Lu Kun-chi

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Personal information
Lu Kun-chi
Full name	Lu Kun-chi (呂昆錡)
Date of birth	February 6, 1985 (1985-02-06) (age 23)
Place of birth	Tainan, R.O.C. (Taiwan)
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	Grulla Morioka
Number	22
Youth clubs
1992-1997 1997-2000 2000-2003	Jia Li Primary School Jia Li Junior High School Pei Men
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2003-2006 2007 2008-present	Taiwan PE College Grulla Morioka Taiwan PE College	1 (0) 2 (0)
National team
2003-2007 2004-present	Chinese Taipei U-23　 Chinese Taipei	2 (0) 15 (0)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

This is a Chinese name; the family name is 'Lu (呂)'.

Lu Kun-chi (Chinese: 呂昆錡; pinyin: Lǔ Kūnqí, born February 6, 1985 in Tainan County, Taiwan) is a Taiwanese football goalkeeper who currently plays for Japanese Grulla Morioka. Nicknamed Taiwanese Buffon (台灣布馮), he is also the first choice goalkeeper in the Chinese Taipei national football team.

1 Biography
2 Trivia
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early years

Lu was born in Tainan, Taiwan. He has one brother and one sister, among whom he is the youngest. Lu started to play football at the age of 10 after his family moved to Jiali, another township in Tainan other than which he was born. He has played goalkeeper since age 11 in Jiali Primary School and Jiali Junior High School.

When he was 14, his height reached 180 cm (5 ft 11 in). It was thought he was likely to be included in the Chinese Taipei U-15 squad, but he was not. "At that time, I told myself I should enter the [Chinese Taipei] youth team in three years," he said to the press after years.^[1] Under the instruction of Pei Men goalkeeper coach Hung Chin-chang, he spent only two years to make his wish come true. He was called up to the Chinese Taipei U-21 at age 17, the U-23 at age 18, and eventually the senior team in 2004.

[edit] Chinese Taipei debut

Lu's Chinese Taipei senior team debut was on October 14, 2004 against Palestine in 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification.^[2] His amazing performance soon earned him a regular place in the national team. Since then, he has been the first choice goalkeeper for Chinese Taipei. He also performed well in domestic league. He has been voted as the Best Goalkeeper in the Chinese Taipei National Football League 2005 season at the time he plays for National Taiwan College of Physical Education.^[3]

[edit] Seeking opportunities in Japan

In June, 2005, Masakazu Suzuki, former manager of J. League side Júbilo Iwata, was invited to Taiwan to give lectures and to provide selection tests to Taiwanese talented youngsters.^[4] Lu took the test but did not perform himself because he was too nervous to keep his pace. One month later, supported by his professor Chao Jung-jui in Taiwan PE College, he went to Japan for the first time to accept the training tests provided by Yokohama FC and JEF United Ichihara Chiba.^[5] However, he failed to earn his position in both clubs.

In October, 2006, with the recommendation of then Chinese Taipei manager Toshiaki Imai, Lu flew to Japan again to join the trainings with Yokohama F. Marinos for 2 weeks along with his teammate Chen Po-liang.^[6]

[edit] Grulla Morioka

After two months of waiting, although there was no update from Yokohama, Lu received an invitation from Grulla Morioka of the Japanese regional Tohoku League.^[7]^[8] He became the first Taiwanese male footballer to join a Japanese professional football club.^[9] On March 4, 2007, a press conference was held, and Grulla Morioka formally announced their signings of Lu and his compatriot Chuang Wei-lun,^[10] albeit the latter suddenly returned to Taiwan and failed to contract with the club afterwards.^[11] Lu's contract was confirmed on March 9,^[11] and he was assigned the number 22 shirt. On June 10, Lu made his debut for Grulla in the game against Furukawa Battery F.C., of which he substituted Kazuya Obara after 83 minutes. However, he was unable to prove himself and sidelined from first-team action. With Grulla Morioka's failure in the year-end JFL promotion tournament, Lu returned to Taiwan in December.^[12]