Giravanz Kitakyushu
ギラヴァンツ北九州
Full nameGiravanz Kitakyushu
Nickname(s)Giravanz, Kita-Q
Founded1947 (1947)[1]
StadiumMikuni World Stadium Kitakyushu
Kokurakita-ku, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture
Capacity15,300
ChairmanYukito Tamai
ManagerShinji Kobayashi
LeagueJ3 League
2023J3 League, 20th of 20
WebsiteClub website

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, Japan's 3rd tier of professional league football.

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–)

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, regardless of the result at the final week of 2009 JFL. This means they will play in J. League Division 2 for the 2010 season, something which was confirmed by the J.League board meeting on 30 November 2009.[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 several seasons in J2 League, on 20 November 2016 they suffered their first relegation to J3 League.

After the 2018 J3 League season when they eventually ranked bottom, they named Shinji Kobayashi as the new manager, who also took a role as the newly-established Sports Director position concurrently. In 2019 J3 League, Kobayashi led the club to become the champions & promoted to the 2020 J2 League. Although they are successful enough as far as ranked top at the end of the first half, and eventually ranked 5th at the end of the 2020 season, they had a dozen of key players, including Akira Silvano Disaro who scored 18 goals in 2020 season, transferred to other clubs after the season. In 2021, they have ranked at or near the bottom for the entire season, which resulted in suffering relegation to the 2022 J3 League, becoming the first J.-League club relegated to the J3 League a second time. The club played its 2nd consecutive season in the J3 on 2023, in which they ranked the bottom second time after 2018, although they were not relegated to the Japan Football League (JFL) as both Honda FC and Briobecca Urayasu, champions and runners-up of 2023 JFL, have not applied for J3 license, thus were not eligible to promote to the J3 League.

Stadium

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

Giravanz moved to the Mikuni World Stadium Kitakyushu, having played at there since 2017.

League and cup record

Champions Runners-up Third place Promoted Relegated
League J. League Cup Emperor's
Cup
SeasonDiv.TierTeamsPos.PW (PKW)DL (PKL)FAGDPtsAttendance/G
New Wave Kitakyushu
2003 Kyushu
Soccer
League		4124th2212 (1)-5 (4)65461942-Not eligible–
2004 106th189 (0)-8 (1)4139228-Did not qualify
2005 106th1810 (0)-5 (3)51302133-
2006 93rd1611 (1)-3 (1)45232236-
2007 111st2017 (1)-1 (1)5374654-
2008 JFL31810th3413101149481491,1493rd round
2009 184th3416108493118583,4111st round
Giravanz Kitakyushu
2010 J221919th36112282065-45154,189Not eligible3rd round
2011 208th381610124546-1584,0513rd round
2012 229th421971653476643,3462nd round
2013 2216th421310195060-10493,1753rd round
2014 225th4218111350500653,622Quarter finals
2015 227th421851959581593,4882nd round
2016 2222nd42814204364-21383,2242nd round
2017 J33179th321371244377465,9392nd round
2018 1717th3269172242-20274,501Did not qualify
2019 181st341996512724666,0492nd round
2020 † J22225th421981559518653,352Did not qualify
2021 † 2221st42714213566-31352,9742nd round
2022 J331813th34117164145-4403,6131st round
2023 2020th38710213345-12313,8572nd round
2024 20TBD38TBC
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

Championship winners
Honour No. Years
Kyushu Soccer League 8 1973, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1989, 2007
J3 League 1 2019

Current squad

As of 23 August 2023.[8][9]

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 Japan JPN Kenshin Yoshimaru
5 DF Japan JPN Takeaki Hommura
6 DF Japan JPN Kota Muramatsu (on loan from V-Varen Nagasaki)
7 FW Japan JPN Yosuke Kamigata
8 MF Japan JPN Taiga Maekawa
9 FW Japan JPN Shun Hirayama
10 MF Japan JPN Yuki Okada
11 MF Japan JPN Yudai Nagano
13 MF Japan JPN Nobuki Iketaka
14 MF Japan JPN Haruki Izawa
15 MF Japan JPN Takumi Wakaya
16 MF Japan JPN Ryuki Hirahara
17 MF Japan JPN Rinpei Okano
18 FW Japan JPN Yuki Nakayama
19 MF Japan JPN Bunta Ino
20 DF Japan JPN Koki Hasegawa
No. Pos. Nation Player
21 GK Japan JPN Daiki Goto
22 DF Japan JPN Kaoru Yamawaki
24 DF Japan JPN Hiroki Maeda
25 FW Japan JPN Raiki Tsubogo
26 DF Japan JPN Ryosuke Tada
27 GK Japan JPN Yuya Tanaka
28 DF Japan JPN Takaya Inui
29 FW Japan JPN Koh Seung-jin
31 FW Nigeria NGA Ikechukwu Eboko
32 GK Japan JPN Yuki Kato (On loan from Omiya Ardija)
33 DF Japan JPN Yusuke Oishi
34 MF Japan JPN Shoma Takayoshi
39 FW Brazil BRA Eduardo Melo (on loan from Criciúma)
41 MF Japan JPN Ryusei Nose
46 MF Nigeria NGA Mikel Agu

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
3 DF Japan JPN Shinnosuke Ito (at Fukuyama City)

Coaching staff

For the 2023 season.

PositionName
Manager Japan Shinji Kobayashi
Assistant manager Japan Hiroaki Nagashima
First-team coach Japan Takuma Deguchi
Goalkeeper coach Japan Tomoaki Ogami
Physical coach Japan Shojiro Ida
Trainer Japan Tatsuya Murakoshi
Japan Shinichi Todake
Japan Yuji Nakamura
Japan Kenichi Nasu
Manager Japan Tetsuya Tsuda
Japan Riku Namihira

Managerial history

ManagerNationalityTenure
StartFinish
Yoshinori Sembiki Japan1 February 200531 January 2007
George Yonashiro Japan1 February 200731 January 2011
Yasutoshi Miura Japan1 February 201131 January 2013
Kōichi Hashiratani Japan1 February 201331 January 2017
Takeo Harada Japan1 February 201731 January 2018
Hitoshi Morishita Japan1 February 201817 June 2018
Tetsuji Hashiratani Japan20 June 201831 January 2019
Shinji Kobayashi Japan1 February 201931 January 2022
Kenichi Amano Japan1 February 202231 January 2023
Kazuaki Tasaka Japan1 February 20235 September 2023
Shinji Kobayashi Japan6 September 2023Current

Colour, sponsors and manufacturers

Season(s)Main Shirt SponsorCollarbone SponsorAdditional Sponsor(s)Kit Manufacturer
2020TOTO--Yaskawa-NafcoZenrinPenalty
2021YaskawaWingArc1stTOTOAso Group
2022WingArc1stdejiren
2023

Kit evolution

Home kit - 1st
2010 - 2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023 -
Away kit - 2nd
2010 - 2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023 -

References

  1. ↑ Club Profile
  2. ↑ Official website (Japanese only)
  3. ↑ Announcement of the new team name and its emblem (新チーム名称・エンブレム発表) Archived 2009-10-07 at the Wayback Machine New Wave Kitakyushu official website news release : dated 2 October 2009
  4. ↑ Official website (Japanese only) Archived 2009-12-03 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ "J's GOAL | オフィシャルニュース | ニューウェーブ北九州がＪリーグ入会". Archived from the original on 2009-12-04. Retrieved 2009-11-30. J's Goal Website (Japanese only)
  6. ↑ http://www.tvq.co.jp/news/news.php?did=5162
  7. ↑ "J. League Data Site". J. League. Retrieved February 21, 2021.
  8. ↑ "2023シーズン 選手背番号のお知らせ". Giravanz Kitakyushu. Retrieved 12 January 2023.
  9. ↑ "Players & Staff選手・スタッフ". Giravanz Kitakyushu. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
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