🇯🇵 Can this J. League team pull off a Leicester City-esque fairytale?
Machida Zelvia are just 11 games from the title in their first-ever top flight season!
There is an unfamiliar name at the top of the J. League table right now.
That the name Machida Zelvia isn’t familiar to you shouldn’t be taken as some sort of statement on your lack of Japanese football knowledge. This is, after all, a team playing top division for the first time ever - and they’re title frontrunners!
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The J. League debutants are just 11 games away from pulling off ‘a Leicester City,’ maybe even surpassing the Foxes’ fairytale. Not even Claudio Ranieri’s team won the title as a promoted side!
So how have Machida done it? How did they go from non-league football in 2009 to leading the J. League with a coach who is only midway through his second season in professional management?
