Montedio Yamagata

The club currently playing in J2 League, the Japanese second tier of professional football.

Montedio Yamagata
モンテディオ山形

Full name	Montedio Yamagata
Nickname(s)	Montedio, The Eagle Bees
Founded	1984; 40 years ago (1984)
Ground	ND Soft Stadium
Capacity	20,315
Chairman	Kentaro Aita
Head coach	Susumu Watanabe
League	J2 League
2023	J2 League, 5th of 22
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours
Current season

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. 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.^{[citation needed]}

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. The club is currently playing their 8th consecutive season in the J2 on 2023.

Key

As of 19 April 2024. 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 2 DF   JPN Taiju Yoshida 3 DF   JPN Yuta Kumamoto 4 DF   JPN Keisuke Nishimura 5 DF   JPN Takashi Abe 6 DF   JPN Takumi Yamada 7 MF   JPN Leo Takae 8 MF   JPN Yudai Konishi 9 FW   JPN Ryo Arita 10 MF   JPN Ryoma Kida 11 FW   JPN Yoshiki Fujimoto 14 MF   JPN Koki Sakamoto 15 DF   JPN Ayumu Kawai 16 GK   JPN Ko Hasegawa 17 MF   JPN Chihiro Kato 18 MF   JPN Shuto Minami 19 DF   JPN Kazuma Okamoto 20 MF   JPN Nagi Matsumoto (on loan from Cerezo Osaka) 23 GK   JPN Eisuke Fujishima

No. Pos. Nation Player 24 MF   JPN Rui Yokoyama 25 MF   JPN Shintaro Kokubu 28 MF   JPN Kaisei Kano 29 DF   JPN Jo Soma 32 GK   JPN Taisei Kambayashi 33 DF   JPN Toraji Chiba 34 FW   JPN Kanato Abe 36 FW   JPN Junya Takahashi 37 MF   JPN Naohiro Sugiyama (on loan from Gamba Osaka) 40 DF   JPN Kiriya Sakamoto 41 FW   JPN Yusuke Goto 42 MF   JPN Zain Issaka 50 MF   JPN Eiji Nagai Type 2 51 DF   JPN Taiki Sugawara Type 2 52 FW   JPN Ryotaro Inoue Type 2 53 MF   JPN Hikaru Hanzawa Type 2 54 GK   JPN Rikuto Sato Type 2 83 DF   JPN Shuta Kikuchi (on loan from Shimizu S-Pulse)

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 Keita Yoshioka (at Blaublitz Akita) — MF   JPN Takayuki Arakaki (at FC Gifu)

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF   JPN Wataru Tanaka (at Kagoshima United) — FW   JPN Towa Arakawa (at   CRAC)

Manager	Nationality	Tenure
		Start	Finish
Shoichi Kato	Japan	1984	1989
Masanobu Tashiro	Japan	1990	1993
Naoki Sugisawa	Japan	1994
Nobuhiro Ishizaki	Japan	1 February 1995	31 January 1999
Shigeharu Ueki	Japan	1 February 1999	31 January 2001
Kōichi Hashiratani	Japan	1 January 2001	31 December 2003
Jun Suzuki	Japan	1 February 2004	31 January 2006
Yasuhiro Higuchi	Japan	1 February 2006	31 January 2008
Shinji Kobayashi	Japan	1 February 2008	31 January 2012
Ryōsuke Okuno	Japan	1 February 2012	31 January 2014
Nobuhiro Ishizaki	Japan	1 February 2014	31 January 2017
Takashi Kiyama	Japan	1 February 2017	31 January 2020
Kiyotaka Ishimaru	Japan	1 February 2020	21 April 2021
Jin Satō	Japan	22 April 2021	29 April 2021
Peter Cklamovski	Australia/  North Macedonia	30 April 2021	4 April 2023
Susumu Watanabe	Japan	4 April 2023	Current

General managers

•   Shigetoshi Nakaigawa – 1986–1997, 2007–2019

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

Award winners

The following players have won the awards while at NECY/Montedio:

• JFL Best XI
  •   Daiki Wakamatsu (1998)
  •   Yukihiko Sato (1998)

Ōu Honsen (Dewa derby)

NEC Yamagata 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.

• Battle of Ōshū