Montedio Yamagata
Montedio is a coined word combining the Italian word for "mountain" (Monte) and the word for "God" (Dio). History. The club based in Tsuruoka was founded in 1984 as NEC Yamagata Soccer Club. It gained the promotion to the Japan Football League (former) in 1994. After renaming itself as Montedio Yamagata in 1996, it has been playing in J. League Division 2 since its inaugural 1999 season. On 30 November 2008, they were promoted to J. League Division 1 for the first time. They achieved their highest league placing of 13th in 2010. However, in 2011, two strong  rental players from Kashima Antlers go back to their own team and this influences the team in a bad way to lead to be relegated back to J.League Division 2 at the end of 2011. On top of that, main reason for going back to Division 2 is because of many injured players in the middle of the season. At the end of the season, the manager, Shinji Kobayashi, stepped down even though many fans glorified his accomplishment for the past 4 years. Yamagata returned to J1 after three seasons in J2 by winning the promotion playoff final. However, they  were back to J2 after only one season. Current squad. "As of 15 March 2022." Honours. Award winners. The following players have won the awards while at NECY/Montedio: Rivalries. Ōu Honsen (Dewa derby). and TDK first met in 1990 in old Tohoku regional football league. The two clubs have been based in former Dewa Province, and their rivalry is renamed as Ōu Honsen (奥羽本戦) after the Japan Railways Ōu Main Line (奥羽本線) in 2021.