10 soccer teams that are linked to automotive companies

Although it seems like a simple coincidence, soccer and the automotive industry are more united than we really think. Many brands were the creators of several teams that compete globally and others have large participation in the clubs as majority members or owners in their entirety.

Several of these links are directly visible in the name of the team and others are noticed by the advertising of the shirt.. The most direct one is the Ulsan Hyundai Football Club (South Korea), which bears the name of the automaker in the team’s name, although this link is with Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s largest shipbuilder.

The best known, with which we are going to start our list, is the VfL Wolfsburg (Germany) that since its birth has a complete connection with Volkswagen that they have shown, for many years, on the green and white team jersey.

Teams from Germany, Japan, France, Italy, China and South Korea are on our list. Learn about the history of each one and their link with the brand:

VfL Wolfsburg (Germany)

VfL Wolfsburg, which participates in Germany’s Bundesliga (first division), was founded in 1945 and it was not until November 2007 that Volkswagen was fully owned when it acquired 100% of the shares.

Although the club was founded after the Second World War, The link began a few years earlier, when in 1938 the WKG VW Stadt des KdF-Wagens was born, a sports association of the company within the VW factory. A large part of that group was the one that finally formed part of the definitive creation of this team that had other names until it reached its current name.

Today, VfL Wolfsburg is home to the Volkswagen-Arena, a stadium that opened in December 2002 that currently has a capacity of 30,000 spectators. His most important milestone was achieved on May 23, 2009, after his victory against Werder Bremen, when they became champion for the first time in their Bundesliga history.

Jubilee Iwata (Japan)

Jubilee Iwata, which disputes the J1 League, is located in the city of Iwata, in Shizuoka prefecture.

The club was founded in 1972 by the Yamaha Motor Corporation, which is still the sole owner. Júbilo is one of the most successful teams in Japanese football with three Japanese league titles, three runners-up and two Emperor’s Cups. In addition, it is Japan’s most successful team in international football, as it has an AFC Champions League and was a finalist on two other occasions.

His home is at the Yamaha Stadium which has capacity for 15,165 seats and its traditional colors are light blue and white. Like the VfL Wolfsburg with Volkswagen, the Jubilee Iwata wears the Yamaha advertising on the chest of its players.

Football Club Sochaux-Montbéliard (Francia)

Better known as Sochaux, this French team, which today plays in the second division, It was founded in 1928 by the Peugeot family under the name of FC Sochaux. Two years later, it merged with AS Montbéliard, to carry the name it has today.

In 1932, it was the first of the French teams to turn professional, allowing it to be one of the best teams in the country, winning the 1935 and 1938 championships, as well as the 1937 French Cup.

After relegation to Ligue 2 in the 14-15 season, The Peugeot family decided to sell the club to the Hong Kong company Ledus for 7 million euros. For much of the years the automaker owned the team, the yellow jersey featured the Peugeot logo on the front. The shield still has the lion as a reference.

Juventus (Italy)

Juventus Football Club was founded on November 1, 1897 under the name of Sport Club Juventus, by a group of students who belonged to the Salesian Oratory founded by Don Bosco in 1845, from the Liceo Classico Massimo d’Azeglio.

On July 24, 1923, The Agnelli family, owners of the Fiat Group, took a stake in Juventus for the first time through the figure of Edoardo Agnelli, son of the company’s founder and elected president of the company.

One hundred years later the link is still intact. Since 2010, Andrea Agnelli has held the position of president of Juventus, as did his grandfather Edoardo between 1923 and 1935, his uncle Gianni between 1947 and 1954, and his father Umberto between 1955 and 1962.

Juventus, one of the most successful clubs in the Italian league and in the world, advertises Jeep, a brand belonging to the Stellantis Group, on its shirt.

Ulsan Hyundai Football Club (Corea del Sur)

It was fnamed on December 6, 1983 as the Hyundai Horang-i at the initiative of the Hyundai business conglomerate. He began competing in the South Korean championship in 1984 and although he always held high positions, he did not win his first league until 1996.

The team was a two-time K League champion (1996 and 2005) and their greatest achievement was securing the AFC Champions League in 2012 and 2020. The current owner is Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s largest shipbuilder and part of the Hyundai group.

FC Ingolstadt 04 (Alemania)

This team was founded in 2004 after the merger of two other clubs: ESV Ingolstadt and MTV Ingolstadt. He immediately began to play in the regional leagues and to be successful. His maximum achievement was on May 17, 2015, when he won the Bundesliga 2 title, which earned him the first division to reach the first division.

Although there is no official link in the stock package, it has a strong link with Audi, as they are both from the same city. The formal connection comes from the hand of the Audi Sportpark, a stadium that was built exclusively for this team. This cost about 20 million euros that, according to official sources, were paid by the club and by the car brand.

VfB Stuttgart (Germany)

VfB Stuttgart was founded on September 9, 1893, being one of the oldest, most historic and most traditional clubs in Germany. It occupies the fifth position in the historical table of the Bundesliga and They have played their home games since 1933 at the Mercedes-Benz Arena, which has a capacity of 60,449 spectators.

From the 2012-13 season to the present, the team with the white and red jersey is sponsoring Mercedes-Benz Bank.

Like FC Inglostad with Audi, VfB Stuttgart has a strong connection with Mercedes-Benz because of the short distance between their venues.

Yokohama F. Marinos (Japan)

Founded in 1972, the Yokohama-based Nissan Motor FC began competing in the Japanese promotion tournaments. Although the automaker remained owners, in 1992 they decided to rename it Yokohama Marinos.

Always with the Nissan logo on the chest, home games are played at the Nissan Stadium, which has a capacity of 72,327 seats. Together with Kashima Antlers, they are the only founding teams of the J. League (Japanese first division) that played all its editions.

Nagoya Grampus (Japan)

The team was founded in 1939 under the name Toyota Motor Soccer Club, as part of the company that bears the same name. In 1992, when it was decided to create a professional championship in Japan, Toyota’s team was one of the first ten to sign up and adopted the name Nagoya Grampus Eight; the term Grampus is a reference to one of the most prominent symbols of the city of Nagoya.

In 2016, the club wrote the blackest chapter in its history, after a terrible season the team was relegated to the second division for the first time. The following year, he would achieve promotion and in 2020, under the guidance of Massimo Ficcadenti, he achieved his best result in its history, reaching third place in the J League that gave him the classification to the AFC Champions League.

Chongqing Dangdai Lifan (China)

It was founded in 1995 in the city of Chongqing under the name Qianwei, until in 2000 they merged with the Chongqing Hongyan to create the Chongking Lifan after paying more than 55 million yuan.

After going through several denominations, the club remains in the elite of Chinese football and had, for a long time, the carmaker’s logo on the team’s crest.