Description
Roasso Kumamoto are a professional soccer club in the J. League, currently part of the J2 league. Their home town is Kumamoto city, which also holds their home stadium, the Umakana Yokona Stadium.
The club was founded in 1969 as Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation Kumamoto Soccer Club and when they became independent in 2002, they changed their name to Alouette Kumamoto.
After that, the decision was made to establish a professional soccer club with Alouette Kumamoto as the parent organization and thus the club became known as Rosso Kumamoto in 2005.
In the 2005 Kyushu League, they battled against FC Ryukyu for the first place and came out on top. Along with the Alouette period, this was their 7th league championship victory.
On top of that, by finishing 3rd in the Japan Regional Football Champions League, their promotion to the Japan Football League (JFL) was settled.
In their first year in JFL, in 2006, they came 5th, but the following year, in 2007, they finished 2nd in the league and stepped up to J2. At the same time, due to the club name’s trademark rights circumstances, there was a need to change their name and thus the present day Roasso Kumamoto was born.
In their 3rd year after promoting to J2, in 2010, they hired the previous manager of Tokyo Verdy, Takuya Takagi. At the start of the season they went 5 games without a loss and rose up to 3rd place for a time, where they proved that they can stabilize in the upper charts. They fought for a chance at a promotion up to the end of the season and eventually finished their season with a solid 7th place finish.
However, from that point onward, every year they fell lower, from mid ranks to lower ranks and their inability to contend for the championship continues. In 2016, they achieved 3 victories from the start of the season and at one point they were the only team in 1st place, but on April 14th the Kumamoto earthquake occurred, which made the team’s practice field and stadium unusable. It took a while before they could continue practicing and thus ended their season in 16th place.
Presently, Roasso Kumamoto are fighting as a symbol of restoration with their eyes set on J1.
The team’s home jersey is red and their supplier form 2005 has been PUMA. Their shirts are decorated with logos of their local sponsors like Hakutake, Mynavi, Kumamoto Electric Power, and others.
