Kashiwa Reysol

Professional Japanese club based in Kashiwa, in Chiba Prefecture, one of the founders of the professional era of the J.League after years as a corporate team of Hitachi.

History

The club was born in 1940 as a football team of the Hitachi company, competing in amateur competitions for decades until professionalization. With the creation of the J.League in the 1990s, the team was renamed Kashiwa Reysol, a name that combines 'Sol' (sun, in Spanish) and 'Leon' (lion), referring to the yellow and black colors of the shield. The team went up and down between the first and second divisions of the Japanese league on various occasions throughout the 2000s. In 2011, it surprised Japanese football by winning the J.League 1 title shortly after promotion, a rare feat in the country. In the following years, Reysol consolidated itself as a competitive mid-to-upper table team, with good campaigns in continental and national competitions.