Sanfrecce Hiroshima

The club was founded in 1938 as the works team of Toyo Kogyo, the carmaker now known as Mazda, and was one of the eight founder members of the Japan Soccer League in 1965, which it dominated in its early years. It took the name Sanfrecce Hiroshima on turning professional in 1992, sanfrecce meaning three arrows after a parable of the local warlord Mori Motonari. Counting both eras it shares the record of eight Japanese top-flight titles, three of them in the J1 League.