AFC Champions League Elite final: Japanese team with school coach to cap remarkable journey
Tokyo club Machida Zelvia, who had never played in Japan’s top flight until 2024, are one win away from becoming Asian club champions
Japan’s Machida Zelvia shared their clubhouse with senior citizens doing fitness classes less than a decade ago. Now they are one win away from being Asian champions.
The team from the Tokyo suburbs will look to complete their remarkable transformation from non-league nobodies to continental conquerors when they face Saudi Arabia’s defending champions Al-Ahli in the Asian Champions League final on Saturday in Jeddah.
Machida are making their debut in Asia’s top club competition and were playing non-league football as recently as 2013.
They are led by a former high-school coach and play at a homely tree-lined stadium in front of an average 14,000 fans.
They have already beaten big-spending Saudis Al Ittihad and now have the Champions League trophy in their sights.
“I think it just shows that Machida have been doing things properly, building up step by step,” journalist Kazuto Oshima, who has been covering the team since 2012, said.