Kashiwa Reysol

Kashiwa Reysol (柏レイソル, Kashiwa Reisoru) 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 ("Original Eight") of the Japan Soccer League (JSL) 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 1976, 1999 and 2013, and three Emperor's Cups in 1972, 1975 and 2012.
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 (JSL) in 1965, along with today's Urawa Reds, JEF United Chiba, Cerezo Osaka, Sanfrecce Hiroshima and three other clubs ("Original Eight"). 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 Division 1 in 1992, the second tier of the Japanese football hierarchy at the time, below the J.League.
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 Suruga Bank Championship in 2014.
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 (JSL) 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 (丸の内御三家, "Marunouchi Big Three") and fixtures among them were known as the Marunouchi derbies.
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 (i.e., Chiba Bank Cup) since 1995.
Reysol also has a rivalry with Kashima Antlers (commonly called Tonegawa clásico), FC Tokyo (commonly called Kanamachi derby) and Omiya Ardija (commonly called Nodasen derby).
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.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Club staff 2025
Kashiwa Reysol's main colour is yellow, like sunshine that is based on the club's name "Sun King". The uniform is yellow-black (called Aurinegro in Spanish) reminiscent of Peñarol or Borussia Dortmund. Reysol is the only top division club in the country to wear yellow-black.