Sagan Tosu

Sagan Tosu (サガン鳥栖, Sagan Tosu) is a Japanese professional football club based in Tosu, Saga Prefecture. The club plays in the J2 League, the second tier of Japanese football, since 2025 following relegation from the J1 League in 2024.

Sagan Tosu
サガン鳥栖

Full name	Sagan Tosu Football Club
Nickname(s)	Sagan
Founded	1997; 28 years ago (1997)
Stadium	Ekimae Real Estate Stadium Tosu, Saga
Capacity	24,130
Chairman	Minoru Takehara
Manager	Akio Kogiku
League	J2 League
2024	J1 League, 20th of 20 (relegated)
Website	sagan-tosu.net
Home colours Away colours
Current season

Sagan is a coined word with various suggested ideas behind where the name came from. One of its homophones is sandstone (砂岩, sagan) in Japanese. This symbolises many small elements uniting to form one formidable object, for example as a metaphor for a team. Also, Sagan Tosu can be interpreted as "Tosu of Saga (Prefecture)" (佐賀ん鳥栖, Saga-n Tosu) in the area's dialect.

History

In February 1997, Sagan was established as a new club which virtually took over Tosu Futures, which became insolvent in the previous month. They were admitted to participate in the Japan Football League from 1997 to 1998, as well as the J. League Cup in 1997 as a preferential measure, although J. League Associate Membership status was not awarded to Sagan. In 1999 they were admitted to the new J. League Division 2 (J2) as one of the "Original Ten," which were the ten first members of the J2. They remained at that league until their promotion to J1 at the end of the 2011 season. Little by little, Sagan Tosu started to establish itself as one of the top clubs in the country with the new President & Chief Operating Officer Minoru Takehara, who is also part owner of the club.^[1]

In their first season at the J1 League in 2012, confounding the prediction of many critics about their immediate relegation to J2, they maintained their position between 5th and 11th place all the way through the season, except on matchweek 2, in which they were ranked 13th. They were ranked third after the 33rd week, having a chance to qualify for the 2013 AFC Champions League if they hadn't lost to Yokohama F. Marinos in the last match of the season. However, they only lost to Yokohama by 0–1, wrapping up the season in 5th place, while Urawa Red Diamonds defeated Nagoya Grampus and were ranked 3rd. They also became the first club in Asia to sign a partnership with Warrior Sports,^[2] who sponsor many overseas clubs, including English side Liverpool.

In 2013, they made it to the semi-finals of the Emperor's Cup for the first time in the club's history, becoming the first club based in Kyushu to make it to the semi-finals of the Emperor's Cup since Nippon Steel Yawata had done so in the 1981 edition. In 2013, they invited the A-League team Sydney FC along with the former Italian international player Alessandro Del Piero for a Japan Tour for the first time.^[3]

In 2014, the club had their most successful season in the J1 League, being ranked on the top of the 2014 J1 League on the 1st, 2nd, 13th, and 18th matchweek. However, the club suddenly made an announcement on the 8th of August which announced the termination of the contract with the head coach Yoon Jung-Hwan, despite the apparently good season.^[4] During the course of the year, they continued on their international expansion and started a partnership with the Italian side Juventus for its Juventus Under-16 Japan Tour 2014.^[5] On 10 July 2018, the club reached an agreement with former FIFA World Cup, UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League winner, Fernando Torres. The aging star would play 35 games for the side, netting 5 goals before finally hanging up his boots on his star-studded career.

On 19 October 2024, Sagan Tosu officially relegated to J2 League after defeat from Kyoto Sanga 2-0 and return to second tier after 13 years absence with four games left, ended in top tier at 13 years stint.

Kit and colours

Kit evolution

Home kits
1999–2000	2001–2002	2003–2004	2005	2006–2007
2008–2010	2011–2012	2013	2014	2015
2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
2021	2022	2023	2024	2025

Away kits
1999–2000	2001–2002	2003–2004	2005	2006–2007
2008–2010	2011–2012	2013	2014	2015
2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
2021	2022	2023	2024	2025

Alternative kits
2013 Summer Carnival	2014 Falcon Festival Commemoration	2015 Commemoration	2015 Hawk Festival Memorial	2016 Ladies Day
2016 Hawk Festival Memorial	2017 Ladies' Day	2017 Hawk Festival Memorial	2017 20th Anniversary	2018 Ladies' Day
2018 Hawk Festival Memorial	2018 DAZN Day	2019 Ladies' Day	2019 Falcon Festival Commemoration	2019 F. Torres retirement game commemoration
2019 F. Torres Retirement Match	2022 25th Anniversary

Current squad

As of 7 August 2025.^[6]

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 2 MF  JPN Nagi Matsumoto (on loan from Cerezo Osaka) 4 DF  JPN Yuta Imazu 5 DF  JPN Shiva Tafari Nagasawa 7 MF  JPN Haruki Arai 8 MF  JPN Yoshiki Narahara 9 FW  BRA Jô 10 MF  JPN Fuchi Honda 11 FW  JPN Jun Nishikawa (on loan from Cerezo Osaka) 12 GK  JPN Ryota Izumori 13 DF  JPN Taisei Inoue 14 FW  JPN Keisuke Sakaiya 15 FW  JPN Noriyoshi Sakai 16 MF  JPN Kenta Nishizawa 18 MF  JPN Shota Hino 19 FW  JPN Daichi Suzuki 20 MF  BRA Cristiano 21 GK  KOR Lee Yun-sung

No. Pos. Nation Player 22 MF  JPN Eitarō Matsuda (on loan from Yokohama F. Marinos) 23 DF  JPN Fumiya Kitajima 26 DF  JPN Toshiki Ando 27 MF  JPN Tatsunori Sakurai (on loan from Vissel Kobe) 30 DF  JPN Yasuki Kimoto (on loan from FC Tokyo) 32 DF  JPN Sora Ogawa 33 MF  JPN Kento Nishiya 34 FW  JPN Hiroto Yamada 35 GK  JPN Kei Uchiyama 37 DF  JPN Reiya Morishita 44 MF  JPN Yuki Horigome 45 MF  JPN Aitaro Higashiguchi Type 2 46 GK  JPN Ibuki Vincent Junior Ejike Type 2 47 FW  JPN Shion Shinkawa Type 2 48 DF  JPN Yuya Kuroki Type 2 77 MF  LTU Vykintas Slivka 91 DF  JPN Makito Uehara

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 1 GK  ESP Arnau Riera (at Kochi United) 3 DF  JPN Dai Hirase (at FC Gifu) 25 MF  JPN Ryohei Watanabe (at Azul Claro Numazu) — GK  KOR Koh Bong-jo (at Kataller Toyama) — DF  JPN Koma Osato (at ReinMeer Aomori)

No. Pos. Nation Player — DF  JPN Ryotaro Takeuchi (at Criacao Shinjuku) — MF  JPN Hikaru Nakahara (at Shimizu S-Pulse) — MF  JPN Shunya Sakai (at Tegevajaro Miyazaki) — FW  JPN Ryonosuke Kabayama (at Giravanz Kitakyushu) — FW  BRA Marcelo Ryan (at FC Tokyo)

Retired number

• 17 Sakata Michitaka – A former professor of Saga University and the person which backed up in both the establishment of Tosu Futures and the team's revival as Sagan Tosu. He died due to kidney cancer on 7 January 2000. The number 17 indicates his day of death.

Club officials

Club official for 2025 season.

Role	Name
Manager	Akio Kogiku
Assistant manager	Naoya Kikuchi
Coaches	Yuzuru Suwabe Naoyuki Iwata Yoshizumi Ogawa Cho Dong-geon
Goalkeeping coach	Takuya Muro
Physical coach	Tadashi Noda
Analyst	Shota Tamaki Yutaro Hamada
Chief trainer	Toru Kawaguchi
Athletic trainer	Atsushi Shiga
Trainer	Daisuke Adachi Masahiro Hirano Masashi Maeda
Interpreter	Alesso Mariani Lee Kang-haeng Naoto Muramatsu Ryuki Yamamoto
Competent	Yoshito Tsuichihara
Deputy officer	Naoki Egawa Ayaki Goto
Equipment manager	Yoshiki Sugimoto
Chief doctor	Kyota Nishifuru

Managerial history

Manager	Nationality	Tenure
		Start	Finish
Takashi Kuwahara	Japan	1 February 1993	31 January 1995
Hiroshi Sowa		1 February 1997	31 January 2000
Kazuhiro Kōso		1 February 2000	31 January 2002
Hiroshi Soejima		1 February 2002	31 January 2003
Yoshinori Sembiki		1 February 2003	31 January 2004
Ikuo Matsumoto		1 February 2004	31 January 2007
Yasuyuki Kishino		1 February 2007	31 January 2010
Ikuo Matsumoto		1 February 2010	31 January 2011
Yun Jeong-hwan	South Korea	1 February 2011	7 August 2014
Megumu Yoshida	Japan	8 August 2014	31 January 2015
Hitoshi Morishita		1 February 2015	31 January 2016
Massimo Ficcadenti	Italy	1 February 2016	18 October 2018
Kim Myung-hwi	South Korea	19 October 2018	31 January 2019
Luis Carreras	Spain	1 February 2019	4 May 2019
Kim Myung-hwi	South Korea	4 May 2019	20 December 2021
Kenta Kawai	Japan	1 February 2022	8 August 2024
Kosuke Kitani		9 August 2024	present

League & cup record

Champions

Runners-up

Third place

Promoted

Relegated

League													J. League Cup	Emperor's Cup
Season	Division	Teams	Position	Plays	W (OTW/PKW)	D	L (OTL/PKL)	F	A	GD	Pts	Attendance/G
1997	JFL	16	11th	30	12 (1/0)	–	17	38	54	–16	38	—	Not eligible	3rd round
1998			8th	30	11 (3)		16	40	55	–15	39
1999	J2	10	8th	36	11 (1)	2	20 (2)	52	64	–12	37	3,385	1st round
2000		11	6th	40	13 (2)	5	15 (5)	41	52	–11	48	3,714	1st round
2001		12	10th	44	8 (2)	4	28 (2)	45	82	–37	32	3,479	1st round	Round of 16
2002			9th	44	9	14	21	41	64	–23	41	3,890	Not eligible	3rd round
2003			12th	44	3	11	30	40	89	–49	20	3,172		1st round
2004			11th	44	8	11	25	32	66	–34	35	3,610		4th round
2005			8th	44	14	10	20	58	58	0	52	7,855
2006		13	4th	48	22	13	13	64	49	15	79	7,465
2007			8th	48	21	9	18	63	66	–3	72	6,114		Round of 16
2008		15	6th	42	19	7	16	50	51	–1	64	7,261		Quarter-finals
2009		18	5th	51	25	13	13	71	51	20	88	5,939		Round of 16
2010		19	9th	36	13	12	11	42	41	1	51	6,633		3rd round
2011		20	2nd	38	19	12	7	68	34	34	69	7,731		2nd round
2012	J1	18	5th	34	15	8	11	48	39	9	53	11,991	Group stage
2013			12th	34	13	7	14	54	63	–9	46	11,515	Group stage	Semi-finals
2014			5th	34	19	3	12	41	33	8	60	14,137	Group stage	Round of 16
2015			11th	34	9	13	12	37	54	–17	40	13,450	Group stage	Quarter-finals
2016				34	12	10	12	36	37	–1	46	12,636	Group stage	Round of 16
2017			8th	34	13	8	13	41	44	–3	47	14,194	Group stage	3rd round
2018			14th	34	10	11	13	29	34	–5	41	15,000	Group stage	Quarter-finals
2019			15th	34	10	6	18	32	53	–21	36	15,050	Group stage
2020 †			13th	34	7	15	12	37	43	–6	36	4,675	Group stage	Did not qualify
2021 †			7th	38	16	11	11	53	35	8	59	7,276	Group stage	Round of 16
2022			11th	34	9	15	10	45	44	1	42	9,358	Group stage	Round of 16
2023			14th	34	9	11	14	43	47	–4	38	10,230	Group stage	3rd round
2024		20	20th	38	10	5	23	48	68	–20	35	9,800	Group stage (9)	Round of 16
2025	J2		TBD	38									1st 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 = Goals difference; Pts = Points gained
• Attendance/G = Average home league attendance
• OTW / PKW = Overtime wins / Penalty kicks wins 1997 & 1998 seasons – 1999, 2000, 2001 & 2002 Overtime wins only
• OTL / PKL = Overtime losses / Penalty kicks losses 1997 and 1998 seasons – 1999, 2000 & 2001 Overtime losses only
• † 2020 & 2021 seasons attendances were reduced by COVID-19 worldwide pandemic
• Source: J.League Data Site