The decision to depart Kamatamare Sanuki for Albirex Niigata was very much justified at the halfway mark of the 2026 campaign. Robaato Rasamu’s second club enjoyed a healthy 11-point lead with a game in hand and Niigata fans were dreaming of a return to J1 League under their exciting new manager.
Niigata’s form was led by promising 18-year-old striker Vusi More, who was already only two goals short of the club’s all-time record for most goals in a season (16). Including the final two games of last season, they were also only four short of Tokushima’s record of 25 games without defeat set in 2024. That strong form prompted the Niigata board to hand Rasamu an 18-month contract worth £3,500 per week.
Targeting The League Record
The second half of the season began by defeating Fujieda, one of just two teams to prevent them from scoring, 2-0 through a Victor Wanyama penalty and attacking midfielder Yuito Suzuki’s tidy finish. They were equally dominant in a 2-1 win at home to Koju, who only scored through a late direct free-kick, led by roaming playmaker Jarl-Emil Nesland creating the opener for exciting attacker Yuta Maeda and scoring the second.
Wanyama hit two piledrivers to earn a deserved 3-2 win at rivals Matsumoto Yamaga to set a new club record 18 games unbeaten in all competitions. A big game saw them welcome 3rd-place Sendai and they started brightly as More opened the scoring only for Sendai to score from their first attack. But another Wanyama 25-yarder and a great Yuito strike sealed a 3-2 victory to move them a huge 21 points clear of their opponents.
That was followed by Rasamu’s first return to Sanuki, who were struggling down in 19th without him. More broke his leg in training and they started sluggishly. But exciting striker Takashi Wakabayashi scored a wondergoal, which won the June J.League After Game Show Best Goal of the Month award, to level things up then completed a superb hat-trick before an undeserved late second for Sanuki. And that victory saw Niigata set a new J2 League record of 26 matches unbeaten.
J2 League Title In Sight
Wakabayashi backed that up by scoring twice in a 3-1 win at Gifu to move Niigata 17 points clear of 2nd-place Nagasaki and 26 points clear of 3rd-place Sendai with 13 games remaining. That teed up a big clash as Niigata entertained Nagasaki, in which their unbeaten streak looked to be ending as the visitors scored both their shots on target (quelle surprise). But Niigata showed their fighting spirit as midfielder Jinpei Yoshida scored his first goal of the season deep into injury time.
Niigata again left it late as Wanyama scored the only goal in the 87th minute at 6th-place Fukuoka then Maeda scored the winner at home to Machida. That looked like being his final act for the club as J1 League sides met his ludicrously low £875k minimum release fee, which his agent refused to remove in negotiations. But the little legend decided to stay! At this point, Rasamu had already brought in a like-for-like replacement by paying £1.5m for Kenta Momoi from FC-Tokyo.
Having opted to stay, Maeda was ruled out for a month as he twisted his ankle at Gunma, where another Wanyama screamer, which won July goal of the month, led a dominant 4-2 victory. The next day, Sendai drew at Iwata, which meant Niigata were promoted to J1 League! They celebrated promotion by hammering bottom side Akita 4-0 led by a Yuito brace and Momoi scoring on his full debut. That took them to Iwata needing just a point to win the title but struggled until Wakabayashi slammed home a penalty then neatly finished from 20 yards to secure a superb comeback.
Albirex Niigata were J2 League Champions!!
Rasamu’s boys celebrated their success with Wakabayashi and Momoi goals downing Chiba 2-1 then Tochigi 3-2 away. Momoi scored again in a 4-0 victory over Ryukyu and earned the Monthly MVP award in his first full month at the club. Rasamu took an opportunity to trial the ChaosBall approach he tested at Sanuki, which started well with a 2-1 win at Oita then a wild 4-3 win at home to Yamagata led by a brace from holding midfielder Kazuya Kinoshita. It also impressed in a 2-1 win at Omiya that left Niigata one game away from an unbeaten season going into a home clash with Tosu, who were thrashed 4-1.
Niigata wrapped up Rasamu’s first league campaign at the club without losing a single match and only drew four, finishing a ridiculous 38 points clear of 2nd-place Nagasaki. They equalled the J2 League points tally of 106. They only dropped two points in the last 21 games and won their final 12 matches. Yuito won the award for J2 Most Exciting Player for 27 goal contributions, More won Top Goalscorer with 16 in 22 and Rasamu won Manager of the Year.
Analysing Niigata’s Record-Breaking Season
Niigata racked up new club records for the most wins and points in a season, plus new record sequences of 23 matches without defeat and nine consecutive victories. Player-wise, and Wanyama became the club’s oldest goalscorer.
Unsurprisingly, Niigata led the way with 102 goals, 30 more than any other team, and overperformed their xG by 22.28, which was 13 more than any other side – and only 12 of those were from set pieces. They also created the most chances (190), had the most shots (526, 90 more than any other side), the most shots on target (247), the 3rd-best conversion rate (19%) and made the most dribbles (508) and the most high-intensity sprints (4,454, which was 1,000 more than any other side).
Niigata also had J2’s best defence, conceding 39 goals, and kept the 2nd-most clean sheets (12). They won the 2nd-fewest tackles (625) and clearances (317) but made the 4th-most blocks (147) and were the only team not to concede a penalty. Niigata also had the highest average attendance of 22,884, double that of any other side, and only had the 10th highest salary per annum (£3.25m).
More and Wakabayashi led the way with 16 goals followed by Yuito (14), Wanyama (11), Maeda (10), Nesland (6) and Momoi (5 in 9). The impressive Yuito led the way with 13 assists followed by Nesland (10), Maeda and Wanyama (9) and Junpei Muziguchi and Kazuya Kinoshita (7). They also had 11 players average at 7.00 or above led by Momoi’s 7.45 and Yuito’s 7.38.
Rasamu was thrilled with his start at Niigata, which more than justified his decision to depart Sanuki who, disappointingly, were relegated back to J3. However, he may have a huge task on his hands to try and strengthen Niigata to stay in J1 League next season.
How will Rasamu’s side fare in his first taste of top-tier football? Join us on Friday to find out!
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