Vegalta Sendai

Founded in 1988 as Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc. Soccer Club, Vegalta Sendai joined the J-League in 1999 after playing a few seasons in the JFL, with the nickname Brummell Sendai, to which they had been promoted in 1994 from the Tohoku Regional League. When joining the J-League, the name Vegalta was chosen as a homage to the famous Tanabata festival in Sendai. The names of the two celestial stars of the Tanabata legend, Vega and Altair were combined to form Vegalta.

They were first promoted to the top flight in 2002, but the team went back down the following season. They were promoted again for the 2010 season.

In 2011, despite the earthquake and tsunami, they achieved their highest position up to that time, 4th place in the top division.

In 2012, despite leading the table for most of the season, Sanfrecce Hiroshima's challenge proved too strong, and losing the penultimate week game to relegation battler Albirex Niigata cost them the title, rendering them second-place winners, their highest position in history.

In 2018, the Vegalta reached the final of the Emperor's Cup, losing 1-0 to Urawa Reds.

After twelve years spent in the J1 League, Vegalta returned to the J2 in 2022, after being relegated from the J1 at the end of 2021. After finishing in seventh place in the 2022 J2 League, thus failing to reach the promotion play-offs. Ryang Yong-gi, a symbol of Sendai, retired at the end of the 2023 season.

For the 2024 season, Yoshiro Moriyama, who has a track record of developing players at Sanfrecce Hiroshima's training age group and the U17 Japan National Team, was appointed as Manager.