Shigeru Sakurai facts for kids
| Personal information | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Shigeru Sakurai | |||||||||
| Date of birth | June 29, 1979 | |||||||||
| Place of birth | Ibaraki, Japan | |||||||||
| Height | 1.84 m (6 ft +1⁄2 in) | |||||||||
| Position(s) | Goalkeeper | |||||||||
| Youth career | ||||||||||
| 1995–1997 | Sakai High School | |||||||||
| 1998–2001 | Komazawa University | |||||||||
| Senior career* | ||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | |||||||
| 2002–2006 | Montedio Yamagata | 133 | (0) | |||||||
| 2007–2008 | Ventforet Kofu | 30 | (0) | |||||||
| 2009–2014 | Vegalta Sendai | 1 | (0) | |||||||
| 2015 | Tochigi SC | 20 | (0) | |||||||
| Total | 184 | (0) | ||||||||
|
Medal record
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| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | ||||||||||
Shigeru Sakurai (桜井 繁, Sakurai Shigeru, born June 29, 1979) is a former Japanese football player. He played as a goalkeeper for several teams in Japan's professional leagues.
Contents
Shigeru Sakurai's Football Journey
Shigeru Sakurai was born in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, on June 29, 1979. He loved football from a young age. After finishing his studies at Komazawa University, he began his professional football career in 2002.
Starting with Montedio Yamagata
Sakurai joined Montedio Yamagata, a club in the J2 League (Japan's second-highest football league). He quickly showed his skills and became the team's main goalkeeper in 2003. A main goalkeeper is the player who usually starts the game in goal. He played many matches for Montedio Yamagata until 2006.
Moving to Ventforet Kofu
In 2007, Sakurai moved to Ventforet Kofu, a team in the J1 League (Japan's top football league). It was a tough year for him to get playing time. He had strong competition from other goalkeepers like Kensaku Abe and Tatsuya Tsuruta. At the end of the 2007 season, Ventforet Kofu was "relegated" to the J2 League. This means they moved down from the top league to the second league because of their performance. In 2008, Sakurai became the main goalkeeper for Ventforet Kofu.
Time with Vegalta Sendai
Sakurai then joined Vegalta Sendai, another J2 League club, in 2009. Vegalta Sendai was promoted to the J1 League at the end of the 2010 season. Even though his team moved up, Sakurai found it hard to get regular playing time. He was often a backup goalkeeper behind players like Takuto Hayashi and Kentaro Seki until 2014.
Final Season with Tochigi SC
In 2015, Sakurai moved to Tochigi SC, a team in the J2 League. He played in many matches that season, sharing the goalkeeper position with Akihiko Takeshige. However, Tochigi SC finished last in the 2015 J2 League season. This meant they were relegated to the J3 League, which is the third-highest professional league in Japan. After this season, Shigeru Sakurai decided to retire from professional football.
External links
- Shigeru Sakurai at SoccerwayLua error in Module:EditAtWikidata at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).Lua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 22: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- Shigeru Sakurai at J.League Lua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 22: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
See also
In Spanish: Shigeru Sakurai para niños
