Naoya Kikuchi

Naoya Kikuchi
Personnel
Surname	Naoya Kikuchi
birthday	November 24, 1984
place of birth	Shimizu , Shizuoka ,  Japan
size	181 cm
position	Midfield / defense
Juniors
Years	station
1997-2000	Shimizu S-Pulse
2000-2003	Shimizu Commercial HS
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
2003-2005	Júbilo Iwata	34 (1)
2005	Albirex Niigata	15 (1)
2006-2007	Júbilo Iwata	45 (5)
2008-2009	FC Carl Zeiss Jena	20 (0)
2009-2010	Ōita Trinita	45 (0)
2011-2013	Albirex Niigata	45 (1)
2013-2017	Sagan Tosu	71 (1)
2016-2017	→  Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo  (loan)
2018	Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo	33 (0)
2019–	Avispa Fukuoka	6 (0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
2001-2002	Japan U-17
2002-2004	Japan U-20
2004-2008	Japan U-23
2010	Japan	1 (0)
1 Only league games are given. As of October 9, 2019

Naoya Kikuchi ( Japanese 菊 地 直 哉 , Kikuchi Naoya ; born November 24, 1984 in Shimizu (today: Shizuoka ), Shizuoka Prefecture ) is a Japanese football player .

In his youth he played with Shimizu S-Pulse and in the school team of the Shimizu Municipal Commercial High School (Japanese: 清水 市立 商業 高等学校 , Shimizu-shiritsu shōgyō kōtō gakkō ; English: Shimizu Commercial High School), which had a close relationship with S -Pulse and a great football tradition. The first station of his professional career from 2003 was the local rival Júbilo Iwata . In the second half of 2005 he played for Albirex Niigata , but returned to Júbilo Iwata after that J. League season.

He was part of Japan's 2004 Olympic soccer team, which was eliminated after finishing last in the preliminary round. Group B played Paraguay , Italy and Ghana . He played a very good U-17 World Cup in 2001. In 2002 he was invited to a try-out at Arsenal FC and later went to the top Dutch club Feyenoord Rotterdam to try his luck there. He participated in the 2003 World Youth Championship for Japan's U-20 team.

In June 2007, Kikuchi was arrested on charges of having sex with a 15-year-old girl. Although he was acquitted in court, this incident led to the termination of the contract with Júbilo Iwata. He was also given a one-year ban for the J. League from the Japanese Football Association JFA . After a planned move to VfL Wolfsburg did not materialize, Kikuchi was signed for the second half of the 2007/08 season by second division club FC Carl Zeiss Jena , where he extended his contract to 2009 after relegation to the third division .

At the beginning of July 2009 he completed a trial training at Bundesliga club FC Schalke 04 , but a change to the "Knappen" did not materialize. The Japanese then moved back home and joined the Japanese first division club Oita Trinita.

Web links

• Naoya Kikuchi in the database of National-Football-Teams.com (English)