Yokohama F. Marinos

Marinos (横浜F・マリノス, Yokohama Efu Marinosu), simply known as the Yokohama Marinos, are a Japanese professional football club based in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, part of the Greater Tokyo Area. The club currently competes in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country.

Yokohama F. Marinos
横浜F・マリノス

Wiki English
Full name	Yokohama F·Marinos
Nickname(s)	Marinos, Tricolor
Founded	1972; 52 years ago (1972) as Nissan Motor
Stadium	Nissan Stadium
Capacity	72,327
Owner	Nissan (80%) City Football Group (20%)
Chairman	Akihiro Nakayama
Manager	Harry Kewell
League	J1 League
2023	J1 League, 2nd of 18
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours
Current season

Having won the J1 League titles 5 times in 1995, 2003, 2004, 2019 & 2022 and finishing second fifth times, Marinos are one of the most successful J.League clubs. The team is based in Yokohama and was founded as the company team of Nissan Motor. The club was formed by the merger of Yokohama Marinos and Yokohama Flügels in 1999. The current name is intended to reflect both of the original names. Yokohama F. Marinos is the longest serving team in the top flight of Japanese football, having played at the top level since 1982, also making them, along with Kashima Antlers, one of only two teams to have competed in Japan's top flight of football every year since its inception.

Marinos have won 5 J1 League titles, 7 Emperor's Cup titles, 1 J.League Cup and 1 Japanese Super Cup. Continentally, the club became the first club to win the Asian Cup Winners' Cup back-to-back in 1991–92 and 1992–93.

As Nissan Motor (1972–1991)

The team traces its origins to 1972 as the Nissan Motor Football Club, based in Yokohama. Nissan Motor won promotion to Division 2 Football League in 1976. Under coach Shu Kamo, the team won Japan Soccer League in 1988 and 1989, as well as the JSL Cup in 1988, 1989 and 1990 and the Emperor's Cup in 1983, 1985, 1988, 1989 and 1991. The 1989 team won the "Triple Crown" - all three major tournaments in Japan - with famous players such as Takashi Mizunuma, Kazushi Kimura and Masami Ihara. At the end of the 1991–92 season, the team won the 1991–92 Asian Cup Winners' Cup.

As Yokohama Marinos (1992–1998)

Nissan Motors obtained registration in the newly formed J.League to acquire professional club status and changed the club's name to Yokohama Marinos, a reference to Yokohama's status as a major port city. In their first seasons as a professional team, Yokohama Marinos continued to win competitions: triumphant in the 1992 Emperor's Cup , a second consecutive 1992–93 Asian Cup Winners' Cup, and their first J.League title in 1995. Matches between Yokohama Marinos and Verdy Kawasaki were known as the National Derby.

As Yokohama F. Marinos (1999–present)

 

 

Park Il-gyu

 

Thiago

 

Hatanaka

 

Matsubara

 

Theerathon

 

Kida

 

Ogihara

 

Nakagawa

 

Endo

 

Marcos

 

Erik

The usual starting line-up of the 2019 J1 League winning team

In 1999, the club was renamed Yokohama F. Marinos after the technical and financial merger with Yokohama Flügels which had declared bankruptcy. Since then, an F has been added to the name to represent the Flügels half of the club. Because of that, many Flügels fans have rejected the new team. Flügels fans felt that their team was dissolved into the F.Marinos, rather than being merged with. As a result, they refused to follow F. Marinos and instead created Yokohama FC, the new city-wide rival of F. Marinos, with the help of public donations and an affiliation with IMG, a talent agency company.

In 2000, Marinos was runner-up in the 2000 J1 League where Shunsuke Nakamura was named the best player of the season.

On 27 October 2001, Marinos won the J.League Cup facing Júbilo Iwata in a 0–0 match that leads to penalty shootout. Marinos than won the penalty shootout 3–1 thus going on to win the cup.

In the 2002 season, Marinos end up as the league runners-up just behind Júbilo Iwata.

Back-to-back league champions

In 2003 and 2004, Marinos became back-to-back league champions with the stars of the team being South Koreans Ahn Jung-hwan, Yoo sang-chul and Japanese players Daisuke Oku, Tatsuhiko Kubo and Yuji Nakazawa (who was the best player of the year in 2004). Their coach was the Japanese Takeshi Okada, who was named the 'Best Coach of the Year' in 2003 and 2004.

From 2005 to 2008, with notable players Hayuma Tanaka, Hideo Ōshima, Daisuke Sakata and Koji Yamase, Marinos didn't achieve any single honours. The highest they reached during this period was the 2008 Emperor's Cup semi-final where they were knockout by Gamba Osaka in extra time.

In 2010, club legend Shunsuke Nakamura returned to Yokohama F. Marinos after 8 years and stayed until the end of the 2017 J1 League season.

On August 4, 2011, a year after leaving the club, former Marinos player Naoki Matsuda collapsed during training with Matsumoto Yamaga due to cardiac arrest and died at the age of 34. As a result, his former number 3 has been retired.

And after two semi-final defeats in 2011 and 2012, Marinos won the 2013 Emperor's Cup on 1 January 2014, the first after 21 years and in 2013, they were runner-up in the J.League for the second time in their history.

Owned by City Football Group

On 20 May 2014, it was announced that the City Football Group, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi United Group, had invested in a minority stake in Yokohama F. Marinos, creating a partnership with the football club and the automaker Nissan.

And after consecutive defeats, such as a loss in the 2017 Emperor's Cup Final and in the 2018 J.League Cup Final, the team managed to get a good shape thanks to the direction of the Australian coach Ange Postecoglou, which ended 15 years of drought by winning the 2019 J1 League title, with emphasis on the participation of Teruhito Nakagawa being the 'Best Player of the Season' and top scorer with 15 goals together with Brazilian Marcos Júnior.

In 2020, Marinos made it out of the 2020 AFC Champions League group stage for the first time since the AFC Champions League switched to the current format. The club were drawn in Group H alongside Chinese Shanghai SIPG, South Korean Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors and Australian Sydney FC. Marinos qualified to the knockout stages as group leaders with 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 losses. However the club was bowed out from the tournament in the Round of 16 losing 3–2 to South Korean Suwon Samsung Bluewings.

In 2021, Marinos finished in second place 13 points behind league champions, Kawasaki Frontale where on 18 July 2021, Head coach Ange Postecoglou was signed by Scottish club, Celtic while Hideki Matsunaga will be the caretaker for the club until 18 July 2021, Marinos signed another Australian head coach, Kevin Muscat.

In 2022, Kevin Muscat steered the club to win their fifth J1 League title. The club also finished as group leaders in the 2022 AFC Champions League group stage being placed in Group H alongside South Korean Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, Vietnamese Hoang Anh Gia Lai and Australian Sydney FC. Marinos qualified to the knockout stages with 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 losses where they faced another Japanese side Vissel Kobe in the Round of 16, however, the club suffered a 3–2 defeat to Vissel Kobe thus crashing out from the competition.

In 2023, Marinos than finished as league runners up with 64 points behind Vissel Kobe who got 71 points. Kevin Muscat than guided the club in the 2023–24 AFC Champions League group stage being drawn in Group G with Chinese Shandong Taishan, South Korean Incheon United and Filipino Kaya–Iloilo. Marinos finished the group tied with 12 points along with Shandong Taishan and Incheon United but qualified to the round of 16 as group leaders.

On 6 December 2023, Kevin Muscat resigned as the head coach in which Harry Kewell were appointed as the new head coach of the club on 31 December 2023 becoming the third consecutive Australian manager in the club history. Harry Kewell than guided the club in the round of 16 fixture against Thai Bangkok United, winning the match 3–2 on aggregate with Anderson Lopes scoring an injury time penalty in the 120th minute of extra time during the second leg sending the team to the quarter-finals. Marinos then faced off against Shandong Taishan again in which Marinos won 3–1 on aggregate thus seeing them to the semi-finals against South Korean Ulsan Hyundai. Marinos suffered a 1–0 defeat away in which the club bounced back in the second leg at home winning the match 3–2 thus seeing both club tied with 3–3 on aggregate sending the match into extra time and than penalties shootout. Marinos went on to win the penalties shootout 5–4 where vice-captain Eduardo scored the winning penalty to send the team to their first-ever Champions League final against Emirati Al Ain.

Kanagawa Derby

• This is the derby played by the Kanagawa prefecture teams, currently the most important match is that of Yokohama F. Marinos and Kawasaki Frontale. Other Kanagawa derby rivals include Shonan Bellmare, Yokohama FC and YSCC Yokohama.

Previously, Verdy Kawasaki and the extinct Yokohama Flügels were Kanagawa Derby rivals. With Verdy moving to Tokyo from Kawasaki, matches between the two clubs are no longer considered Kanagawa derbies.

Yokohama Derby

• The classic among the most representative teams in the city of Yokohama, Yokohama F. Marinos, Yokohama FC and YSCC Yokohama. Between 1993 and 1998, the Yokohama derby corresponded only to the departure between the late Yokohama Flügels and Yokohama F. Marinos.

Yokohama F. Marinos utilizes a three colour system composed of blue, white and red.

In 2012, Yokohama F. Marinos have unveiled a special edition 20th Anniversary jersey

Slogan

Kit suppliers and shirt sponsors

 

 

The team's home stadiums are Nissan Stadium, otherwise known as International Stadium Yokohama, and Mitsuzawa Stadium. The team trained at Marinos Town located in the area of Minato Mirai, but moved to Kozukue Field located next to the home ground in 2016.

The club's official theme song is "We Are F. Marinos" by Japanese duo Yuzu. The song was first released in 2005, with the song being used at games up to today, sometimes having mascot Marinos-kun dance to the song on a pedestal on the running track of Nissan Stadium.

Current squad

As of 7 March 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 William Popp 2 DF   JPN Katsuya Nagato 4 DF   JPN Shinnosuke Hatanaka 5 DF   BRA Eduardo (vice-captain) 6 MF   JPN Kota Watanabe 7 FW   BRA Élber 8 MF   JPN Takuya Kida (captain) 10 FW   BRA Anderson Lopes 11 FW   BRA Yan Matheus 13 DF   JPN Ryuta Koike (vice-captain) 14 FW   JPN Asahi Uenaka 15 DF   JPN Takumi Kamijima 16 DF   JPN Ren Kato 17 MF   JPN Kenta Inoue 18 MF   JPN Kota Mizunuma (vice-captain) 19 DF   JPN Yuki Saneto 20 MF   JPN Jun Amano 21 GK   JPN Hiroki Iikura

No. Pos. Nation Player 23 FW   JPN Ryo Miyaichi 24 DF   JPN Hijiri Kato 25 MF   JPN Kaina Yoshio 26 DF   JPN Yuta Koike 27 DF   JPN Ken Matsubara (vice-captain) 28 MF   JPN Riku Yamane 29 MF   KOR Nam Tae-hee 31 GK   JPN Fuma Shirasaka 33 DF   JPN Kosei Suwama DSP 35 MF   JPN Keigo Sakakibara 37 FW   JPN Kento Shiogai DSP 38 FW   JPN Yuhi Murakami 39 DF   JPN Taiki Watanabe 41 GK   JPN Riku Terakado 44 DF   JPN Manato Yoshida 47 DF   JPN Kazuya Yamamura 48 MF   JPN Keita Ueda

The official club website lists the club mascot as player #0 and the supporters as player #12.

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 9 FW   JPN Takuma Nishimura (on loan to Servette FC) — GK   JPN Tomoki Tagawa (on loan to Kataller Toyama) — DF   JPN Yusuke Nishida (on loan to AC Nagano Parceiro) — MF   JPN Eitaro Matsuda (on loan to Albirex Niigata)

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF   JPN Shunsuke Hirai (on loan to Reilac Shiga) — MF   JPN Takuto Kimura (on loan to Ehime FC) — MF   JPN Takuto Minami (on loan to Iwate Grulla Morioka) — FW   JPN Takumi Tsukui (on loan to Azul Claro Numazu)

Retired number

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 3 DF   JPN Naoki Matsuda

This list includes players that were called up to their national teams while playing at Yokohama F. Marinos, either to participate in official or friendly competitions, friendly matches or in training camps.

Club captains

•   Shigetatsu Matsunaga 1993
•   Masami Ihara 1994–1998
•   Yoshiharu Ueno 1999–2000
•   Norio Omura 2001
•   Naoki Matsuda 2002–2003
•   Daisuke Oku 2004
•   Naoki Matsuda 2005–2006
•   Yuji Nakazawa 2007
•   Ryuji Kawai 2008–2009
•   Yuzo Kurihara 2010
•   Shunsuke Nakamura 2011–2016
•   Manabu Saito 2017
•   Yuji Nakazawa 2018
•   Takuya Kida 2019–present

The list includes players who were called up to their national teams while playing at Yokohama F. Marinos, to represent their country in the FIFA World Cup .

• 1994 FIFA World Cup: Ramón Medina Bello
• 1998 FIFA World Cup: Masami Ihara, Shoji Jo, Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Norio Omura, César Sampaio
• 2002 FIFA World Cup: Naoki Matsuda
• 2006 FIFA World Cup: Yuji Nakazawa
• 2010 FIFA World Cup: Yuji Nakazawa, Shunsuke Nakamura
• 2014 FIFA World Cup: Manabu Saito
• 2018 FIFA World Cup: Milos Degenek
• 2022 FIFA World Cup: None

Key

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1989–90	Asian Club Championship	Qualifying round (Group 6)	Liaoning	0–1		2nd out of 4
			Hap Kuan	9–0
			Chadongcha	2–0
		Group A	Kuala Lumpur City	2–1		1st out of 3
			Fanja	1–0
		Final	Liaoning	1–2	1–1	2–3
1990–91	Asian Club Championship	Qualifying round (Group 7)	April 25	0–1		3rd out of 3
			Liaoning	2–3
1991–92	Asian Cup Winners' Cup	Quarter-finals	East Bengal	4–0	3–1	4–1
		Semi-finals	Pupuk Kaltim	2–0	0–0	2–0
		Final	Al-Nassr	5–0	1–1	6–1
1992–93	Asian Cup Winners' Cup	Second round	Pupuk Kaltim	3–1	1–1	4–2
		Semi-finals	SHB Đà Nẵng	3–0	1–1	4–1
		Final	Persepolis	1–1	1–0	2–1
1993–94	Asian Cup Winners' Cup	First round	Philippine Air Force	5–0	1–0	6–0
		Quarter-finals	Semen Padang	11–0	1–2	12–2
		Semi-finals	South China	w/o
1996–97	Asian Club Championship	First round	GD Artilheiros	w/o
		Second round	Johor Darul Ta'zim	2–0	1–1	3–1
		Quarter-finals (East Asia Group)	Pohang Steelers	2–2		3rd out of 4
			Seongnam FC	2–3
			New Radiant	10–0
2004	AFC Champions League	Group G	Bình Định	6–0	3–0	2nd out of 4
			Persik Kediri	4–0	4–1
			Seongnam FC	1–2	1–0
	A3 Champions Cup	Table	Seongnam FC	0–3		2nd out of 4
			Shanghai Shenhua	2–0
			Shanghai International	2–1
2005	AFC Champions League	Group F	Shandong Taishan	0–1	1–2	2nd out of 4
			PSM Makassar	3–0	2–0
			Police Tero	2–0	2–1
	A3 Champions Cup	Table	Pohang Steelers	1–1		3rd out of 4
			Shenzhen Jianlibao	2–0
			Suwon Samsung Bluewings	1–3
2014	AFC Champions League	Group G	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	2–1	0–3	4th out of 4
			Guangzhou	1–1	1–2
			Melbourne Victory	3–2	0–1
2020	AFC Champions League	Group H	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	4–1	2–1	1st out of 4
			Sydney FC	4–0	1–1
			Shanghai Port	1–2	1–0
		Round of 16	Suwon Samsung Bluewings	2–3
2022	AFC Champions League	Group H	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	0–1	1–1	1st out of 4
			Hoàng Anh Gia Lai	2–0	2–1
			Sydney FC	3–0	1–0
		Round of 16	Vissel Kobe	2–3
2023–24	AFC Champions League	Group G	Incheon United	2–4	1–2	1st out of 4
			Shandong Taishan	3–0	1–0
			Kaya-Iloilo	3–0	2–1
		Round of 16	Bangkok United	1–0 (a.e.t.)	2–2	3–2
		Quarter-finals	Shandong Taishan	1–0	2–1	3–1
		Semi-finals	Ulsan Hyundai	3–2 (a.e.t.)	0–1	3–3 (a.e.t.) (5–4 p)
		Final	Al Ain

Performance in AFC competitions

• AFC Champions League: 8 appearances
  1989–90: Runners-up
  1990–91: Group stage
  1996–97: Quarter-finals
  2004: Group stage
  2005: Group stage
  2014: Group stage
  2020: Round of 16
  2022: Round of 16
• Asian Cup Winners' Cup: 3 appearances
  1991–92: Winners
  1992–93: Winners
  1993–94: Semi-finals

J.League MVP Award:

• Shunsuke Nakamura (2000; 2013)
• Yuji Nakazawa (2004)
• Teruhito Nakagawa (2019)
• Tomoki Iwata (2022)

J.League Top Scorer:

• Ramón Díaz (1993)
• Teruhito Nakagawa (2019)
• Marcos Júnior (2019)
• Daizen Maeda (2021)
• Anderson Lopes (2023)

J.League Rookie of the Year:

• Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi (1995)
• Daisuke Nasu (2003)
• Kazuma Watanabe (2009)

J.League Manager of the Year:

• Takeshi Okada (2003; 2004)
• Ange Postecoglou (2019)
• Kevin Muscat (2022)

J.League Fair Play Award:

• Daisuke Sakata (2007)
• Yuji Nakazawa (2015; 2017)

J.League Monthly MVP :

• Shunsuke Nakamura (March 2013)
• Tetsuya Enomoto (October 2013)
• Manabu Saito (August 2015)
• Shunsuke Nakamura (October 2015)
• Manabu Saito (October 2016; November 2016)
• Yuji Nakazawa (June 2017)
• Takuya Kida (May 2019)
• Teruhito Nakagawa (October 2019)
• Erik (September 2020)
• Leo Ceara (August 2021)
• Kota Mizunuma (June 2022)
• Tomoki Iwata (September 2022)

J.League Best XI:

• 1993: Shigetatsu Matsunaga, Masami Ihara, Ramón Díaz
• 1994: Masami Ihara
• 1995: Masami Ihara, Masaharu Suzuki
• 1996: Masami Ihara
• 1997: Masami Ihara
• 1999: Shunsuke Nakamura
• 2000: Naoki Matsuda, Shunsuke Nakamura
• 2002: Naoki Matsuda
• 2003: Yuji Nakazawa, Daisuke Oku, Tatsuhiko Kubo, Dutra
• 2004: Yuji Nakazawa, Daisuke Oku, Dutra
• 2005: Yuji Nakazawa
• 2008: Yuji Nakazawa
• 2013: Yuji Nakazawa, Shunsuke Nakamura
• 2019: Teruhito Nakagawa, Marcos Júnior, Takuya Kida, Thiago Martins
• 2021: Daizen Maeda
• 2022: Élber, Kota Mizunuma, Tomoki Iwata, Ryuta Koike, Yohei Takaoka
• 2023: Anderson Lopes

AFC Champions League Best XI:

• 2020: Takuya Kida, Teruhito Nakagawa

J.League Cup MVP:

• 2001: Tatsuya Enomoto

J.League Cup New Hero:

• 2013: Manabu Saito
• 2018: Keita Endo

In the manga series – Captain Tsubasa, one of the characters was Yokohama Marinos midfielder Mamoru Izawa.^{[citation needed]}

The base category of Yokohama F. Marinos started in 1986, before the opening of the J-League, and it is divided into 3 categories U-12, U-15 and U-18 and these are some of the best players formed at the base of Marinos, Shunsuke Nakamura, Manabu Saito, Jungo Fujimoto, Mike Havenaar, Hiroki Iikura, Takashi Amano, Hiroyuki Taniguchi, Tetsuya Enomoto, Yuzo Kurihara, Hayuma Tanaka, Yuki Kaneko, Daisuke Sakata, Naohiro Ishikawa, Rikizo Matsuhashi, Eitaro Matsuda, Kota Yamada, Keita Endo, Ryo Takano, Takuya Kida, Andrew Kumagai, Yuji Ono, Jun Amano, Sho Matsumoto, Jin Hanato, Kota Mizunuma, Takashi Kanai, Masakazu Tashiro, Yota Akimoto etc. ... .

• All Japan Club Youth Soccer Tournament
• JFA Prince League Kanto
• Prince Takamado Trophy
• J-Youth Cup
• JFA Championship
• Danone Nations Cup

 

Wiki Commons has media related to Yokohama F. Marinos.

• Official website (in Japanese)
• Yokohama F. Marinos at J.League (in English) (archived 25 June 2013)