Ishikawa Football Club Zweigen Kanazawa (石川フットボールクラブ・ツエーゲン金沢 Ishikawa Futtobōru Kurabu Tsuēgen Kanazawa) is a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese football club based in Kanazawa

Kanazawa, Ishikawa

is the capital city of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan.-Geography, climate, and population:Kanazawa sits on the Sea of Japan, bordered by the Japan Alps, Hakusan National Park and Noto Peninsula National Park. The city sits between the Sai and Asano rivers. Its total area is 467.77 km².Kanazawa's...

, Ishikawa Prefecture

Ishikawa Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region on Honshū island. The capital is Kanazawa.- History :Ishikawa was formed from the merger of Kaga Province and the smaller Noto Province.- Geography :Ishikawa is on the Sea of Japan coast...

. They play in Japan Football League

Japan Football League

The is the 3rd tier of the Japanese association football league system, following J. League Division 1 and J. League Division 2. Also known as the JFL, it is generally considered as the top amateur league in Japan although in reality it is a semi-professional league as many full-time footballers...

.

History

The club was formed in 1956 under the simple name Kanazawa Soccer Club and adopted its current identity in 2004. The Hokushinetsu region, long sleepy in football terms and whose potential only arose with Albirex Niigata

Albirex Niigata

is a Japanese J. League Division 1 association football team. Despite the club's relative youth, only joining the J. League in 1999, Albirex are one of Japan's best supported teams. In 2003, while still playing in the second tier of Japanese football , Albirex attracted the best average crowd in...

 leading the way, provided few opportunities for Kanazawa to rise in Japan's football ranks until the late 2000s. On 19 December 2009 they got promoted to JFL

JFL

JFL may refer to:* Japan Football League - the now-defunct former second division of football in Japan* Japan Football League - the current third division of football in Japan...

 after beat FC Kariya at the promotion/relegation playoff with 2–1 aggregate score.

On December 15 2010, a new management company called Zweigen, Inc. was built in order to apply to the J-League associate membership.

On January 7 2011 the team apply to J-League associate membership.

Name and symbolism

The name "Zweigen" is a portmanteau of the German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 zwei, for the number 2, and gen, to advance. In Kanazawa dialect

Hokuriku dialect

The is a Japanese dialect group spoken in Hokuriku region, consists of Fukui Prefecture, Ishikawa Prefecture, Toyama Prefecture, and Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture...

, the phrase tsuyoi noda! (Be Strong!) became tsuee gen! by double entendre

Double entendre

A double entendre or adianoeta is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué or ironic....

. In German, the word zweigen actually means branches, and owing to this, a fleur-de-lis

Fleur-de-lis

The fleur-de-lis or fleur-de-lys is a stylized lily or iris that is used as a decorative design or symbol. It may be "at one and the same time, political, dynastic, artistic, emblematic, and symbolic", especially in heraldry...

 is a key part of the club's crest.

Current squad

As of 31 March 2011