | League | League | League | League | Emperor's Cup | Shakaijin Cup |
| Season | Division | Tier | Pos. | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | Emperor's Cup | Shakaijin Cup |
| 2010 | Tokyo Metropolitan League | 9 | 2nd | 10 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 31 | 1 | 30 | 27 | Did not qualify | Ineligible |
| 2011 | Tokyo Metropolitan League | 8 | 1st | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 51 | 4 | 47 | 30 | Did not qualify | Ineligible |
| 2012 | Tokyo Metropolitan League | 7 | 2nd | 12 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 32 | 5 | 27 | 31 | Did not qualify | Ineligible |
| 2013 | Tokyo Metropolitan League | 7 | 1st | 13 | 12 | 0 | 1 | 59 | 7 | 52 | 36 | Did not qualify | Ineligible |
| 2014 | Tokyo 1st Division | 7 | 1st | 14 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 30 | 12 | 18 | 31 | Did not qualify | Ineligible |
| 2015 | Tokyo 1st Division | 7 | 3rd | 14 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 34 | 12 | 22 | 31 | Did not qualify | Ineligible |
| 2016 | Tokyo 1st Division | 7 | 2nd | 13 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 29 | 14 | 15 | 30 | Did not qualify | Ineligible |
| 2017 | Tokyo 1st Division | 7 | 7th | 13 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 24 | 22 | 2 | 19 | Did not qualify | Ineligible |
| 2018 | Tokyo 1st Division | 7 | 2nd | 15 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 35 | 8 | 27 | 35 | Did not qualify | Ineligible |
| 2019 | Kantō 2nd Division | 6 | 1st | 18 | 14 | 1 | 3 | 42 | 20 | 22 | 43 | Did not qualify | Ineligible |
| 2020 | Kantō 1st Division | 5 | 5th | 9 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 7 | 4 | 15 | Did not qualify | Not held |
| 2021 | Kantō 1st Division | 5 | 1st | 22 | 16 | 2 | 4 | 50 | 23 | 27 | 50 | Did not qualify | Cancelled |
| 2022 | JFL | 4 | 15th | 30 | 6 | 6 | 18 | 30 | 52 | -22 | 24 | Did not qualify | Ineligible |
| 2023 | JFL | 4 | 11th | 28 | 10 | 4 | 14 | 25 | 33 | -8 | 34 | 1st round | Ineligible |
| 2024 | JFL | 4 | 14th | 30 | 5 | 11 | 14 | 19 | 44 | -25 | 26 | Did not qualify | Ineligible |
| 2025 | JFL | 4 | TBD | 30 | | | | | | | | TBC | Ineligible |

### Key

* Pos. = Position in league; P = Games played; W = Games won; D = Games drawn; L = Games lost; F = Goals for; A = Goal against; GD = Goal difference; Pts = Points gained
* JFL Data
* ↑ Criacao was scheduled to play the tournament, from the 1st round, where they would be playing Tadotsu FC. The 2020 competition was deemed cancelled before its start, in response to COVID-19-related issues, that only allowed the competition to be played again the year after.

## Honours

Criacao Shinjuku honours :
| Honours | No. | Years |
| Tokyo Metropolitan Government Division 2 | 1 | 2011 |
| Tokyo Metropolitan Government Division 1 | 1 | 2013 |
| Tokyo Division 1 | 1 | 2014 |
| Kantō Division 2 | 1 | 2019 |
| Kantō Division 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Japanese Regional Football Champions League | 1 | 2021 |

## Current squad

    As of 4 April 2024.
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 | Yuta Abe |
| 2 | MF | JPN | Kazuki Segawa |
| 3 | FW | JPN | Junki Koike |
| 4 | DF | JPN | Yuya Aizawa (on loan from Roasso Kumamoto) |
| 5 | MF | JPN | Keita Ishii |
| 7 | MF | JPN | Eisuke Atsumi |
| 8 | MF | JPN | Takeaki Sudo (captain) |
| 9 | FW | JPN | Ryo Harada |
| 11 | FW | JPN | Hiroki Scharod Akai |
| 13 | MF | JPN | Koya Takahashi |
| 14 | MF | JPN | Naoto Sawai |
| 15 | DF | JPN | Yu Yonehara |
| 16 | DF | JPN | Ryotaro Takeuchi (on loan from Sagan Tosu) |
| 17 | MF | JPN | Yuki Ikeya |
| 18 | FW | JPN | Kazuki Saito |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 19 | MF | JPN | Masaki Ueno |
| 21 | MF | JPN | Yuto Nakayama |
| 23 | GK | JPN | Sotaro Tsuruta |
| 24 | MF | JPN | Daiki Nishiyama |
| 25 | DF | JPN | Jotaro Chiba |
| 27 | GK | JPN | Suguru Asanuma |
| 29 | DF | JPN | Naoki Koyahara |
| 30 | MF | JPN | Shinto Kojima |
| 31 | FW | JPN | Junya Osaki |
| 33 | FW | JPN | Tsubasa Sano |
| 37 | MF | PRK | Hwang Song-su |
| 39 | DF | JPN | Shoto Suzuki |
| 41 | GK | JPN | Nao Iwadate |
| 44 | MF | JPN | Seiji Imai |
| 50 | FW | JPN | Tatsuya Okamoto |

## Club staff

| Position | Staff |
| Manager | Hideaki Kitajima |
| Assistant manager | Ichiro Nariyama |
| First-team coach | Musashi Saida |
| Goalkeeper Coach | Kazushige Kirihata |
| Doctor | Takahisa Haraguchi |
| Trainer | Keigo Nakahara Atsushi Takai Satoko Maeda |
| Competent | Taichi Ise |
| Side affairs | Sho Nakamura Miu Hirotani |

## Managerial history

| Manager | Nationality | Tenure | Tenure |
| Manager | Nationality | Start | Finish |
| Ichiro Naruyama | Japan | 1 February 2018 | 31 January 2024 |
| Hideaki Kitajima | Japan | 16 November 2023 | present |