Kashima Antlers

Founded in 1947 as Sumitomo Metal Industries Factory Football Club in Osaka and moved to Kashima, Ibaraki in 1975. It played in the semi-professional Japan Soccer League (JSL). They were promoted to the JSL's top flight in 1984, but never made much of an impact, going down in 1985–86 , returning in 1986–87 and going down again in 1988–89. Its last standing in the JSL was 2nd in the Second Division for 1991–92. In October 1991, Kashima Antlers Co., Ltd. was established with investment from 43 companies (at the time) from 5 local governments.

After the formation of the fully professional J.League, Sumitomo, like all other clubs, stripped the corporate brand from the club's name and reformed as the Kashima Antlers in April 1992. Kashima was essentially promoted to the new top flight, as many JSL First Division clubs decided to relegate themselves being unprepared for professionalism. (Of the original 10 J.League founding member clubs, Kashima and Shimizu S-Pulse were newly promoted. Ironically, Kashima had defeated a forerunner of Shimizu's, Nippon Light Metal/Hagoromo Club, to earn its JSL Second Division place back in 1974).

Domestic treble and back-to-back league champions (1996–2002)

Since the J.League's creation and introduction of professional Japanese football in 1993, Kashima Antlers have consistently been amongst the strongest clubs in the country, holding several distinctions and records. Led by former Brazil national team star and Japan national team coach Zico in the club's formative years, Kashima Antlers were the first club to win a J.League stage, claiming the 1st stage of the inaugural season in 1993. In 1996, Kashima Antlers won their first ever league title in the first division, However, in 1997, they failed to defend their league title where they ended up as runners-up in the league after losing to Júbilo Iwata 4–2 on aggregate in the Suntory Championship. However, Kashima Antlers went on to win the Emperor's Cup, Japanese Super Cup and J.League Cup in the same year. In 1998, Kashima Antlers went on to win the league title again.

In 2000 Kashima became the first J.League club to achieve the "treble", by winning all three major titles: J.League, J.League Cup, and Emperor's Cup.

Three peats champions and rise of Kashima Antlers (2007–2019)

In recent times, by clinching the 2007 season league title, Kashima Antlers became the first and only club in Japan to have won ten domestic titles in the professional era. In 2008, Kashima Antlers became the first and only club to successfully defend the league titles on two occasions. In 2009, Kashima Antlers became the first and only club to win three consecutive J.League titles. With victories in back to back J.League Cups in 2011, 2012 and most recently followed by their 2015 victory, Kashima extended their unmatched record of major domestic titles in the professional era to seventeen.

To this day, Kashima has maintained strong ties with the football community in Brazil, a fact borne out of Zico's past affiliation with the club. Kashima's Brazilian connection has manifested itself in both the club's player transfer and coaching policy resulting in only three non-Brazilian foreign players and predominantly Brazilian managers signing for Kashima since the inception of the J.League.

The population of Kashima city is a mere 60,000 and for that reason club has also adopted the surrounding cities of Itako, Kamisu, Namegata and Hokota as its official hometowns, all in Ibaraki Prefecture. The combined population of five cities is 280,000. Antlers home games are played at Kashima Soccer Stadium, one of the 2002 FIFA World Cup venues with capacity of 40,000.

FIFA Club World Cup debut

During the 2016 FIFA Club World Cup, Kashima became the first Asian club to reach the FIFA Club World Cup final and notably became the only club to qualify from the first round until the final following a 3–0 victory over the 2016 Copa Libertadores champions, Atlético Nacional. In the 2016 FIFA Club World Cup Final, Kashima faced off against European champions Real Madrid. Gaku Shibasaki notably scored a brace in the match to put Kashima 2–1 up before Cristiano Ronaldo converted a penalty to level the match at 2–2. After 90 minutes, Kashima were beaten 4–2 after extra time.