Akira Kaji

Akira Kaji
Personnel
birthday	January 13, 1980
place of birth	Hyogo ,  Japan
size	1.77 m
position	Defender
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1998-1999	Cerezo Osaka	24 (0)
2000-2001	→  Ōita Trinita  (loan)	75 (3)
2002-2005	FC Tokyo	89 (1)
2006-2014	Gamba Osaka	225 (2)
2014	CD Chivas USA	15 (0)
2015-2017	Fagiano Okayama	86 (1)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
2003-2008	Japan	64 (2)
1 Only league games are given.

Akira Kaji ( Japanese 加 地 亮 Kaji Akira ; born January 13, 1980 in Minamiawaji , Hyōgo Prefecture ) is a Japanese former football player .

Career

After leaving the school teams, Kaji joined the Japanese first division club Cerezo Osaka in 1998 , where he came to some appearances as a supplementary player in the first two years. He was then loaned to Ōita Trinita for two years , who played in Division 2, and there he became a regular regular on the right defensive side.

After the club missed promotion twice, he moved back to the capital club FC Tokyo in the top division. The highlight of his four years there was winning the league cup in 2004. In 2006 he moved to the Gamba Osaka club, which had previously become Japanese champions .

His career in Japan's national teams was also very successful. Akira Kaji was part of the U20 team that came second at the 1999 Junior World Cup. In October 2003 he played for the Japanese national team for the first time and since May 2004 he has been part of the team. In 2004, Japan won the Asian Cup with him and he was there at the Confederations Cup as well as in qualifying for the 2006 World Cup . At the World Cup he played two of the three preliminary round matches in Japan's World Cup line-up .

Title / Achievements

• Asian champion 2004
• Vice-Junior World Champion 1999
• Yamazaki Nabisco Cup 2004 (Tokyo FC)

Web links

• Japanese league statistics ( Memento from May 4, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• World Cup profile of Fifa