Vegalta Sendai

Vegalta Sendai (ベガルタ仙台) is a Japanese professional football club based in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. They currently play in J2 League, the Japanese second tier of professional football.

History
Founded in 1988 as Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc. Soccer Club, Vegalta joined the J-League in 1999 after playing a few years in the JFL, with the nickname Brummell Sendai, to which they had been promoted in 1995 from the Tohoku Regional League. When joining the J-League, the name Vegalta was chosen as a homage to the famous Tanabata festival in Sendai. The names of the two celestial stars of the Tanabata legend, Vega and Altair were combined to form Vegalta.

They were first promoted to the top flight in 2002, but the team went back down the following season. They were promoted again for the 2010 season.

In 2011, despite the earthquake and tsunami, they achieved their highest position up to that time, 4th place in the top division.

In 2012, despite leading the table for most of the season, Sanfrecce Hiroshima's challenge proved too strong, and losing the penultimate week game to relegation battler Albirex Niigata cost them the title, rendering them second-place winners, their highest position in history.

In 2018, the Vegalta reached vice place in the Emperor's Cup, losing the cup to the Urawa Reds.

After twelve years spent at the J1 League, Vegalta returned to the J2 on 2022, after being relegated from the J1 on 2021. After finishing on 7th place at the 2022 J2 League, the club was not able to even play the promotion play-offs. Vegalta will play then, their 2nd consecutive season in the J2 on 2023. Ryang Yong-gi, a symbol of Sendai, retired at the end of the 2023 season.

From 2024, Yoshiro Moriyama, who has a track record of developing players in Sanfrecce Hiroshima's training age group and the U17 Japan National Team, will be appointed as Manager.

Stadium
Their home stadium is Yurtec Stadium Sendai, in Izumi-ku, Sendai, although a few home games have also been played at nearby Miyagi Stadium.

Sendai Stadium ranks among the top stadiums in Japan for its presence, comfort, and accessibility, and was once ranked second in an evaluation by a famous Japanese football media. It was also used by the Italian national football team as their basecamp during the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

Miyagi Stadium is famous for the Japan national team, and for hosting matches of the Argentine national team in the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

Supporters and rivalries
As with most football clubs, fans in Sendai sing and dance during matches. However, most of the songs used by fans from other clubs are avoided due to the more eclectic set. Club themes sung before each game are Take Me Home, Country Roads, and during the game. Toy Dolls, Blitzkrieg Bop and other KISS and Twisted Sister.

Since Sendai is the hometown of Hirohiko Araki, who wrote JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, fans often wave flags with the same motifs of characters portrayed in Araki's manga.

Michinoku Derby
Vegalta's traditional rivals are Montedio Yamagata from Yamagata Prefecture. The two have been rivals since meeting in the Tohoku Football League in 1991. Among the Tohoku derbies, this match is famous as the Michinoku derby.

Tohoku Derby
This is the derby played by the Tohoku region teams, currently the most important match is that of Vegalta Sendai and Montedio Yamagata. Other teams included in this classic include Blaublitz Akita, Iwate Grulla Morioka, Iwaki FC.

League & cup record

 * 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 = Total home league attendance
 * † 2020 & 2021 seasons attendances reduced by COVID-19 worldwide pandemic
 * Source: J.League Data Site

Individual awards

 * J. League Best Eleven
 * 🇧🇷 Wilson: 2012
 * Valuable Player Award
 * 🇯🇵 Takuto Hayashi 🇯🇵 Makoto Kakuda  🇯🇵 Jiro Kamata: 2011
 * 🇯🇵 Takuto Hayashi 🇯🇵 Taikai Uemoto  🇯🇵 Makoto Kakuda  🇯🇵 Jiro Kamata  🇯🇵 Naoki Sugai  🇰🇵 Ryang Yong-gi  🇯🇵 Shingo Akamine: 2012
 * 🇲🇿 Simão Mate: 2019
 * Individual Fair-Play award
 * 🇯🇵 Yuichi Nemoto: 2003
 * 🇰🇵 Ryang Yong-gi: 2011
 * J.League Monthly MVP
 * 🇯🇵 Shingo Akamine: 2014 (May)
 * 🇲🇿 Simão Mate: 2019 (June)
 * 🇯🇵 Ryoma Kida: 2022 (May)
 * Monthly Best Manager
 * 🇯🇵 Susumu Watanabe: 2019 (June)
 * 🇯🇵 Masato Harasaki: 2022 (May)
 * Monthly Best Goal
 * 🇰🇵 Ryang Yong-gi: 2015
 * 🇧🇷 Crislan: 2017
 * J.League Cup Award
 * 🇯🇵 Takuma Nishimura: 2017
 * TAG Heuer YOUNG GUNS Award
 * 🇯🇵 Takuma Nishimura: 2017
 * 🇯🇵 Ko Itakura: 2018
 * J.League Cup Top Scorer
 * 🇧🇷 Crislan: 2017
 * J2 League Top Scorer
 * 🇧🇷 Marcos: 2001
 * 🇧🇷 Borges: 2006
 * Meritorious Player Award
 * 🇯🇵 Norio Omura: 2009
 * 🇯🇵 Atsushi Yanagisawa: 2015
 * 🇯🇵 Hisato Satō: 2021
 * 🇯🇵 Makoto Kakuda, 🇯🇵 Naoki Ishihara, 🇯🇵 Yoshiki Takahashi: 2022
 * 🇯🇵 Shingo Tomita, 🇯🇵 Shingo Akamine: 2023

Current squad
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Notable players and coaches

 * 🇧🇷 Edmar 1995–1997
 * 🇩🇪 Pierre Littbarski 1996–1997
 * 🇩🇪 Frank Ordenewitz 1996
 * Branko Elsner 1997
 * 🇯🇵 Teruo Iwamoto 2001–2003
 * 🇯🇵 Hajime Moriyasu 2002–2003
 * Zdenko Verdenik 2003–2004
 * 🇰🇵 Ryang Yong-gi 2004–2019, 2022–2023
 * 🇲🇰 Goce Sedloski 2004
 * 🇧🇷 Joel Santana 2006
 * 🇧🇷 Thiago Neves 2006
 * 🇧🇷 Humberlito Borges 2006
 * 🇯🇵 Makoto Teguramori 2008–2013, 2021
 * 🇯🇵 Atsushi Yanagisawa 2011–2014
 * 🇦🇺 Graham Arnold 2014
 * 🇦🇺🇷🇸 Danny Vukovic 2014
 * 🇳🇿 Michael McGlinchey 2014
 * 🇯🇵 Daniel Schmidt 2014–2019
 * 🇯🇵 Takuma Nishimura 2015–2018, 2020–2021
 * 🇯🇵 Ko Itakura 2018
 * 🇲🇿 Simão Mate Junior 2019–2021

International convention

 * World Cup
 * 2018
 * 🇦🇺 Danny Vukovic (2014)
 * 2022
 * 🇯🇵 Daniel Schmidt (2014–2019)
 * 🇯🇵 Ko Itakura (2018)
 * 🇦🇺 Danny Vukovic


 * World Cup (Manager)
 * 2022
 * 🇯🇵 Hajime Moriyasu (2002–2003)
 * 🇦🇺 Graham Arnold (2014)


 * FIFA Confederations Cup
 * 2017
 * 🇦🇺 Danny Vukovic
 * 🇳🇿 Michael McGlinchey (2014)


 * AFC Asian Cup
 * 2011/2015
 * 🇰🇵 Ryang Yong-gi (2004–2019, 2022-)
 * 2019
 * 🇯🇵 Daniel Schmidt ※Runner up
 * 🇦🇺 Danny Vukovic


 * AFC Asian Cup (Manager)
 * 2019
 * 🇯🇵 Hajime Moriyasu
 * 🇦🇺 Graham Arnold


 * Copa América
 * 2019
 * 🇯🇵 Ko Itakura


 * OFC Nations Cup
 * 2016
 * 🇳🇿 Michael McGlinchey ※Winner


 * EAFF E-1 Football Championship
 * 2015
 * 🇯🇵 Yuji Rokutan (2015–2016)
 * 2022
 * 🇯🇵 Takuma Nishimura (2015–2018, 2020–2021)
 * 🇯🇵 Hajime Moriyasu ※Winner


 * Summer Olympics (U-23)
 * 2020
 * 🇯🇵 Ko Itakura


 * Summer Olympics (U-23 Manager)
 * 2016
 * 🇯🇵 Makoto Teguramori (Manager)
 * 2020
 * 🇦🇺 Graham Arnold


 * AFC U-23 Asian Cup
 * 2016
 * 🇯🇵 Makoto Teguramori ※Winner
 * 2020
 * 🇦🇺 Graham Arnold ※3rd place


 * Asian Games (U-23)
 * 2018
 * 🇯🇵 Ko Itakura ※Runner up


 * Asian Games (U-23 Manager)
 * 2014
 * 🇯🇵 Makoto Teguramori


 * Toulon Tournament (U-22)
 * 2019
 * 🇯🇵 Keiya Shiihashi (2016–2020) ※Runner up,Best XI


 * FIFA U-20 World Cup (Manager)
 * 2023
 * 🇰🇷 Kim Eun-jung (2003)

Club staff
For the 2024 season.

Mascot

 * VEGATTA (Brother)
 * He has won "the J League mascot general election" many times and is quite popular.
 * The eagle, which is also used in the club emblem as a symbol of victory in Greek mythology, is associated with the Aquila constellation, to which Hikoboshi (Altair) belongs, which is the origin of the club's name. The name was decided by public submission. Vegatta's SNS (BLOG, Twitter), which is updated daily, is loved and popular among soccer fans in Japan, as the mascot loves mischief, and is by some fans, hard to believe it is a mascot.
 * LTAANA (Sister)
 * From the Sendai summer tradition "Sendai Tanabata", which is the origin of the team name, "Luta" for Vega (Orihime) and Altair (Hikoboshi), and "Tana" for Tanabata, it was named as a girlish name by combining "na", on a 7 August, which is the date of the event and the birthday. Sometimes she tweet with [#ルターナ] (LTAANA written phonetically on Katakana) on Sendai's official Twitter.
 * When Vegalta wins any match, she expresses her joy on Twitter.

Cheerleaders

 * The Vegalta Cheerleaders mainly support "Vegalta Sendai", participate in many events, and continue to work as a cheering group for people who are doing their best in the area. She has the longest history as a cheerleader for a professional sports team in Sendai, and has been active since 2003.

Best Match
① and ② were selected as "that game I want to see again" on the J League official YouTube channel, and 2 was also selected as "10 Best Matches" by J Chronicle Best. ② was also selected as the "Best Match" of the J30 Best Awards.

J Chronicle Best
This is a project to select the J.League "Best Eleven", "Best Goal" and "Best Match" over the past 20 years. A project held in 2013 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Japan Professional Soccer League. The mentioned two game is often featured as a legendary game in each media.

J30 BEST AWARDS
A project to select the "MVP", "Best Eleven", "Best Goal", "Best Match", and "Best Scene" of the J League over the past 30 years. An award hosted by the J.League to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the J.League in 2023.

Even in "Soccer Digest" (Japan's famous football media),the two were selected as "the best 3 selected J.League matches" by the reporter in charge of Sendai. Sendai's Yoshiaki Ota, who scored the equalizing goal against Kawasaki, said, "I think it was a goal that everyone worked together, including the thoughts of my teammates."

* The notation of the match card and the stadium where the match was held is at the time of the match.

Continental record
Sendai also participated in the ACL for the first time in 2013.

It was a tournament with many challenges other than matches, such as long-distance travel, overcrowded schedule with the J League, and local climate, but they did not lose in the extreme cold of Nanjing and the intense heat of Thailand, and the final match was a draw or better in the qualifying.

It was a good point to leave the possibility of breaking through.

Asian clubs ranking
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Vegalta House
"Shichigashuku Town's Empty House Revitalization Project: Let's Build a Vegalta House" will start in July 2021 with the support of 143 crowdfunding people and a total of 78 local workers. It is involved in a social collaboration activity, in line with Goal 11 "Sustainable cities and communities" and Goal 17 "Partnership for the goals" of the SDGs basic guidelines.