Kawasaki Frontale

Kawasaki Frontale (川崎フロンターレ, Kawasaki Furontāre) is a J1 League association football club. The team is located in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo. Their home stadium is Todoroki Athletics Stadium, in Nakahara Ward, in the central area of Kawasaki.

History

Founded in 1955 as Fujitsu football club. The club was one of many city clubs that comprised the Japan Soccer League, including Yomiuri (later Tokyo Verdy 1969), Toshiba (later Consadole Sapporo) and NKK SC (now defunct). They first made the JSL First Division in 1977, only to be relegated the next season afterwards and would not return to the top flight until 2000, when they were first promoted to the rebranded J1.

The club co-founded the Japanese second tier three times under its three names: JSL Second Division (1972), Japan Football League Division 1 (1992) and J. League Division 2 (1999).

Fujitsu's club became professional in 1997, and changed its name – "Frontale" means "frontal" in Italian. The club old crest and colours are based on those of Brazilian side Grêmio, because both clubs have cooperated since 26 March 1997. The club joined the second division of the J. League in 1999, and became the champion of the division. But in the next season, it sank to the bottom of division one, and was relegated. In 2004, they were champions of J2 and won promotion to J1 for the second time. With the former rival city clubs out of the way due to relocation or liquidation, Frontale began building its power base in the city.