Ventforet Kofu

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Ventforet Kofu
ヴァンフォーレ甲府

Full name

Ventforet Kofu

Nickname(s)

Ventforet

Founded

1965

Ground

Kose Sports Stadium
Kofu

Capacity

17,000

Chairman

Kazuyuki Umino

Manager

Takeshi Ohki (2005 - )

League

J. League Div.1

2006

15th Place





Home colours





Away colours

Ventforet Kofu (ヴァンフォーレ甲府, Vanfōre Kōfu^?) are a Japanese football (soccer) club from Kofu. They compete in the J. League, and their home ground is the Kose Sports Stadium.

The word "Ventforet" is coined combining two French words Vent ("Wind") and Forêt ("Forest"). This derives from the famous phrase Fuu-Rin-Ka-Zan (風林火山）that Shingen Takeda, a Kofu-based prominent daimyo in the Sengoku period, liked to see on his war banners. This phrase refers to the idea of Swift as the Wind, Silent as a Forest, Fierce as Fire and Immovable as a Mountain.

1 History
2 Current players
3 Season by season results and managers
4 Former players
5 Trivia
6 External links

[edit] History

Kofu Club (1965 - 1994)

The club were founded in 1965 when the old boys' club of Kofu Dai-ichi High School called Kakujo Club started to recruit graduates of other highs with the intention of promotion to the Japan Soccer League.

The club joined the newly formed JSL Division 2 in 1972. They stayed there until the conclusion of the league in 1992 when they became a founding member of the former Japan Football league.

Kofu Club were a club, in the real sense of the word, formed by voluntary members, unlike other mainstream football clubs at that time in Japan whose players were mostly the employees of their sponsoring companies.

Ventforet Kofu (1995 - present)

The club were given new name Ventforet Kofu in 1995 and joined J. League Division 2 in 1999 when it was formed. They survived the difficult times between 1999 and 2001, during which they suffered from financial troubles as well as miserable results on the pitch including a series of 25 losses. They finished bottom for 3 consecutive seasons and were dubbed as "Excess baggage of J2."

The club turned the corner in 2002 as a result of operation restructuring and enthusiastic efforts from their supporters. Kofu finished third in 2005 and were promoted to J1 by winning the promotion/relegation play-offs against Kashiwa Reysol.

[edit] Current players

As of February 9, 2007

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Kensaku Abe
2	DF	Michitaka Akimoto
3	DF	Takuma Tsuda
4	MF	Hideomi Yamamoto
5	DF	Yuki Inoue
6	MF	Shinya Nasu
7	MF	Katsuya Ishihara
8	MF	Takehito Shigehara
9	FW	Daisuke Sudo
10	MF	Ken Fujita
11	MF	Jun Uruno
13	MF	Daiki Tamori
15	DF	Tatsuya Masushima
16	FW	Alberto
17	MF	Tomoyoshi Tsurumi
18	FW	Taro Hasegawa
19	DF	Yosuke Ikehata

No.	Position	Player
20	DF	Kentaro Suzuki
21	GK	Tatsuya Tsuruta
22	GK	Shigeru Sakurai
23	FW	Kotaro Yamazaki
24	MF	Yohei Onishi
25	MF	Kenta Suzuki
26	MF	Kazunari Hosaka
27	DF	Takefuki Mikuriya
28	FW	Shota Kimura
29	FW	Eisei Tomioka
30	GK	Shogo Tokihisa
31	DF	Kentaro Hayashi
32	DF	Arata Sugiyama
33	FW	Junya Kuno
34	FW	Josimar
35	DF	Tsubasa Oshima
36	DF	Ken Yorii
37	FW	Takahiro Kuniyoshi

[edit] Season by season results and managers

Year	League	Pld	Pt	W	L	D	Place	Manager	General Manager
1992	Former JFL Div. 2	18	28	9	8	1	5th	Kazutomo Fukazawa	－
1993	Former JFL Div. 2	18	-	6	12	-	9th	Kazutomo Fukazawa	－
1994	Former JFL	30	-	9	21	-	14th	Susumu Katsumata	－
1995		30	43	14	16	-	9th	Yuji Tsukada	－
1996		30	33	11	19	-	11th		－
1997		30	52	19	11	-	6th		－
1998		30	59	22	8	-	4th		－
1999	J2	36	18	5	27	4	10th	Susumu Katsumata	Yuji Tsukada
2000		40	18	5	32	3	11th	Yuji Tsukada	－
2001		44	25	8	34	2	12th	Luis Dos Reis Goncalves	－
2002		44	58	16	18	10	7th	Takeshi Oki	－
2003		44	69	19	13	12	5th	Hideki Matsunaga	－
2004		44	58	15	16	13	7th	Hideki Matsunaga	－
2005		44	69	19	13	12	3rd	Takeshi Oki	－
2006	J1	34	42	12	15	6	15th	Takeshi Oki	－

[edit] Former players

Takafumi Ogura

[edit] Trivia

For 34 years without interruption, the club played in the 2nd-tier leagues of the Japanese football hierarchy since 1972. Kofu belonged to the JSL Division 2 (1972-92), the former JFL (1992-1998) and J2 (1999-2005). To their supporters' delight, the record finally ended when they were promoted to J1 in 2006.