Montedio Yamagata

Montedio is a coined word combining the Italian word for "mountain" (Monte) and the word for "God" (Dio).

The club based in Tsuruoka was founded in 1984 as NEC Yamagata Soccer Club.[1] 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.[1]

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 the J1 after spending three seasons in the J2 by winning the J1/J2 promotion playoff final in 2014. They returned to the J2 for the 2016 season, having spent only one season at the J1.[2] The club is currently playing their 8th consecutive season in the J2 on 2023.

Key

As of 16 August 2023.[3] Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  JPN Masaaki Goto 3 DF  JPN Yuta Kumamoto 4 DF  JPN Keisuke Nishimura (on loan from Omiya Ardija) 5 DF  JPN Hiroki Noda 6 DF  JPN Takumi Yamada 7 MF  JPN Kenya Okazaki 8 MF  JPN Yudai Konishi 9 FW  BRA Dellatorre 10 FW  POR Tiago Alves 11 FW  JPN Yoshiki Fujimoto 13 MF  JPN Shuto Kawai 14 MF  JPN Takayuki Arakaki 15 MF  JPN Ibuki Fujita 16 GK  JPN Ko Hasegawa 18 MF  JPN Shuto Minami 19 FW  JPN Ten Miyagi (on loan from Kawasaki Frontale) 21 MF  JPN Wataru Tanaka 22 DF  JPN Taiju Yoshida

No. Pos. Nation Player 23 GK  JPN Eisuke Fujishima 24 FW  JPN Rui Yokoyama 25 MF  JPN Shintaro Kokubu 26 MF  JPN Ayumu Kawai 27 DF  JPN Keita Yoshioka 28 MF  JPN Toya Izumi (on loan from Vissel Kobe) 29 MF  JPN Leo Takae 32 GK  JPN Ryusuke Otomo 36 FW  JPN Junya Takahashi 41 MF  JPN Masahito Ono 42 DF  JPN Zain Issaka 47 MF  JPN Towa Arakawa 49 FW  JPN Yusuke Goto 50 MF  JPN Kaisei Kano DSP 51 DF  JPN Jo Soma DSP 53 DF  JPN Toraji Chiba Type 2 58 FW  JPN Haru Kinoshita Type 2 59 FW  JPN Toji Mitobe Type 2

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 Kiriya Sakamoto (at Sagan Tosu) — FW  JPN Kanato Abe (at ReinMeer Aomori)

No. Pos. Nation Player — FW  JPN Kanta Matsumoto (at Tegevajaro Miyazaki)

For the 2023 season.

Position	Name
Head coach	Susumu Watanabe
Assistant head coach	Ryota Matsumoto
First-team coach	Jin Sato Seiya Imazaki
Goalkeeper coach	Akehiro Tsuchiya Takeshi Saito
Physical coach	Kenta Hamabe
Performance coordinator	Yosuke Kyoya
Analyst	Shuta Tsukamoto
Trainer	Tsukasa Sato Hiraku Toguri So Adachi
Interpreter	Hiroshi Endo Douglas De Souza
Team operations coordinator	Masahiro Sasaki
Manager	Takuya Fukai Takaaki Sakai

• Emperor's Cup:
  • Runners-up: 2014
• Tohoku Soccer League (4):
  • Champions: 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993
• Yamagata Prefecture League (1):
  • Champions: 1989

• (in Japanese) Official Site
• Montedio Squad