Montedio Yamagata

Yamagata is not a big football city. The prefecture sits in the north-east of Honshu, snow country, and the team that now carries its name began in Tsuruoka on the coast — a works side run by the electronics company NEC, playing in prefectural competition. It won the prefecture in 1989, then took the Tohoku league four years running from 1990. In 1996 the company side turned professional, took the name Montedio Yamagata and joined the J. League.

The ground, ND Soft Stadium Yamagata, holds 21,292 and lies outside the city proper. The badge puts an eagle and a bee together, which is where the English nickname, The Eagle Bees, comes from.

The climb has come in two goes. Second place in J2 in 2008 carried the club up automatically, and its best finish in the top flight followed in 2010: thirteenth. The 2014 season was the busier one — Montedio came through the J1 promotion play-off and reached the final of the Emperor's Cup.

Ownership changed hands in 2024, when Escon Co., Ltd. bought 98% of the shares and put in ¥20bn. Until then the club had been run by a non-profit body.

The fixture that matters most is with Blaublitz Akita, and it is named after a railway: the Ōu Main Line, which runs between Yamagata and Akita prefectures. The two meet twice a season, and the winner over the pair earns the right to wear its home kit in the away leg the following year. There is a second northern fixture, against Vegalta Sendai, usually billed as the Tohoku Derby — but the railway one is the one with the terms attached.