ACA Football Partners officially became the owner of KMSK Deinze. This marked the beginning of our multi-club ownership concept and our ambitious projects connecting Europe and Asia. It was one of the first instances of a Japanese-led company becoming the owner of a European professional football club.
KMSK Deinze, a core club of ACA Football Partners, entered into a partnership with Vietnam Football Talents Promotion Company Ltd. (PVF) to work on youth player development. PVF, based in Hung Yen Province, is one of the top football academies in Vietnam and has been awarded the AFC 3-Star Elite Youth Academy status by the Asian Football Confederation, ranking among the top three Elite Youth Academies in Asia. As part of this partnership, KMSK Deinze launched the “RISING STAR” project, conducting a selection process for 15-17-year-old players in Vietnam. The selected players were given the opportunity to come to Deinze, Belgium, to gain experience with the academy team.
ACA Football Partners followed the selection organized by KMSK Deinze and PVF in Vietnam and produced the documentary series “RISING STAR presented by Phat Dat Corporation.” With a partnership agreement with VTVcab, one of the biggest media companies in Vietnam, the series was broadcasted in Vietnam, allowing football fans to follow the young stars as they pursued their dreams. The project was recognized and chosen to celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and Vietnam. The committee valued it for connecting Asia and Europe through football, with the main project leaders being Japanese.
KMSK Deinze, a core club of ACA Football Partners, entered into a comprehensive partnership with Albirex Niigata Singapore to expand its football business connecting Europe and Asia. As part of this collaboration, the club welcomed Ilhan Fandi. This was the club’s first major acquisition of a senior player from Asia. Ilhan gained valuable experience at Deinze by playing for both the top and U21 teams.
KMSK Deinze signed an agreement to bring Yuta Miyamoto on loan from Urawa Red Diamonds, one of the biggest professional football clubs in Japan. Yuta participated in the top team training at KMSK Deinze for two weeks in November 2022 as part of a collaboration with Urawa Red Diamonds. To share his journey, ACAFP partnered with DAZN JP to live-stream KMSK Deinze matches during the second half of the 2022-23 season.
KMSK Deinze signed an agreement with Marselino Ferdinan from Persebaya Surabaya, one of the biggest and most popular professional football clubs in Indonesia. It was his first time playing abroad, and he was able to improve his physical strength under the guidance of a professional coach. With the experience he gained at KMSK Deinze, he played well for the Indonesian national team, contributing to its progress.
ACA Football Partners announced that we have reached an agreement to take over the ownership of Juventud Torremolinos Club de Fútbol in Spain. This was another milestone for ACAFP in developing a multi-club ownership business by expanding our platform. The club serves as a place to develop young players with a strong desire to advance to higher league categories. Additionally, in June 2023, the club partnered with CD San Félix, a historic club based in Málaga City. The CD San Félix U19 team plays in the highest category of youth competition (División de Honor) and is exclusively dedicated to nurturing young talents, preparing them to build professional football careers at top clubs in the future.
ACA Football Partners has reached an agreement to join Global Football Partners (GFP), the new ownership group of Charlton Athletic FC, a club in EFL League 1 from England. ACAFP has become one of seven minority shareholders in this London-based former Premier League club. Our CEO, Hiroyuki Ono, has also joined the Board of GFP, alongside other experienced football club owners. The integration of Charlton into the ACAFP family is expected to open up new opportunities for the development of Charlton’s young players, including access to leagues in Belgium and Spain. Conversely, players within ACAFP’s ecosystem will have clear opportunities to move to English leagues if they demonstrate suitable proficiency.
Together with Albirex Niigata Singapore, we organized a youth selection program called “RISING STAR” in Singapore as part of our strategic partnership. The U15 and U17 squads of Albirex’s youth teams were selected through an open application process. One particularly attractive aspect was a short internship program offered in Belgium, which garnered over 850 applicants for the initial selection. In February 2024, we welcomed three selected players to KMSK Deinze for a two-week internship. During their time with us, they had the opportunity to immerse themselves in the academy team and experience the football environment both on and off the pitch in Belgium.
Juventud Torremolinos won the league championship in the 2023-24 season, achieving a remarkable promotion to the Segunda RFEF within a year. The club has been functioning as a place for the development of young players for MCO, built by ACAFP. In the summer of 2024, a player from Torremolinos also moved up to KMSK Deinze. Moving forward, the club aims to reach even higher categories, while promoting more active player transfers within the group and advancing alongside regional stakeholders.
Hiroyuki (“Hiro”) has over 15 years of experience in Private Equity and Investment Banking, with his expertise in deal origination and fundraising.
Hiro launched ACA Football Partners with his passion to connect the players, coaches, fans and business professionals between European and Asian regions.
Akihisa (Aki) has over 5 years experience in football business both in Japan and Europe, with his expertise in all corporate and business functions in the football club. In STVV, he reorganized the club structure and he made clear governance with the accounting and decision making workflow as CFO. Thanks to that, the club got 3rd position in financial fair play ranking in 2018-19 in Belgium. On the other hand, he managed business KPI and arranged business plans and strategies in the club.
Adrián has worked in professional football since 2010 in different countries across Europe. He began his professional career in Málaga CF, reaching quarter-finals of Champions League as a first-timer club, where he eventually worked his way up to Head of Analysis and Technical Director. After a season in Tottenham as a scout, he was back to Spain, to work close to Eduardo Macià, one of the best European Director of Football, in Real Betis Balompié. They also worked together in Leicester City FC and Girondins Bordeaux, achieving good sporting results linked to a self-financing strategy.
Yu brings communications experience having served as a PR person within global sports industries since 2017. At DAZN Japan she gained experience of working as PR&Communications team, mainly was involved in activities such as external media communications and event coordinating, dealing with a variety of sports contents. Later she moved to Spain for a year to work at International Communications department of Cádiz CF (Spain), from LaLiga, and managed to plan and deliver exclusive contents for Japan market to raise its awareness and interest by collaborating local marketing specialists.
Katsutoshi (Toshi) has been developing his career basically in global business development and its operation. From the early stage of his career he has been dedicated to business developments; established a shop in Vietnam, and established a baby food D2C start-up. After that, he joined Japan Tobacco, which is one of the biggest tobacco companies in the world. He was engaged in the global operational planning of vaping devices based in Hong Kong, which was the center of the company strategy at that time.
Álvaro López has a comprehensive background in coaching, analysis, and scouting. He advanced to roles as a second coach and tactical analyst for Jumilla CF B and Jumilla CF (2B + 3rd Division Spain) in 2018. Next season he becomes Technical Director of Mar Menor CF reaching the play offs to promote to 2Div B. Later in 2020, he transitioned to BeSoccer as a Scouting Coordinator and Data Scout Analyst for BeSoccer Pro, the largest football database globally. From August 2020 to February 2022, he worked as a liaison with clubs such as Deportivo Alaves, Granada CF, and Valencia CF from LaLiga, providing analysis and reports.