Description
Kataller Toyama are a professional soccer club in the J. League. Coming from Toyama city, their home town is the entire Toyama prefecture. Currently they are in the J3 League and their home stadium is the Toyama Athletic Stadium.
The club was formed in 2007 after Hokuriku Electric Power Company ALO’s Hokuriku and YKK AP F.C answered Toyama prefecture’s soccer association’s appeal for merger. The club name was chosen out 1086 suggestions and finally settled on Kataller Toyama. Their first manager was Hiroshi Sowa, who had years of experience managing Cerzo Osaka, Sagan Tosu and other J1 clubs.
Up to 2007 he managed the Kataller Toyoma’s former club YKK AP soccer club.
In 2008 they were recognized as associate members of the J. League, however they struggled in JFL in the beginning of the season and at one point even dropped to 14th place. Although from that moment onward their situation improved and they slowly started gathering points. By the 23rd of November when they beat MIO Biwako Shiga 2-1 they climbed to 4th place, satisfying the condition to enter the J.League and by end of their first JFL season they were 3rd in the league.
They met the J. League’s second condition as well – their ability to draw audiences – with flying colors as their viewer numbers were second highest in the league. Sure enough they were allowed to join the J2 League from the following year in 2009. With this decision the Kataller Toyama became the first J League club in the Hokuriku region.
Between the years 2009 and 2014 they were in the J2 League, but the league proved too difficult and every year ended somewhere at the bottom of the rankings. Moreover in the beginning of the 2014 season they played 9 games without a single victory. On their 10th game they got their first win against Matsumoto Yamaga FC, but overall their situation did not improve. With a last place finish they were relegated to J3 League.
After their demotion to J3, in 2015 they finished 5th in the league and did not make it back to J2.
The next year in 2016 Yasutoshi Miura, who managed Giravanz Kitakyushu and Tokyo Verdy, became the new manager. They also hired former Japan national team member Teruaki Kurobe as an assistant manager. Kurobe previously played for Kyoto Sanga FC and during the last years of his career played as the ace striker for Kataller Toyama. However that season they ended in the middle of the league chart and presently they continue fighting to advance to J2.
The team’s home jersey is blue and their supplier has been “Goldwin” ever since the club was founded in 2008. Their jerseys have logos of their local sponsors from the Hokuriku region,
such as “YKK AP”, “Hokuriku Electric Power Company”, “The Kitanippon Shimbun” and others.
