Kamatamare Sanuki

Kamatamare Sanuki
カマタマーレ讃岐
Full name	Kamatamare Sanuki
Founded	1956; 68 years ago
Ground	Pikara Stadium,; Marugame, Kagawa
Capacity	30,099
Chairman	Nobuhiro Kawamura
Manager	Atsushi Yoneyama
League	J3 League
2023	J3 League, 16th of 20
Website	http://www.kamatamare.jp/
Home colours	Away colours
	Current season

Kamatamare Sanuki (カマタマーレ讃岐、Kamatamāre Sanuki) is a football club based in Takamatsu, the capital city of Kagawa Prefecture of Japan. They currently play in the J3 League, the Japanese third tier of professional football.

The first part of their name was coined by combining the Japanese word Kamatama (a type of udon noodle bowl) and the Italian Mare ("Sea"). The second part is what Kagawa Prefecture used to be called.

Their name, as well as their crest, that features a kamatama udon bowl, gained a significant interest and recognition, as the club instantly became one of the most-known non-league sides in Japan when their new name and crest was announced in October 2005.^{[citation needed]}

History

The club was founded in 1956 as Takasho OB (Old Boys) Soccer Club (高商OBサッカークラブ) by the former students of Takamatsu Commercial High School's soccer club. Since renaming themselves Kagawa Shiun Football Club (香川紫雲フットボールクラブ) in 1991, they have been the leading football club in Kagawa, winning the Shikoku League Championship twice. The club's name changed again in 2000 to Sun Life (サンライフ) Football Club, when a consumer loan company Sun Life signed a sponsorship deal that continued until the end of the 2004 season.

In October 2005, after briefly being called Takamatsu Football Club, the club officially announced their intention to rise to J. League status and changed their name to Kamatamare Sanuki. In 2010 they won the non-league treble by winning the Shikoku League, the Shakaijin Cup and the Regional League Promotion Series, and by virtue of the latter they were at last promoted to the Japan Football League.

They entered the J. League ahead of the season 2014, after finishing as runners-up in the Japan Football League in the previous season, having won the J2–J3 promotion/relegation playoff against Gainare Tottori, which Kamatamare leading 2–1 on aggregate score.

In 2018, After five years stint at J2, Kamatamare Sanuki relegation to J3 League from 2019 for the first time in history after worst performance in second tier and finished bottom place. Since their relegation in 2019, the club won't back to second tier.

On 26 September 2023, Kamatamare Sanuki was declared to have met the requirements to obtain a license up to J1 League level.^[1]

League record

Champions	Runners-up	Third place	Promoted	Relegated

League													J.League Cup	Emperor's Cup	Shakaijin Cup
Season	Division	Tier	Pos	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts	Attendance/G	J.League Cup	Emperor's Cup	Shakaijin Cup
Takasho OB
1977	Shikoku League		6th	14	4	2	8	32	54	-22	10		Not eligible
1978	Shikoku League		8th	14	1	2	11	18	48	-30	4
1979	Kagawa Pref. League		1st	?	?	?	?				?
1980	Kagawa Pref. League		1st	?	?	?	?				?
1981	Shikoku League		5th	14	7	1	6	26	31	-5	15
1982			8th	14	4	1	2	19	26	7	13
1983			2nd	16	10	1	5	45	32	13	21
1984			2nd	14	6	5	3	33	30	3	17
1985			6th	14	5	1	8	26	48	-22	11
1986			7th	14	3	2	9	15	25	-10	8
1987			8th	14	1	2	11	12	53	-41	4
1988			7th	14	5	0	9	16	42	-26	10
1989			6th	14	5	2	7	15	43	-28	12
1990			6th	14	3	3	8	15	31	-16	9
Kagawa Shiun
1991	Shikoku League		2nd	14	10	1	3	42	15	27	21		Not eligible
1992			3rd	14	8	2	4	49	16	33	18
1993			2nd	14	11	0	3	53	18	35	22
1994			1st	13	11	1	1	46	12	34	23
1995			2nd	14	9	3	2	42	17	25	30
1996			2nd	14	10	1	3	41	19	22	31
1997			1st	14	9	3	2	47	24	23	30
1998			3rd	14	6	4	4	21	17	4	22
1999		4	2nd	14	9	1	4	41	25	16	28
Sun Life FC
2000	Shikoku League	4	4th	14	8	1	5	35	32	3	25		Not eligible
2001			3rd	14	7	3	4	45	25	20	24
2002			2nd	14	10	0	4	33	28	5	30
2003			6th	14	4	1	9	28	36	-8	13
2004			3rd	14	8	0	6	29	26	3	24
Takamatsu Football Club
2005	Shikoku League	4	4th	14	6	4	4	31	24	7	22		Not eligible
Kamatamare Sanuki
2006	Shikoku League	4	1st	14	12	1	1	45	12	33	37		Not eligible
2007			2nd	14	12	1	1	68	14	54	37
2008			1st	14	13	1	0	62	4	58	40
2009			2nd	14	12	0	2	56	10	46	36			2nd round
2010			1st	14	12	2	0	53	5	48	38			2nd round	Winners
2011	JFL	3	11th	33	11	7	15	39	49	-10	40	3,025		2nd round	Not eligible
2012			4th	32	15	8	9	49	29	20	53	2,344		3rd round
2013			2nd	34	21	5	8	49	26	23	68	3,125		2nd round
2014	J2 League	2	21st	42	7	12	23	34	71	-37	33	3,317		2nd round
2015			16th	42	12	15	15	30	33	-3	51	3,658		2nd round
2016			19th	42	10	13	19	43	62	-19	43	3,686		2nd round
2017			19th	42	8	14	20	41	61	-20	38	3,805		2nd round
2018			22nd	42	7	10	25	28	72	-44	31	3,073		2nd round
2019	J3 League	3	14th	34	10	9	15	33	49	-19	39	2,112		2nd round
2020 †			16th	34	7	10	17	33	52	-19	31	869		Did not qualify
2021 †			15th	28	4	9	15	20	41	-21	21	1,475		1st round
2022			17th	34	6	9	19	27	49	-22	27	1,805		Did not qualify
2023			16th	38	11	11	16	29	45	-16	44	2,062		2nd round
2024			TBD	38									1st round	2nd round

Key

Pos. = Position in league; P = Games played; W = Games won; D = Games drawn; L = Games lost; F = Goals scored; A = Goals conceded; GD = Goals difference; Pts = Points gained
Attendance/G = Average league home attendance
† 2020 & 2021 seasons attendances reduced by COVID-19 worldwide pandemic
Note: The 1994 season saw one game cancelled due to the disqualification of Alex SC who fielded ineligible players. The 2011 season saw one game cancelled as Sony Sendai could not play a full schedule due to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami barring regular use of facilities.

Honours

Championship winners
Honour	No.	Years
Shikoku Soccer League	5	1994, 1997, 2006, 2008, 2010
Shakaijin Cup	1	2010
Regional League Promotion Series	1	2010

Current squad

As of 21 August 2024.^[2]

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	Yusuke Imamura
2	DF	JPN	Kanta Usui
3	DF	JPN	Kei Munechika
4	MF	JPN	Shunji Takemura
5	DF	JPN	Takumi Komatsu
6	MF	JPN	Hayato Hasegawa
7	MF	JPN	Nao Eguchi
8	MF	JPN	Yuto Mori
9	MF	JPN	Naoki Takahashi
10	MF	JPN	Shota Kawanishi
11	MF	JPN	Gentaro Yoshida
13	MF	JPN	Taiga Maekawa
14	MF	JPN	Jimpei Yoshida (on loan from Albirex Niigata)
15	MF	JPN	Kazuki Iwamoto
16	DF	JPN	Yudai Okuda
17	FW	JPN	Eugene Fukui
19	FW	JPN	Kaima Akahoshi (on loan from Tiamo Hirakata)


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
20	MF	JPN	Taiyo Shimokawa
21	GK	JPN	Ryotaro Nakajima
22	FW	JPN	Yohei Ono
23	FW	JPN	Soshi Iwagishi
24	DF	JPN	Soichiro Fukaminato (on loan from Machida Zelvia)
26	FW	JPN	Shoya Koyama
27	FW	JPN	Mahiro Yoshinaga (on loan from Júbilo Iwata)
29	DF	JPN	Keisuke Tao
32	GK	JPN	Kaisei Matsubara
33	MF	JPN	Kotaro Omori (on loan from Júbilo Iwata)
35	DF	JPN	Shuto Sago
40	GK	JPN	Koki Seto ^{Type 2}
47	DF	JPN	Shota Nishino (on loan from Consadole Sapporo)
60	MF	JPN	Yuki Morikawa (on loan from Nagano Parceiro)
66	DF	JPN	Mizuki Uchida (on loan from Machida Zelvia)
89	MF	HKG	Au Yeung Yiu Chung
99	DF	JPN	Takumi Narasaka (on loan from Machida Zelvia)

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
—	FW	JPN	Ryohei Torigai (at FC.AWJ)

Coaching staff

Position	Name
Manager	Atsushi Yoneyama
Assistant manager	Keita Ishiharada Ryohei Saito
Goalkeeper coach	Kenta Shimizu
Physical coach	Bansaku Igarashi
Chief trainer	Michiru Soeda
Trainer	Tomonori Kobayashi
Side manager	Shotaro Nonaka Daichi Chida

Managerial history

Manager	Nationality	Tenure
Manager	Nationality	Start	Finish
Masashi Hachuda	Japan	1 February 2008	31 January 2010
Makoto Kitano	Japan	1 February 2010	31 January 2019
Kenichi Uemura	Japan	1 February 2019	31 January 2020
Kazuhito Mochizuki	Japan	1 February 2020	31 January 2021
Nobuyuki Uenoyama	Japan	1 February 2021	31 March 2021
Toshihiro Nishimura	Japan	1 April 2021	11 April 2021
Zdravko Zemunović	Serbia	12 April 2021	31 January 2022
Toshihiro Nishimura	Japan	1 February 2022	31 January 2023
Atsushi Yoneyama	Japan	1 February 2023	present