 | |||
| Full name | Football Club Azul Claro Numazu | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Short name | AZN | ||
| Founded | 1990; 35 years ago (1990) asNumazu Arsenal SC | ||
| Stadium | Shizuoka Ashitaka Athletic Stadium Numazu,Shizuoka | ||
| Capacity | 10,000 | ||
| Managing Organisation | Azul Claro Suruga Corporation (NPO) | ||
| Chairman | Takehiro Takashima | ||
| Manager | Masashi Nakayama | ||
| League | J3 League | ||
| 2024 | J3 League, 10th of 20 | ||
| Website | azul-claro | ||
Azul Claro Numazu (アスルクラロ沼津,Asuru Kuraro Numazu) is a Japaneseprofessionalfootball team based inNumazu,Shizuoka Prefecture. They currently play inJ3 League, the Japanese third tier of professional football.
Azul Claro Numazu was established in 1977 as Numazu Arsenal and slowly progressed through the tiers of Shizuoka prefectural leagues. In 2006 the club began the process of transformation into a professional organisation with the ultimate goal of joining theJ.League. The same year the club adopted its current name, Azul Claro (Meaning "light blue" in Portuguese and Spanish).
In 2012 Azul Claro won promotion to Tōkai Adult Soccer League and quickly progressed through its ranks, spending only a season in each of its divisions. Though they have finished only fourth in 2013 Tōkai League, they were considered as serious contenders for admission to the newly createdJ3 League. On September 17, 2013, the club has been granted theJ. League Associate Membership and passed all stages of licensing and inspection by the league. However, they were only the 3rd choice club for the only Regional League spot in J3 so eventually, they had to give way toIwate Grulla Morioka. The club has won the promotion anyway though—they were selected by theJapan Football League board as one of the teams to play in the2014 season.
After a 3rd-place finish in the2016 season, they've been welcomed to play professional football from 2017 and onward, as they'll be the 14th original club in theJ3 League.[1]
On 24 October 2023, Azul Claro Numazu announced that the club was officially granted a J2 license after a decision by the J.League's Club Licensing Board.[2]
| Champions | Runners-up | Third place | Promoted | Relegated |
| League | J. League Cup | Emperor's Cup | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Division | Tier | Pos. | P | W | L | D | F | A | GD | Pts | Attendance/G | ||
| Numazu Arsenal | ||||||||||||||
| 2004 | Shizuoka Prefectural League (Div. 2) | 7 | 4th | 11 | 6 | 0 | 5 | 33 | 24 | 9 | 18 | - | Not eligible | Did not qualify |
| 2005 | 1st | 11 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 54 | 26 | 28 | 29 | - | ||||
| Azul Claro Numazu | ||||||||||||||
| 2006 | Shizuoka Prefectural League (Div. 1) | 6 | 9th | 11 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 14 | 25 | -11 | 11 | - | Not eligible | Did not qualify |
| 2007 | 11th | 11 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 11 | 27 | -16 | 10 | - | ||||
| 2008[3] | 8th | 11 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 20 | 27 | -7 | 10 | - | ||||
| 2009[4] | 2nd | 11 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 32 | 30 | 2 | 20 | - | ||||
| 2010[5] | 3rd | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 27 | 18 | 9 | 21 | - | ||||
| 2011[6] | 2nd | 11 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 50 | 23 | 27 | 27 | - | ||||
| 2012 | Tokai Football League (Div. 2) | 5 | 2nd | 14 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 22 | 15 | 7 | 26 | - | ||
| 2013 | Tokai Football League (Div. 1) | 4 | 4th | 14 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 20 | 21 | –1 | 25 | - | ||
| 2014 | JFL | 8th | 26 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 26 | 35 | –9 | 32 | 1,777 | |||
| 2015 | 5th | 30 | 16 | 6 | 8 | 36 | 28 | 8 | 54 | 2,198 | ||||
| 2016 | 3rd | 30 | 18 | 5 | 7 | 47 | 24 | 23 | 59 | 2,332 | ||||
| 2017 | J3 | 3 | 3rd | 32 | 16 | 11 | 5 | 60 | 27 | 33 | 59 | 3,029 | 3rd round | |
| 2018 | 4th | 32 | 14 | 10 | 8 | 40 | 29 | 11 | 52 | 2,857 | Did not qualify | |||
| 2019 | 12th | 34 | 11 | 6 | 17 | 35 | 43 | –8 | 39 | 2,470 | ||||
| 2020† | 12th | 34 | 12 | 5 | 17 | 36 | 40 | –4 | 41 | 925 | ||||
| 2021† | 14th | 28 | 7 | 6 | 15 | 32 | 44 | –12 | 27 | 1,482 | ||||
| 2022 | 15th | 34 | 8 | 7 | 19 | 27 | 46 | -19 | 31 | 1,684 | ||||
| 2023 | 13th | 38 | 15 | 6 | 17 | 48 | 48 | 0 | 51 | 1,961 | 1st round | |||
| 2024 | 10th | 38 | 15 | 7 | 16 | 53 | 46 | 7 | 52 | 2,633 | 2nd round | 1st round | ||
| 2025 | 20th | 38 | 1st round | Did not qualify | ||||||||||
| Honour | No. | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Shizuoka Prefectural League (Div. 2) | 1 | 2005 |
| Shizuoka Prefectural Football Championship (and Emperor's Cup Shizuoka Prefectural Qualifiers) | 3 | 2017, 2023 & 2024 |
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
|
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
|
| Position | Name |
|---|---|
| Head coach |  Masashi Nakayama |
| Assistant coach | Hideto Suzuki Daiki Tajiri |
| Transition coach | Keita Goto |
| Coach and interpreter |  Landow Takai |
| Goalkeeper coach | Yukio Takeda |
| Physical coach | Yoshiki Hirano |
| Doctor | Shunsuke Mukoyama |
| Trainer | Takuya Kawasaki Kentaro Taki Takashi Tanaka |
| Manager | Daiki Ito |
| Manager | Nationality | Tenure | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start | Finish | ||
| Kazuhito Mochizuki | Japan | 1 February 2014 | 31 January 2015 |
| Ken Yoshida | Japan | 1 February 2015 | 31 January 2020 |
| Masataka Imai | Japan | 1 February 2020 | 23 August 2022 |
| Kazuhito Mochizuki | Japan | 24 August 2022 | 31 January 2023 |
| Masashi Nakayama | Japan | 1 February 2023 | 14 September 2025 |
| Hideto Suzuki | Japan | 14 September 2025 | |
| Home kit - 1st | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
          2014 |      2015 |      2016 |      2017 |     2018 |
     2019 |      2020 |      2021 |      2022 |      2023 |
     2024 |      2025 - | |||
| Away kit - 2nd | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
     2014 |      2015 |      2016 |      2017 |     2018 |
     2019 |      2020 |      2021 |    2022 |      2023 |
     2024 |      2025 - | |||
| Other kit - 3rd | |||
|---|---|---|---|
   2021 30th Anniversary Memorial |   2022 Love Live! Sunshine!! edition |      2023 Love Live! Sunshine!! edition |    |
| Season(s) | Main Shirt Sponsor | Collarbone Sponsor | Additional Sponsor(s) | Kit Manufacturer | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | SURUGA bank | – | – | – | – | NNH | – |  Puma |
| 2014 | USUi | MEIDEN | 雄大 | |||||
| 2015 | USUi | SURUGA Bank | – | MEIDEN | ||||
| 2016 | MEIDEN | – | ||||||
| 2017 | ||||||||
| 2018 | Kawata Construction (Left) | Kawata Construction (Right) | ||||||
| 2019 | ||||||||
| 2020 | MEIDEN (Left) | MEIDEN (Right) | Kawata Construction | |||||
