Kagoshima United FC

Volca Kagoshima had been playing in Kyushu Soccer League since 1973 and advanced to the Regional League promotion series five times, but never succeeded to promote to the upper tier, Japan Football League, known as the Japan Soccer League until the 1980s. Osumi NIFS United FC (the former club name of FC Kagoshima), originally affiliated with the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Kanoya in nearby Kanoya, have promoted to Kyushu Soccer League as early as 2004, but both Volca and NIFS have been seeking the way to promote to JFL separately.

The idea of a merged team of Volca and FC Kagoshima had been discussed by the Kagoshima Prefectural Football Association as early as 2012, but failed to reach an agreement then. Although Volca and FC Kagoshima had applied for J. League Associate Membership separately, both sides restarted their talk about the merger, then finally agreed with merging their teams to aim promotion to the J. League, in response of the advisory by the J. League organization. As both clubs had advanced to the final round of Regional League promotion series in 2013, the merged team earned the promotion to 2014 Japan Football League.

In November 2015, after concluding in promotion zone in 2015, they receive a J. League license to participate to J3.[1]

The club crest has the illustrations of Sakurajima and Kagoshima Bay, both symbolize Kagoshima Prefecture, on its background design, with red color, which represents Volca, and light blue color, represents FC Kagoshima.

Key

• Tms. = Number of teams
• Pos. = Position in league
• Attendance/G = Average league attendance

As of May 5th, 2020.[2]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Kazusa Iwasaki 2 DF Foguete 4 DF Kotaro Fujiwara 5 DF Ryo Hiraide 6 MF Keisuke Tanabe 7 MF Kento Nakamura 8 MF Taku Ushinohama 9 FW Takuma Sonoda 10 FW Masashi Wada 11 MF Junki Goryo 13 GK Shogo Onishi 14 MF Hiroya Nodake 15 DF Noritaka Fujisawa 16 MF Yuichiro Edamoto 17 FW Yusei Kayanuma 18 FW Junya Nodake

No. Position Player 19 FW João Gabriel 20 DF Noriyuki Sakemoto 21 MF Kohei Hattanda 22 DF Naoaki Aoyama 23 DF Katsunari Mizumoto 24 DF Kazuya Sunamori 26 DF Soichi Tanaka 27 MF Haruki Izawa 30 FW Yuma Kawamori 31 GK Minoru Hata 36 FW Rei Yonezawa 38 MF Shuto Nakahara 39 MF Nildo 41 MF Kaito Miyake 50 FW Kenji Baba

• Official website (in Japanese)