What's special about Yokohama FC - Cong Phuong's new team?

Yokohama FC was founded 24 years ago. In terms of performance at J1, they are also last when they have only played three seasons in J1, while the remaining 17 teams have all played more than 10 seasons. Of the 31 teams that have played in J1 in history, Yokohama is also only 28th in terms of matches.

Yokohama FC is headquartered in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture. Yokohama and Kanagawa are both the second most populous cities and prefectures in Japan, both after Tokyo. Kanagawa owns the most representatives in J1, with four teams including Yokohama FC, Yokohama F Marinos, Kawasaki Frontale and Shonan Bellmare. In particular, the first two teams are based in the city of Yokohama, located south of Tokyo, while the last three teams are all established more than 50 years ago.

Yokohama FC and F Marinos have a big difference in tradition, size and strength. Yokohama F Marinos is the second richest in J1 history, both in terms of seasons and titles, behind only Kashima Antlers. While F Marinos has just won J1 2022, the team that Cong Phuong has just joined has just returned to J1 from the 2023 season. The football field of these two teams is only about 6 km apart, located along Tokyo Bay. F Marinos' Nissan Stadium has a capacity of more than 72,000 spectators, topping J1. And Yokohama FC plays at Mitsuzawa Stadium, with 15,046 seats, at least J1.

The annual turnover of a V-League club has recently been around VND 44.8 billion to VND 63.7 billion. In which, about half of the revenue comes from donors. Yokohama FC's revenue is about six times higher than that of V-League teams.

Also in the year before the outbreak of Covid-19, Yokohama FC made neither profit nor loss, compared to J2's average profit of 45 million yen (VND 8 billion). Meanwhile, Yokohama F Marinos playing at J1 has a revenue of 5,884 billion yen (1,045 billion dong), although the profit is only 3.6 billion dong.

The salary fund of Yokohama FC in 2019 is 916 million yen (VND 163 billion). In which, key players receive about 20 million to 55 million yen (3.5 to 9.8 billion dong). Young players mainly receive from 10 million yen (1.8 billion dong) or less. However, the team's salary fund increased by 65% ​​after two seasons, to 1.513 billion yen (VND 269 billion) in 2021. The team's revenue also increased by 39% during this period.

The first Vietnamese player to play in Japan was Le Cong Vinh, loaned to Consadole Sapporo at J2 in 2013. He is also the only Vietnamese player to score in a Japanese professional tournament so far. Cong Phuong is the second Vietnamese player to play for a J1 club, after Dang Van Lam and Cerezo Osaka, although the Vietnamese goalkeeper has not played a match in this tournament for two seasons.

Cong Phuong is also the third Southeast Asian player in the history of Yokohama FC, after Satoshi Otomo (Philippines) in the period 2004-2005 and Nguyen Tuan Anh in 2016. Otomo is a midfielder born in Japan and has only played once. Philippines shirt in 2014, and Tuan Anh played at Yokohama on loan even though he didn't play any matches at J2.

Leading Yokohama FC is currently 49-year-old coach Shuhei Yomoda. Mr. Yomoda was never a professional player, but came up from being a coach at Tsukuba University. During the time Cong Vinh played in Sapporo, Mr. Yomoda worked as the coach of this club's youth team. He moved to lead Yokohama FC in 2022 and helped the team get promoted after just one season in J2.