2018 V-Varen Nagasaki season

V-Varen Nagasaki had finished the previous season in second place and thus earned promotion to the pinnacle of Japanese football, the J1 League. This will be their first ever season competing in the J1 League. The club's first move in preparation for the upcoming season was the signing of experienced FC Tokyo right wingback Yūhei Tokunaga.[1] A couple days later would see the departures of goalkeeper Yuya Miura and midfielder Kenta Furube, while right back Yusuke Murakami retired.[2][3][4] On 11 December 2017 it was announced that midfielder Mitsuru Maruoka would return to Cerezo Osaka once his loan concludes in January.[5]

On 22 December, Nagasaki bolstered their attack with the signing of forward Musashi Suzuki from Albirex Niigata.[6] Three days later it was announced that Masato Kurogi, a midfielder from Ventforet Kofu who had already played for Nagasaki in 2014 and 2015, would return to the club.[7] The next day the club announced three signings, including the signing of two goalkeepers: Kenta Tokushige from Vissel Kobe and Takuya Masuda, Nagasaki's starting goalkeeper from 2017 returning to the club on an extended loan from Sanfrecce Hiroshima.[8][9] Forward Shu Hiramatsu also returned to the club on loan from Albirex Niigata.[10] Again, the next day, the club announced that Spanish midfielder Miguel Pallardó would leave the club.[11]

In

Yūhei Tokunaga was V-Varen Nagasaki's first signing for the upcoming season.

Position	Player	Last club	Date	Ref
DF	Yūhei Tokunaga	Tokyo	23 November 2017	[1]
DF	Takuto Honda	Tokai Gakuen University	4 December 2017	[12]
MF	Ryo Niizato	Juntendo University	15 December 2017	[13]
MF	Shunya Yoneda	Juntendo University	15 December 2017	[14]
FW	Musashi Suzuki	Albirex Niigata	22 December 2017	[6]
MF	Masato Kurogi	Ventforet Kofu	25 December 2017	[7]
GK	Kenta Tokushige	Vissel Kobe	26 December 2017	[8]
GK	Takuya Masuda	Sanfrecce Hiroshima (loan)	26 December 2017	[9]
FW	Shu Hiramatsu	Albirex Niigata (loan)	26 December 2017	[10]

Out

Position	Player	New club	Date	Ref
GK	Yuya Miura	Released	25 November 2017	[2]
MF	Kenta Furube	Released	25 November 2017	[3]
DF	Yusuke Murakami	Retired	28 November 2017	[4]
MF	Mitsuru Maruoka	Cerezo Osaka	11 December 2017	[5]
MF	Miguel Pallardó	Released	27 December 2017	[11]

Key

Numbers in parentheses denote appearances as substitute. Players with name struck through and marked left the club during the playing season.

No.	Pos.	Name	J1 League		Emperor's Cup		Total		Discipline
			Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
1	GK	Takuya Masuda	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	DF	Masakazu Tashiro	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	MF	Ryutaro Iio	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	DF	Ryota Takasugi	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	DF	Daichi Tagami	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
6	MF	Yusuke Maeda	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
7	MF	Shuto Kono	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
8	FW	Yu Kimura	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
9	FW	Juanma	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
10	MF	Yuji Yabu	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
13	DF	Daichi Inui	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
14	MF	Teruki Tanaka	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
15	MF	Yuzuru Shimada	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
18	MF	Masakazu Yoshioka	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
19	FW	Takashi Sawada	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
20	MF	Keita Nakamura	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
21	GK	Masaya Tomizawa	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
22	GK	Tatsuro Okuda	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
23	DF	Fumitaka Kitatani	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
24	MF	Ryusuke Hayashida	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
26	MF	Teppei Usui	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
28	MF	Hijiri Onaga	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
29	DF	Kensuke Fukuda	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
35	DF	Yuki Kagawa	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
37	FW	Shu Hiramatsu	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
—	GK	Kenta Tokushige	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
—	DF	Yūhei Tokunaga	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
—	DF	Takuto Honda	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
—	MF	Masato Kurogi	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
—	MF	Ryo Niizato	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
—	MF	Shunya Yoneda	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
—	FW	Musashi Suzuki	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

• 2018 in Japanese football
• 2018 J1 League