Description
Azul Claro Numazu are a professional soccer club in the J. League. Their home town is Numazu city in Shizuoka prefecture. Currently they are a part of the J3 League. Their home stadium is the Shizuoka Ashitaka Athletic Stadium.
Founded in 1977 the club started out as the Numazu Arsenal. In 1980 the name was changed to Numazu Koryo Club and got its present day name in 2006. On a side note, the club founder Hiroyoshi Yamamoto is the younger brother of Masakuni Yamamoto, the manager of the Japan national soccer team for the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Under the name Azul Claro the team played in the Tokai Regional League between the years 2006 to 2013. On the 17th of September 2013 they were recognized as a associate members of the J. League by the J League executive committee, but they did not manage to enter the J3 league yet.
Therefore starting from 2014 season they moved up to the Japanese Football League (JFL). On their 3rd season in 2016 when they finished in 3rd place they were accepted into the J League and expected to start in J3 league from 2017. They became the fourth Shizuoka team to enter the J. League after Shimizu S-Pulse, Jubilo Iwata and Fujieda MYFC.
In 2017, the year they joined J3, a subject for conversation became Teruyoshi Ito, who joined the team from Blaublitz Akita. Ito, along with Kazuyoshi Miura from Yokohama FC, are the only two atheles that are continuing their professional career from the starting year of the J. League from 1993. Ito had previously played for Shimizu S-Pulse, Ventforet Kofu, AC Nagano Parceiro and Blaublitz Akita.
He was also selected to represent Japan in the national team for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, where he faced Brazilian national team’s Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Roberto Carlos in the finals and pulled off the winning goal known as the Miami Miracle.
The team’s home jersey is blue and their supplier from the year 2013 and onward has been “PUMA”. Their jerseyss have logos of their local suppliers like “USUI” and “Suruga Bank”.
