Giravanz Kitakyushu

Giravanz Kitakyushu (ギラヴァンツ北九州, Giravantsu Kitakyūshū) is a Japanese football club based in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture. They currently play in J3 League, Japanese third tier of professional league football.

Giravanz Kitakyushu
ギラヴァンツ北九州

Full name	Giravanz Kitakyushu
Nickname(s)	Giravanz, Kita-Q
Founded	1947; 78 years ago (1947)[1]
Stadium	Mikuni World Stadium Kitakyushu Kokurakita-ku, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture
Capacity	15,300
Chairman	Yukito Tamai
Manager	Kohei Masumoto
League	J3 League
2024	J3 League, 7th of 20
Website	giravanz.jp
Home colours Away colours
Current season

History

Mitsubishi Chemical SC (1947–2000)

The club was formed in 1947 as part of Mitsubishi Chemical's Kurosaki factory. The club was a founding member of Kyushu regional league since 1973. Most of its career was spent in the regional and prefectural leagues, as Kitakyushu was represented in the Japan Soccer League by Yahata Steel F.C. Yahata was a founding member of the JSL in 1965, and finished as runner-up in its first two seasons in that league. Yahata was renamed New Nippon Steel F.C. in 1970, when Yahata Steel merged with Fuji Steel to form (New) Nippon Steel. It ultimately was relegated to the Second Division in 1982, then relegated from the Second Division to Kyushu regional league after 1990–91 season, and closed in 1999.

New Wave Kitakyushu (2001–2009)

In 2001, the club became a community-oriented club (New Wave) Kitakyushu F.C.

In 2007 New Wave took second place in the Regional League promotion series, and was promoted to the JFL for the 2008 season.

The club applied for J. League Associate Membership in January 2008, and the application was accepted at the J. League board meeting on February 19, 2008.

On 1 April 2009, the club made an announcement that they would be accepting suggestions for a new name. This was because the name "New Wave" may cause trademark or tradename disputes.^[2] Therefore, the new name had to be something not yet registered as a trademark.

Giravanz Kitakyushu (2010–present)

On 2 October 2009, they announced that the new club name for the 2010 season would be Giravanz Kitakyushu (ギラヴァンツ北九州, Giravantsu Kitakyūshū). According to the official news release, the name "Giravanz" is coined from two Italian words: "Girasole", which means "sunflower", and "Avanzare", which means "moving forward".^[3] (The sunflower is one of Kitakyushu's symbol flowers.)

On 23 November 2009, after a 2–1 win away against Arte Takasaki, Kitakyushu secured a top four position in the JFL for the 2009 season. They played in J. League Division 2 from 2010-2016.^[4][5][6]

In its inaugural year in the pro ranks, despite attaining a large number of draw matches, Kitakyushu set new records for fewest wins and points in the season standings. After coming in last in the 2018 J3 League season, they named Shinji Kobayashi as the new manager and Sports Director. In 2019, Kobayashi led a turnaround; the club became league champions and were promoted to the 2020 J2 League. They finished 5th in 2020. At the end of the 2021 season, they were relegated to the J3 League, becoming the first J.League club relegated to the J3 League a second time. They finished 13th in 2022, and finished last in 2023. The 2023 season was the first J3 season to have relegation to the JFL, but Kitakyushu avoided it because both Honda FC and Briobecca Urayasu, the respective champions and runners-up of the JFL that season, did not have the necessary license for promotion. In 2024, Kitakyushu finished seventh, missing qualification to the playoffs by two points. The 2025 J3 season was the last season played on a calendar year format.

Stadium

Giravanz played in the Honjo Athletic Stadium from 2010 until 2016.

Giravanz moved to the Mikuni World Stadium Kitakyushu, for the 2017 season.

League and cup record

Champions

Runners-up

Third place

Promoted

Relegated

League														J. League Cup	Emperor's Cup
Season	Div.	Tier	Teams	Pos.	P	W (PKW)	D	L (PKL)	F	A	GD	Pts	Attendance/G
New Wave Kitakyushu
2003	Kyushu Soccer League	4	12	4th	22	12 (1)	-	5 (4)	65	46	19	42	-	Not eligible	–
2004			10	6th	18	9 (0)	-	8 (1)	41	39	2	28	-		Did not qualify
2005			10	6th	18	10 (0)	-	5 (3)	51	30	21	33	-
2006			9	3rd	16	11 (1)	-	3 (1)	45	23	22	36	-
2007			11	1st	20	17 (1)	-	1 (1)	53	7	46	54	-
2008	JFL	3	18	10th	34	13	10	11	49	48	1	49	1,149		3rd round
2009			18	4th	34	16	10	8	49	31	18	58	3,411		1st round
Giravanz Kitakyushu
2010	J2	2	19	19th	36	1	12	28	20	65	-45	15	4,189	Not eligible	3rd round
2011			20	8th	38	16	10	12	45	46	-1	58	4,051		3rd round
2012			22	9th	42	19	7	16	53	47	6	64	3,346		2nd round
2013			22	16th	42	13	10	19	50	60	-10	49	3,175		3rd round
2014			22	5th	42	18	11	13	50	50	0	65	3,622		Quarter finals
2015			22	7th	42	18	5	19	59	58	1	59	3,488		2nd round
2016			22	22nd	42	8	14	20	43	64	-21	38	3,224		2nd round
2017	J3	3	17	9th	32	13	7	12	44	37	7	46	5,939		2nd round
2018			17	17th	32	6	9	17	22	42	-20	27	4,501		Did not qualify
2019			18	1st	34	19	9	6	51	27	24	66	6,049		2nd round
2020 †	J2	2	22	5th	42	19	8	15	59	51	8	65	3,352		Did not qualify
2021 †			22	21st	42	7	14	21	35	66	-31	35	2,974		2nd round
2022	J3	3	18	13th	34	11	7	16	41	45	-4	40	3,613		1st round
2023			20	20th	38	7	10	21	33	45	-12	31	3,857		2nd round
2024			20	7th	38	15	11	12	41	39	2	56	4,649	2nd round	2nd round
2025			20	TBD	38									2nd round	TBD

Key

• Pos. = Position in league; P = Games played; W = Games won; D = Games drawn; L = Games lost; F = Goals scored; A = Goals conceded; GD = Goal Difference; Pts = Points gained
• Attendance/G = Average home league attendance.
• † 2020 & 2021 seasons attendances reduced by COVID-19 worldwide pandemic.
• Source: J. League Data Site.^[7]

Honours

Giravanz Kitakyushu Honours

Honour	No.	Years
Kyushu Soccer League	8	1973, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1989, 2007
Fukuoka Prefectural Football Championship Emperor's Cup Fukuoka Prefectural Qualifiers	6	2017, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
J3 League	1	2019

Players

Current squad

As of 29 August 2025.^[8]

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  JPN Go Ito 4 DF  JPN Koki Hasegawa 6 MF  JPN Kota Hoshi 7 MF  JPN Ryuki Hirahara 8 MF  JPN Yamato Machida 9 FW  JPN Shuntaro Kawabe 10 FW  JPN Ryo Nagai 11 MF  JPN Kohei Kiyama 13 DF  JPN Renta Higashi (on loan from FC Tokyo) 14 MF  JPN Haruki Izawa (captain) 17 MF  JPN Rimpei Okano 18 FW  JPN Sota Watanabe 19 FW  JPN Futo Yoshihara 20 MF  JPN Asahi Yada 21 MF  JPN Taku Ushinohama 22 DF  JPN Kaoru Yamawaki 24 FW  JPN Mahiro Yoshinaga (on loan from Júbilo Iwata) 25 FW  JPN Raiki Tsubogo

No. Pos. Nation Player 27 GK  JPN Yuya Tanaka 28 MF  JPN Kaito Konomi (on loan from Cerezo Osaka) 29 FW  KOR Koh Seung-jin 31 GK  JPN Koki Otani 32 MF  JPN Fumiya Takayanagi (on loan from RB Omiya Ardija) 34 MF  JPN Shoma Takayoshi 37 FW  JPN Kosei Yoshida DSP 39 GK  JPN Rissei Taniguchi 41 GK  JPN Mitsuki Sugimoto (on loan from Júbilo Iwata) 42 DF  JPN Tsukasa Sera 44 DF  JPN Yuma Tsujioka (on loan from Iwaki FC) 49 FW  JPN Naoya Komazawa (on loan from Yokohama FC) 50 DF  JPN Koji Sugiyama 51 MF  JPN Yutaro Sakashita Type 2 66 MF  JPN Daigo Takahashi (on loan from Machida Zelvia) 47 DF  JPN Ryota Maeda DSP 99 FW  JPN Ryosuke Kabayama (on loan from Sagan Tosu)

Out on loan

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 3 DF  JPN Shinnosuke Ito (at Fukuyama City) 5 DF  JPN Takeaki Hommura (at Tokyo 23 FC)

No. Pos. Nation Player 23 DF  JPN Kakeru Sakamoto (at FC Osaka) 25 FW  JPN Raiki Tsubogo (at Belugarosso Iwami)

Coaching staff

Position	Name
Manager	Kohei Masumoto
Assistant manager	Norichika Kanemura
First-team coach	Yusuke Sudo
Goalkeeper coach	Shuto Yoshikawa
Physical coach	Gakuya Tatsuta
Trainer	Tatsuya Murakoshi Shinichi Todake Yuji Nakamura
Side managers	Tetsuya Tsuda Riku Namihira

Managerial history

Manager	Nationality	Tenure
		Start	Finish
Yoshinori Sembiki	Japan	1 February 2005	31 January 2007
George Yonashiro	Japan	1 February 2007	31 January 2011
Yasutoshi Miura	Japan	1 February 2011	31 January 2013
Kōichi Hashiratani	Japan	1 February 2013	31 January 2017
Takeo Harada	Japan	1 February 2017	31 January 2018
Hitoshi Morishita	Japan	1 February 2018	17 June 2018
Tetsuji Hashiratani	Japan	20 June 2018	31 January 2019
Shinji Kobayashi	Japan	1 February 2019	31 January 2022
Kenichi Amano	Japan	1 February 2022	31 January 2023
Kazuaki Tasaka	Japan	1 February 2023	5 September 2023
Shinji Kobayashi	Japan	6 September 2023	Current

Colour, sponsors and manufacturers

Season(s)	Main Shirt Sponsor	Collarbone Sponsor		Additional Sponsor(s)				Kit Manufacturer
2020	TOTO	-	-	Yaskawa	-	Nafco	Zenrin	Penalty
2021	Yaskawa	WingArc1st		TOTO	Aso Group
2022		WingArc1st	dejiren
2023

Kit evolution

Home kit - 1st
2010 - 2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
2022	2023	2024	2025 -

Away kit - 2nd
2010 - 2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
2022	2023	2024	2025 -