| Clubname: | Roasso Kumamoto ロアッソ熊本 |
| Upright: | 0.8 |
| Fullname: | Roasso Kumamoto |
| Nickname: | Roasso |
| Founded: | as NTT Kumamoto SC |
| Stadium: | Egao Kenkō Stadium Kumamoto, Kumamoto |
| Capacity: | 32,000 |
| Chairman: | Tomoyoshi Ikeya |
| Manager: | Takeshi Oki |
| Current: | 2024 Roasso Kumamoto season |
| Website: | http://roasso-k.com/ |
| Pattern La1: | _Roasso Kumamoto 2023 HOME FP |
| Pattern B1: | _Roasso Kumamoto 2024 HOME FP |
| Pattern Ra1: | _Roasso Kumamoto 2023 HOME FP |
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| Pattern So1: | _Roasso Kumamoto 2023 HOME FP |
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| Pattern La2: | _Roasso Kumamoto 2024 AWAY FP |
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is a Japanese football club based in Kumamoto, the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture. The club currently plays in the J2 League, Japan's 2nd tier of professional league football.
Roasso is a portmanteau of the Italian words rosso and asso, meaning "red ace".
The club was founded as the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation (Den-Den Kōsha, current NTT) Kumamoto Soccer Club in 1969. The club was promoted to the Kyushu Soccer League in 1983.
According to the NTT's privatization in 1985, the club was renamed as NTT Kyushu Soccer Club in 1988. During the NTT Kyushu era, the club won five Kyushu Soccer League titles and one All Japan Senior Football Championship. The club changed their name again to NTT Kumamoto Football Club in 2000.
The club changed their name to NTT West Kumamoto Football Club in 2001 as the NTT was divided into NTT East and NTT West. The club was promoted to the JFL in 2000 after finishing 3rd in 24th JFL Promotion Tournament.[1] The NTT relinquished the ownership of the club in 2002 and community oriented Alouette Kumamoto Football Club was born. Alouette is a French word meaning skylark, the bird of Kumamoto Prefecture. The club finished at the 17th in this season and was relegated to the Kyushu Soccer League.
The club name was changed again to Rosso Kumamoto in 2005. Rosso means red in Italian. After they won the Kyushu Soccer League and finished at the 3rd in the Regional League play-off tournament, the club was promoted to the JFL.
The club was recently featured in J.League program to introduce the club to followers of the professional league. Rosso's second-place finish in the 2007 JFL season was enough to earn promotion into the J.League (J2 League) for the 2008 season.
The club changed their name to current Roasso Kumamoto in 2008. The previous name Rosso was a registered trademark of another company, so the club could not use it due to a risk of copyright infringement.
After 11 years spent in the J2 League, Kumamoto was relegated to the J3 League on 2018.
After three years at J3 League, Kumamoto returned to J2, after being promoted as the J3 champions in 2021, just a point ahead of Iwate Grulla Morioka in the league table.
In 2022, Kumamoto finished in 4th place with 62 points and advanced to J1 promotion/relegation playoffs after an arguably surprising performance in the 2022 J2 League. Roasso played against the 4th and 5th-placed teams of the J2 season, Oita Trinita and Montedio Yamagata, in matches that ended 1–1 and 2–2, respectively. As the league gave the advantage for the higher-placed team in the league standings to qualify for the next round, Roasso were able to qualify for the play-off finals, despite not winning any match. This time, Kyoto Sanga, as the J1 League team in question, earned the seeding advantage, meaning that Roasso needed to win this match in order to earn promotion. The match ended in a 1–1 draw and Roasso were not promoted for the J1.
The traditional rival of Roasso Kumamoto is Kagoshima United, the prefectural neighbours and former Kyushu Soccer League fellows since 1983 until 2005, except 2001–2002. Matches between the two clubs are labelled Hisatsu derby (肥薩ダービー, "Kumamoto-Kagoshima derby") and generate a lot of interest in both prefectures.
| bgcolor=gold | Champions | bgcolor=silver | Runners-up | Third place | bgcolor=palegreen | Promoted | bgcolor=pink | Relegated |
| League | Emperor's Cup | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Div. | Tier | Teams | Pos. | P | W (PK) | D | L (PK) | F | A | GD | Pts | Attendance/G | |||
| as Alouette Kumamoto | ||||||||||||||||
| 2002 | JFL | 3 | 18 | bgcolor=pink | 17th | 17 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 16 | 28 | -12 | 13 | 672 | Not eligible | 3rd round |
| 2003 | 4 | 12 | 5th | 22 | 11 (3) | - | 6 (2) | 47 | 35 | 12 | 41 | - | 1st round | |||
| 2004 | 10 | 4th | 18 | 10 (0) | - | 7 (1) | 63 | 38 | 5 | 31 | - | 3rd round | ||||
| as Rosso Kumamoto | ||||||||||||||||
| 2005 | KSL | 4 | 10 | 1st | 18 | 15 (0) | - | 1 (2) | 45 | 11 | 34 | 47 | - | Not eligible | 1st round | |
| 2006 | JFL | 3 | 18 | 5th | 34 | 20 | 6 | 8 | 64 | 39 | 25 | 66 | 3,765 | 3rd round | ||
| 2007 | 18 | bgcolor=silver | 2nd | 34 | 21 | 6 | 7 | 65 | 34 | 31 | 69 | 3,569 | 1st round | |||
| as Roasso Kumamoto | ||||||||||||||||
| 2008 | J2 | 2 | 15 | 12th | 42 | 10 | 13 | 19 | 46 | 72 | −26 | 43 | 5,279 | Not eligible | 3rd round | |
| 2009 | 18 | 14th | 51 | 12 | 11 | 25 | 66 | 82 | −16 | 58 | 6,006 | 2nd round | ||||
| 2010 | 19 | 7th | 36 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 39 | 43 | −4 | 54 | 6,907 | 3rd round | ||||
| 2011 | 20 | 11th | 38 | 13 | 12 | 13 | 33 | 44 | −11 | 51 | 6,928 | 2nd round | ||||
| 2012 | 22 | 14th | 42 | 15 | 10 | 17 | 40 | 48 | −8 | 55 | 5,855 | 4th round | ||||
| 2013 | 22 | 19th | 42 | 10 | 13 | 19 | 40 | 70 | −30 | 43 | 6,228 | 3rd round | ||||
| 2014 | 22 | 13th | 42 | 13 | 15 | 14 | 45 | 53 | −8 | 54 | 7,002 | 2nd round | ||||
| 2015 | 22 | 13th | 42 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 42 | 45 | −3 | 53 | 7,037 | 3rd round | ||||
| 2016 | 22 | 16th | 42 | 12 | 10 | 20 | 38 | 53 | −15 | 46 | 5,543 | 2nd round | ||||
| 2017 | 22 | 21st | 42 | 9 | 10 | 23 | 36 | 59 | −23 | 37 | 6,557 | 3rd round | ||||
| 2018 | 22 | bgcolor=pink | 21st | 42 | 9 | 7 | 26 | 50 | 79 | −29 | 34 | 5,269 | 2nd round | |||
| 2019 | J3 | 3 | 18 | 5th | 34 | 16 | 9 | 9 | 45 | 39 | 6 | 57 | 5,533 | 2nd round | ||
| 2020 † | 18 | 8th | 34 | 16 | 6 | 12 | 56 | 47 | 9 | 54 | 1,422 | Did not qualify | ||||
| 2021 † | 15 | bgcolor=gold | 1st | 28 | 15 | 9 | 4 | 39 | 20 | 19 | 54 | 3,342 | 2nd round | |||
| 2022 | J2 | 2 | 22 | 4th | 42 | 18 | 13 | 11 | 58 | 48 | 10 | 67 | 4,039 | 3rd round | ||
| 2023 | 22 | 14th | 42 | 13 | 10 | 19 | 52 | 53 | −1 | 49 | 6,278 | Semi-finals | ||||
| 2024 | 22 | TBD | 38 | 2nd round | ||||||||||||
| No. ! | scope=col | Years | |
|---|---|---|---|
| In chronological order--> | |||
| scope=row | Kyushu Soccer League | 7 | 1991, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2005 |
| scope=row | All Japan Senior Football Championship | 2 | 1998, 2005 (shared) |
| scope=row | J3 League | 1 | 2021 |
| Name | Role | |
|---|---|---|
| Manager |  Takeshi Oki | |
| Assistant manager | Chikara Fujimoto | |
| First-team coach | Yasushi Takahashi Shinya Masushima | |
| Goalkeeper coach | Ryuichi Ito | |
| Chief trainer | Ryoichi Yamamoto | |
| Athletic trainer | Shumpei Kawamura | |
| Physiotherapist | Keigo Manabe | |
| Physical advisor | Fumihiko Nagasaki | |
| Competent | Satoshi Sekigami | |
| Side affairs | Taichi Nakayama Kenta Shioikawa |
| Manager | Nationality | Tenure < | --!colspan="5" | Managerial Record--> | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start | Finish | --> | |||
| 1 February 2005 | 31 January 2009 | --> | |||
| 1 February 2009 | 31 January 2010 | --> | |||
| 1 February 2010 | 31 January 2013 | --> | |||
| 1 February 2013 | 10 July 2013 | --> | |||
| 10 July 2013 | 31 January 2014 | --> | |||
| 1 February 2014 | 25 November 2015 | --> | |||
| 28 November 2015 | 14 June 2017 | --> | |||
| 14 June 2017 | 31 January 2018 | --> | |||
| 1 February 2018 | 31 January 2020 | --> | |||
| 1 February 2020 | Current | --> | |||
Roasso Kumamoto's club colour is red, representing burning passion and desire for victory.
| Season(s) | Main Shirt Sponsor | Collarbone Sponsor | Additional Sponsor(s) | Kit Manufacturer | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Hirata | rowspan="3" | - | rowspan="3" | - | Mynavi | Shiratake (1st) Shiratake White (2nd) | Kumamoto Electric Power | - | Puma |
| 2019 | サトウロジック | |||||||||
| 2020 | Shiratake (1st) Shiratake White (2nd) | rowspan="3" | - | rowspan="4" | - | |||||
| 2021 | - | - | ||||||||
| 2022 | RKKCS | Out-Sourcing Technology | ||||||||
| 2023 | Higo Bank | - | ||||||||