V-Varen Nagasaki

V-Varen Nagasaki (V・ファーレン長崎, Bi Fāren Nagasaki) is a Japanese football club based in Nagasaki, Capital of Nagasaki Prefecture. They currently play in J2 League, the Japanese second tier professional in football league.

V-Varen Nagasaki
V・ファーレン長崎

Full name	V-Varen Nagasaki
Nickname(s)	VVN
Founded	2004; 21 years ago (2004)
Stadium	Peace Stadium Connected by SoftBank, Nagasaki, Nagasaki
Capacity	20,000
Owner	Japanet Holdings
Chairman	Hideki Iwashita
Manager	Takahiro Shimotaira
League	J2 League
2024	J2 League, 3rd of 20
Website	v-varen.com
Home colours Away colours
Current season

History

The club was established in 1985 as Ariake SC until the club decided to merge with Kunimi FC in 2004. The merger led the club to adopt the new name V-Varen Nagasaki in 2005, which has been used ever since.

V-Varen Nagasaki, since 2006, had been contending for the Kyūshū Soccer League championship and thus a place in the Japan Football League, but they only won it in November 2008, as second place in the Regional League promotion series.

In January 2009, they applied for J. League Associate Membership and their application was accepted at the J. League board meeting in February. In 2012, they won the Japan Football League title and thus promotion to the J. League Division 2.^[1] Five years later they won promotion to the J1 League for the first time after finishing runners-up in the 2017 season.

J. League: 2013 –

In preparation for the club's first season in the J. League Division 2 the club hired local-born Takuya Takagi as their coach for the season.^[1] On 3 March 2013 V-Varen Nagasaki played in their first ever J. League Division 2 match against Fagiano Okayama at the Kanko Stadium in Okayama in which the club drew the match 1–1 with Kōichi Satō scoring the first J. League Division 2 goal for V-Varen Nagasaki in the 25th minute. The club then played their first home match in the J. League Division 2 on 10 March 2013 at the Nagasaki Athletic Stadium against former J. League champions Gamba Osaka in which V-Varen Nagasaki lost 3–1 in front of a huge crowd of 18,153.

The club gained promotion into the J. League Division 2 in 2012 for the first time in their history after finishing as the champions in the 2012 Japan Football League and hired Nagasaki native Takuya Takagi to coach the club for the 2013 season.^[1]

On 11 November 2017, the club clinched promotion to the J1 League for the first time in their history after a 3–1 home win over Kamatamare Sanuki.^[2]

Financial troubles

After facing dire financial difficulties, on 8 March 2017 the club was purchased by Japanet Holdings, the parent company of Japanese television shopping giant Japanet Takata Co., Ltd., becoming a fully owned subsidiary. Japanet have invested significant sums into the club, securing promotion to the top tier of Japanese football and publishing plans to build a new football-specific stadium on the former site of Mitsubishi's Nagasaki shipbuilding operations, opening in 2023.^[3]

Club name

Former logo until 2024

The "V" in the club's name comes from the Portuguese word vitória (meaning 'victory') as well as the Dutch word vrede (meaning 'peace'), while varen is the Dutch verb meaning 'to sail', relating to Nagasaki's heritage as port of call of Portuguese and Dutch traders during the sakoku period in the Tokugawa shogunate (see Dejima).^[4]

V-Varen Nagasaki new logo from 2025 season were introduce.

Stadium

V-Varen Nagasaki used the Transcosmos Stadium Nagasaki as its home stadium until 2024.

Their new stadium, the Peace Stadium Connected by SoftBank, started construction in downtown Nagasaki in June of 2022, and was completed in September 2024. The club played the first competitive match in the new stadium on October 6th, 2024. beating Oita Trinita 4-1. SoftBank signed a partnership^[5] with V-Varen for 4 years.

League and cup record

Champions

Runners-up

Third place

Promoted

Relegated

League													J League Cup	Emperor's Cup
Season	Div	Teams	Pos.	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts	Attendance/G
2008	Kyushu	18	2nd	18	14	1 (1)	2	76	10	66	46		Not eligible	Did not qualify
2009	JFL	18	11th	34	12	8	14	38	43	-5	44	2,763		2nd round
2010		18	5th	34	15	8	11	50	38	12	53	2,525		2nd round
2011		18	5th	33	15	11	7	61	44	17	56	1,513		2nd round
2012		17	1st	34	20	7	5	57	24	33	67	3,656		2nd round
2013	J2	22	6th	42	19	9	14	48	40	8	66	6,167		2nd round
2014		22	14th	42	12	16	14	45	42	3	52	4,839		Round of 16
2015		22	6th	42	15	15	12	42	33	9	60	4,931		2nd round
2016		22	15th	42	10	17	15	39	51	-12	47	5,225		2nd round
2017		22	2nd	42	24	8	10	59	41	18	80	5,941		2nd round
2018	J1	18	18th	34	8	6	20	39	59	-20	30	11,225	Group stage	3rd round
2019	J2	22	12th	42	17	5	20	57	61	-4	56	7,737	Not eligible	Semi-final
2020 †		22	3rd	42	23	11	8	66	39	27	80	3,714		Did not qualify
2021 †		22	4th	42	23	9	10	69	44	25	78	4,956		4th round
2022		22	11th	42	15	11	16	50	54	-4	56	5,061		Round of 16
2023		22	7th	42	18	11	13	70	56	14	65	7,300		2nd round
2024		20	3rd	38	21	12	5	74	39	36	75	9,814	Playoff round	Round of 16
2025		20	TBA	38									TBD	TBD

Key

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

Honours

V-Varen Nagasaki honours

Honour	No.	Years
Japan Football League	1	2012

Current squad

As of 21 March 2025.^[6]

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  JPN Masaya Tomizawa 2 DF  JPN Ryutaro Iio 3 DF  JPN Masahiro Sekiguchi 4 DF  BRA Eduardo 5 MF  JPN Hotaru Yamauchi 6 MF  JPN Taisei Abe 7 MF  BRA Marcos Guilherme 8 MF  JPN Asahi Masuyama 9 FW  ESP Juanma Delgado 10 MF  BRA Matheus Jesus 11 FW  BRA Edigar Junio 13 MF  JPN Masaru Kato 14 MF  JPN Takumi Nagura 15 DF  JPN Jun Okano 16 MF  BRA Emerson Deocleciano 17 DF  JPN Keita Takahata 18 FW  JPN Ryogo Yamasaki 19 MF  JPN Takashi Sawada 20 MF  JPN Keita Nakamura 21 GK  JPN Masaaki Goto

No. Pos. Nation Player 22 MF  JPN Ren Nishimura 23 DF  JPN Shunya Yoneda 24 MF  JPN Riku Yamada 25 DF  JPN Kazuki Kushibiki 26 GK  JPN Kaito Ioka 28 FW  JPN Aoto Nanamure 29 DF  JPN Ikki Arai 31 GK  JPN Gaku Harada 32 FW  JPN Serigne Saliou Diop 33 MF  JPN Tsubasa Kasayanagi 34 MF  JPN Temmu Matsumoto 35 MF  JPN Ryota Saito 36 MF  JPN Shunsuke Aoki 38 MF  JPN Kaito Matsuzawa 41 DF  JPN Rio Tadokoro 48 DF  JPN Hayato Teruyama — DF  JPN Riku Kamito Type 2 — DF  JPN Nozomu Kidachi Type 2 — DF  JPN Kazuki Nagoshi Type 2

Out on loan

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

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  SRB Luka Radotic (at Blaublitz Akita) — DF  BRA Kaique Mafaldo (at Tokushima Vortis) — DF  JPN Malcolm Tsuyoshi Moyo (at Portimonense)

No. Pos. Nation Player — DF  JPN Haruki Shirai (at Iwaki FC) — MF  JPN Gijo Sehata (at Thespa Gunma)

Coaching staff

Position	Staff
Manager	Takahiro Shimotaira
Assistant manager	Keiji Kuraishi
First-team coach	Naoyuki Saito Yusuke Murakami
Goalkeeper coach	Takanori Miyoshi
Analyst	Yukimura Yoshizawa
Physical coach	Keita Kikuchi Toshiki Yoshimitsu
Interpreter	Jefferson Youei Tonaki Tetsuya Ozawa Asuka Takegoshi
Chief trainer	Takeshi Mochizuki
Trainer	Yujiro Sakae Hiroaki Shibata Ryota Suzuki
Chief manager	Takashi Yonetani
General manager	Toshiya Wada
Kit man	Keita Kusunoki

Managerial history

Manager	Nationality	Tenure
		Start	Finish
Fumiaki Iwamoto	Japan	1 February 2005	31 January 2008
Yoshinori Higashikawa	Japan	1 February 2008	13 June 2009
Takeshi Okubo	Japan	4 June 2009	30 June 2009
Fumiaki Iwamoto	Japan	1 July 2009	31 January 2010
Tōru Sano	Japan	1 February 2010	31 January 2013
Takuya Takagi	Japan	1 February 2013	31 January 2019
Makoto Teguramori	Japan	1 February 2019	31 January 2021
Takayuki Yoshida	Japan	1 February 2021	3 May 2021
Kazuki Satō	Japan	4 May 2021	6 May 2021
Hiroshi Matsuda	Japan	4 May 2021	12 June 2022
Takeo Harada (caretaker)	Japan	13 June 2022	30 June 2022
Fábio Carille	Brazil	1 July 2022	31 December 2023
Takahiro Shimotaira	Japan	1 February 2024	present

Kit evolution

Home kits - 1st
2005 - 2006	2007 - 2008	2009 - 2010	2011	2012
2013	2014	2015	2016	2017
2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
2023	2024	2025 -

Away kits - 2nd
2005 - 2006	2007 - 2008	2009 - 2010	2011	2012
2013	2014 - 2015	2016	2017	2018
2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
2024	2025 -

Alternative kits - 3rd
2015 Peace Memorial	2016 Peace Memorial	2017 Peace Memorial	2018 Peace Memorial	2019 Peace Memorial
2021 Peace Memorial	2022 Peace Memorial	2023 Peace Memorial