In the middle of a megacity dominated culturally by anime, manga, video games, baseball and wrestling, a historical titan of Asia is experiencing a massive resurgence on the pitch. 

In this world, there are a lot of teams across the world that don’t get the respect nor recognition they deserve due to being overshadowed by the big money teams. This leaves a lot of national and regional titans forgotten by the masses due to few people caring for those regions in those sports or those sporting teams. This is what this series is about: trying to bring recognition to the little guy and their accomplishments, as many teams have resumes equal to or perhaps better than those of the big monopolistic titans of the sporting world. Today’s topic is the biggest football/soccer organization in the city of Tokyo, Tokyo 1969 Verdy.

Founded in 1969, Tokyo Verdy, then known as Yomiuri, was founded by the owner of the baseball titans, the Yomiuri Giants, Matsutaro Shoriki. It quickly became one of the pioneering forces in Japanese football after winning bronze for Japan in the 1968 Olympic Games. A quick rise to the first division ended in 1978, with the first title of the club being the very next year, winning the League Cup.

Afterwards, the club had a golden period from 1983 to 1994, where it absolutely dominated Japan, just like the Giants were on the baseball field, and became an icon across Japan, even getting massive Asian success. These culminated in the biggest prize of them all, the Asian Champions Cup, which Verdy won in 1987 over Al-Hilal in an anti-climactic final which was a no contest due to scheduling issues with a lot of Al-Hilal’s team on international duty on the day of the final.

The four straight Japanese league titles as Yomiuri FC and Verdy Kawasaki between 1990 and 1994 were also important in making the club’s legacy even greater. Although its last title in this era was the Emperor’s Cup in 1996 for this era, the club would continue to decline with new ownership backfiring and making the club mediocre in the new J.1 League, with mid-table and a few upper table finishes between 1996 and 2008. 

Despite the Emperor’s Cup being won in 2004, the club was relegated only four years later, and it was in the 2nd division until 2023. There, the club was threatened to be relegated to the 3rd division as recently as 2016, but a 3rd place and a playoff win sealed a promotion for Verdy. This finally got it back to the first division, where it finished a shocking 6th in the 2024 season, solidifying its place back in the first division.

The club plays in the Tokyo Stadium, the second biggest in Tokyo behind the Olympic Stadium, and it’s been its home since 2001. It shares this home with its biggest rivals, FC Tokyo, who also have solid successes, and they both are participants in the Tokyo Derby, which is quickly becoming one of the more intense rivalries in Japan.

For Tokyo Verdy, the reason why it isn’t more well known is because itwas a second division staple for a rather obscure league in world football, making it lost in the fog compared to other more well-known teams. This is a problem that many legacy teams face, such as Hamburg SV in Germany, Dinamo Bucuresti in Romania, Nebraska Football, Essendon of Australian Football, and other traditional giants across sports face; the passage of time. 

With all that said, however, Tokyo Verdy is one of the most influential teams in Japan, an Asian champion, and an unknown icon in a city that thrives on icons.