is a Japanese football club located in Ōita, Capital of Ōita Prefecture. They currently play in J2 League, Japanese second tier of professional football.

Name origin

The club's name, Trinita, is the Italian translation of the word trinity (trinità), which was the club's original name before being changed in 1999, and Ōita, the club's home town. The combined word expresses the will of the local citizens, companies, and government to support the team. Another connection to the Italian culture can be found in the city nickname Azzurro ("light blue" in Italian).

History

The club was formed as Ōita Trinity in 1994 and advanced through the Ōita Prefectural League and the Kyushu League before finishing as the runner-up of the 1996 National League, resulting in promotion to the JFL. In 1999, the club changed its name to Trinita due to copyright infringement concerns. The same year, the club joined J.League Division 2, the second-highest flight in Japanese football (renamed to its current name of J2 League in 2015) and placed third. The club also placed third in 2000, and despite being in contention for promotion until the final game of the season in 2001, finished sixth. The following year, the club won J.League Division 2 and finally earned promotion to the top-flight Division 1. In 2008, the club won the J.League Cup, the first major title won by a Kyūshū club since Yawata Steel SC shared the 1964 Emperor's Cup.

In the 2009 season, Ōita suffered their worst-ever results in their seven-year history in the topflight, including 14 straight losses in league matches, which is the current worst record in the J.League since the golden goal system was eliminated. Ōita even fired cup-winning manager Pericles Chamusca in mid-July. On October 25, the club's relegation was confirmed after being held to a 1–1 draw by ten-man Kyoto Sanga, although the club would have faced relegation anyway as they had outstanding loans from the JFL's emergency fund and league rules prohibit clubs with such loans from participating in the top tier.

During the 2012 J.League Division 2 season, Ōita finished in sixth place, qualifying for the promotion playoffs in the first year of its introduction in Japan's second flight as the club had also paid back all its emergency loans that October. Despite being the lowest seed, Ōita defeated Kyoto Sanga 4–0 in the semi-final and JEF United Chiba 1–0 in the final, earning promotion to 2013 J.League Division 1, returning to the top tier after a 5-year absence This time, however, their top tier stay lasted only one season. In 2015 they were further relegated to J3 League after losing in the promotion playoffs to Machida Zelvia on December 6, becoming the first major trophy winner to be relegated to the third tier. The club immediately gained promotion back to J2 League by winning the J3 League title in 2016. In 2018, after finishing as runner's up in the J2 League in 2018, Oita Trinita gained promotion back to J1. After finishing 18th in 2021, Trinita would be relegated back to J2 League, but in the background of that, the club made a Cinderella run to the Emperor's Cup Final. Just 1 week after the confirmation to be relegated, they defeated defending Emperor's Cup champion Kawasaki Frontale in stunning fashion in the semis; after the game was tied 1 all, Trinita won 4–5 on penalty kicks. They ended up losing to Urawa Red Diamonds in the final, giving the Reds their eighth Emperor's Cup title.

The club will play its second consecutive season at the J2 League in the 2023 season.

Stadium The club's hometown is the city of Ōita, but the club draws support from the entire Ōita Prefecture. The stadium originally had a capacity of 43,000 for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, 3,000 movable seats on the track were removed, giving the stadium its current capacity of 40,000.

The club's home ground is Crasas Dome Oita, also known as the "Big Eye", which was one of the venues built for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. The club practices at its adjacent football and rugby field, and Ōita City Public Ground.

League and cup record ChampionsRunners-upThird placePromotedRelegated Season Div. Teams Pos. P W (OTW) D L (OTL) F A GD Pts Attendance/G J.League Cup Emperor's Cup1999J2 10 3rd 36 18 (3) 3 8 (4) 62 42 20 63 3,886 2nd round 3rd round200011 3rd 40 26 (0) 3 8 (3) 80 38 42 81 4,818 1st round 3rd round200112 6th 44 24 (1) 4 9 (6) 75 52 23 78 6,638 2nd round 3rd round200212 1st 44 28 10 6 67 34 33 94 12,349 Not eligible 4th round2003J1 16 14th 30 5 11 14 27 37 -10 26 21,373 Group stage 3rd round200416 13th 30 8 6 16 35 56 -21 30 21,889 Group stage 5th round200518 11th 34 12 7 15 44 43 1 43 22,080 Group stage 5th round200618 8th 34 13 8 13 47 45 2 47 20,350 Group stage 5th round200718 14th 34 12 5 17 42 60 -18 41 19,759 Group stage 5th round200818 4th 34 16 8 10 33 24 9 56 20,322 Winners 4th round200918 17th 34 8 6 20 26 45 -19 30 18,428 Group stage 3rd round2010J2 19 15th 36 10 11 15 39 49 -10 41 10,463 Not eligible 3rd round201120 12th 38 12 14 12 42 45 -3 50 8,779 2nd round201222 6th 42 21 8 13 59 40 19 71 9,721 2nd round2013J1 18 18th 34 2 8 24 31 67 -36 14 11,915 Group stage Quarter finals2014J2 22 7th 42 17 12 13 52 55 -3 63 8,422 Not eligible 3rd round201522 21st 42 8 14 20 41 51 -10 38 7,533 3rd round2016J3 16 1st 30 19 4 7 50 24 26 61 7,771 3rd round2017J2 22 9th 42 17 13 12 58 50 8 64 8,063 3rd round201822 2nd 42 23 7 12 76 51 25 76 8,907 2nd round2019J1 18 9th 34 12 11 11 35 35 0 47 15,347 Group stage Quarter finals2020 †18 11th 34 11 10 13 36 45 -9 43 5,147 Group stage Did not qualify2021 †20 18th 38 9 8 21 31 55 -24 35 6,722 Group stage Runners-up2022J2 22 5th 42 17 15 10 62 52 10 66 6,618 Group stage 3rd round202322 9th 42 17 11 14 54 56 -2 62 9,143 Not eligible2nd round202420 16th 38 10 13 15 33 47 -14 43 10,360 1st round Round of 16202516th 38 8 14 16 27 44 -17 38 10,402 1st round 3rd round202610 TBD 18 N/A N/A2026-2720 TBD 38 TBD TBD Key

Honours Honour No. YearsKyushu Soccer League11995J2 League12002J.League Cup12008J3 League12016

Current squad

Out on loan

Club officials For 2025 season Position StaffManager Shuhei YomodaFirst-team coaches Satoshi Yasui Kenji BabaGoalkeeper coach Keisuke YoshisakaPhysical coach Ryo YanoStrength coach Hitoshi OtomoCheef Trainer Shota HaradaTrainer Kiyohisa Shibata Tsutomu Okabayashi Tomoki IwasaCompetent Hikaru KikuzumiDeputy officer Keishiro Seto Akito ShimoyamaInterpreter Alejandro Masafumi Matsumura

Managerial history Manager Nationality TenureStart FinishMoon Jung-sik 1 February 1994 31 January 1997Nobuhiro Ishizaki 1 February 1999 30 April 2001Shinji Kobayashi 1 May 2001 31 January 2004Han Berger 1 February 2004 31 January 2005Hwangbo Kwan 1 February 2005 28 August 2005Arie Schans 1 September 2005 8 September 2005Pericles Chamusca 9 September 2005 13 July 2009Ranko Popović 1 August 2009 31 December 2009Hwangbo Kwan 1 February 2010 31 January 2011Kazuaki Tasaka 1 February 2011 2 June 2015Nobuaki Yanagida 1 June 2015 3 January 2016Tomohiro Katanosaka 1 February 2016 31 January 2022Takahiro Shimotaira 1 February 2022 10 November 2023Tomohiro Katanosaka 30 November 2023 18 August 2025 Minoru Takenaka 18 August 2025 12 January 2026Shuhei Yomoda 12 January 2026 Current

Club captains Cui Daewoo (1999) Tomohiro Katanosaka (2000) Tetsuro Uki (2002–2003) Sandro (2004) Takayuki Yoshida (2005) Takashi Miki (2006–2007) Daiki Takamatsu (2008–2010) Masashi Miyazawa (2011–2013) Kazumichi Takagi (2014) Daniel (2015) Satoru Yamagishi (2016–2017) Akira Takeuchi (January – August 2018) Kenji Baba (August – December 2018) Yoshinori Suzuki (2019–2020) Shun Takagi (2021) Hokuto Shimoda (2022) Tsukasa Umesaki (2023) Arata Watanabe (2024)

Kit evolution Home kit - 1st

Away kit - 2nd Special kits - 3rd

References

External links