- Hits: 1949
Nara Club is a relatively new organization, whose earliest incarnation traces back to the start of the J.league era, in 1991. At about the time that the original JLeague members were adopting a professional club structure and preparing to create a new league, a local coach in Nara by the name of Koji Yamaguchi established "Kyonan Club", an independent soccer school and club team. Within six years its adult team had reached the first division of the Nara Prefectural league, but it would be another decade before it made the transition from an amateur "soccer school" to a J.League wannabe.
In 2008, upon gaining admission to the Kansai Regional league, the team changed its name to Nara Club, and officially announced its intention to become a professional J.League member. Unfortunately, one of the first hurdles that Nara Club faced was the fact that Nara - albeit a huge tourist town - is a comparatively small, rural and infrastructure-poor prefecture. It took time for Nara Club to build enough support and attract enough talent to finally make the advance into the JFL. In 2014, the team at last won the nationwide regional league championship, and earned promotion.
From 2015 through 2019, Nara Club focused mainly on developing a grqassroots basae, and meeting all of the organizational criteria for J.League membership, finally earning associate member status in 2020. Two years later, in 2022, Nara Club won the JFL title and ticked the final box needed to join the professioal ranks.
Though it does not yet have an official mascot, Nara is famous for its herds of semi-tame deer, so every element of the team's branding uses a deer motif. A super-fan has been dressing up in deer costume for several years, and serves as the team's unofficial mascot. An official announcement and naming ceremony cannot be too far off.
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