Verdy Kawasaki’s 1992 Shirt
May 15, 1993.
It was a day that changed the history of Japanese football.
At Tokyo’s National Stadium, Verdy Kawasaki and Yokohama Marinos faced each other in the opening match of the J.League.
A packed National Stadium.
A spectacular opening ceremony.
And the excitement of a brand-new professional football league that had never existed in Japan before.
For Japan, the launch of the J.League was truly a major national event.
But the year before the “first year of the J.League,” there was another tournament that played an important role in Japanese football history.
That tournament was the 1992 Yamazaki Nabisco Cup.
The “Pre-Season” Tournament Before the J.League
In 1992, ahead of the J.League’s official launch in 1993, the Yamazaki Nabisco Cup was held as a pre-launch tournament designed to build excitement for Japan’s first professional football league.
It was the tournament that would eventually become today’s J.League YBC Levain Cup.
The competition featured the 10 clubs that would join the J.League the following year.
In other words, this tournament is an important part of understanding what Japanese football was like on the eve of the J.League era.
For Japanese football fans at the time, it was also the first major opportunity to see what the upcoming professional league might actually look like.
And the club that won this historic first edition was Verdy Kawasaki.
Verdy Kawasaki: The First Nabisco Cup Champions
The final was:
Verdy Kawasaki vs. Shimizu S-Pulse
The match was played at Tokyo’s National Stadium.
More than 50,000 spectators packed into the stadium to watch the final.
And the player who scored the decisive goal was one of the biggest stars in Japanese football, Kazuyoshi Miura, better known as “Kazu.”
Kazu’s goal gave Verdy Kawasaki a 1–0 victory.
Verdy were crowned the first-ever Yamazaki Nabisco Cup champions.
The J.League had not even officially begun yet, but Verdy Kawasaki were already establishing themselves as one of the biggest clubs in Japanese football.
The Historic Shirt
The shirt featured in this article is the one worn by Verdy Kawasaki in 1992.
It is a highly collectible early shirt from the club that would eventually become today’s Tokyo Verdy.
On the chest is the logo of the club’s main sponsor at the time, Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola was one of the defining sponsors of Verdy during the early 1990s, with the Coca-Cola logo remaining on the front of the shirt through 1995.
Compared with modern football shirts, this shirt has a distinctly 1990s look and atmosphere.
The Shirt Supplier Was PUMA
The 1992 shirt was produced by the German sportswear brand PUMA.
This is another interesting detail for football shirt collectors.
Verdy Kawasaki switched to Mizuno from 1993 through 1996.
That means this 1992 shirt comes from the short period when PUMA supplied Verdy Kawasaki, just before the launch of the J.League.
Then Came the Famous “Watermelon Shirt”
Comparing the 1992 shirt with the following season’s design is particularly fascinating.
In 1993, the year the J.League officially began, Verdy Kawasaki introduced the famous “Watermelon Shirt.”
It featured a green base with bold red and black stripes, creating an instantly recognizable design.
Compared with the 1992 shirt, it had a completely different atmosphere.
With the launch of the J.League, Japanese football shirts also became much more colorful and visually ambitious.
You can really see that transformation by comparing the shirts from these two seasons.
Number 11 Was, of Course, Kazu!
And when talking about Verdy Kawasaki in 1993, there is one player who immediately comes to mind.
Number 11: Kazuyoshi Miura.
By the time the J.League began, Kazu was already one of Japan’s biggest sporting stars.
And remarkably, he is still playing professional football today.
From Verdy’s 1992 Nabisco Cup triumph, to the launch of the J.League, and all the way to the present day, Kazu has continued to be part of Japanese football history.
He is truly a unique figure in the history of the game in Japan.
A Shirt That Captures the Dawn of Japanese Football
The 1992 Verdy Kawasaki shirt is more than just a vintage football shirt.
It captures a major turning point in Japanese football:
Japanese football before the launch of the J.League.
The first-ever Yamazaki Nabisco Cup.
Verdy Kawasaki, the inaugural champions.
More than 50,000 fans filling the National Stadium.
And Kazuyoshi Miura scoring the winning goal.
It would also be fascinating to display this shirt alongside the spectacular “Watermelon Shirt” that appeared with the launch of the J.League the following year.
From 1992 to 1993.
It was a time when Japanese football was about to undergo a dramatic transformation, just before the country’s professional league finally began.
This shirt is a historical piece that captures the “dawn of Japanese football”—the moment just before the J.League changed the game forever.
