Ryoichi Maeda

Ryoichi Maeda

Personal information
Full name	Ryoichi Maeda
Date of birth	(1981-10-09) 9 October 1981
Place of birth	Kobe, Japan
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current team	FC Tokyo
Number	20
Youth career
1994–1996	Gyosei Gakuen Junior High School
1997–1999	Gyosei Gakuen High School
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2000–2014	Júbilo Iwata	363	(154)
2015–	FC Tokyo	59	(15)
National team‡
2000–2001	Japan U-20	12	(5)
2003–2004	Japan U-23	5	(0)
2007–2013	Japan	33	(10)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 23 February 2017. ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 19:09, 22 June 2013 (UTC)

Ryoichi Maeda (前田 遼一, Maeda Ryōichi, born 9 October 1981 in Kobe) is a Japanese footballer who plays as a striker for FC Tokyo of the J1 League.^[1]

Club career

Maeda was born in Kobe, Japan but spent his childhood in the United States.^[2] He was educated at and played for Gyosei Junior and Senior High School in Tokyo. While he was a high school student, he was chosen as one of the Designated Players for Development by J. League and JFA. Because of this status, Maeda was able to register as a Verdy Kawasaki player while he was still eligible to play for his high school club. However, he did not play any official match for Verdy.

After graduating from his high school in 2000, he joined Jubilo Iwata. His first appearance as a professional player came on 3 May 2000 in a league match against Kawasaki Frontale. His first professional goal came on 28 August 2001 in a J. League Cup game against JEF United Ichihara. In the season 2009 was the J. League Top Scorer with twenty goals. In the 2010 season, Maeda became the top scorer again, netting 17 times.

Curse of Maeda

Since the 2007 season, for 6 straight seasons, each team Maeda scores his first goal of the league campaign against has eventually been relegated to J. League Division 2. This has given rise to the so-called "curse of (Ryoichi) Maeda".^[3] It became a topic of wide public conversation in late 2012 as Gamba Osaka, the team that he scored his first goal of that season against, was in the relegation zone despite having not ranked lower than 3rd in the previous 3 seasons. Consistent with the "curse", Gamba Osaka was relegated to J2 following the last game of the season in which they lost against, funnily enough, Jubilo Iwata 2–1 with Maeda scoring a goal and an assist. The curse will have come to an end by the end of the 2013 season, however, as Maeda's first goal of the 2013 season came in a loss to Urawa, who will not be relegated.

International career

Maeda played for Japan U-20 at the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship in Argentina. He also played for Japan U-23 at the 2004 Summer Olympics qualification but failed to be picked up to the squad for the finals in Greece. After impressive performance at club, Maeda made his international debut for Japan in a friendly against Cameroon on 22 August 2007 at Ōita Stadium.^[4] He scored his first international goal on 17 October 2007 in a friendly against Egypt at Nagai Stadium in Osaka.^[4] In 2011, Maeda participated in his first major full international tournament at 2011 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar and started all six games in Japan's Asian Cup winning campaign.

Career statistics

Updated to 23 February 2017.^[5]

^[6]

National team career statistics

Appearances in major competitions

Team	Competition	Category	Appearances		Goals	Team Record
			Start	Sub
Japan	2001 FIFA World Youth Championship	U-20	3	0	0	Group stage
Japan	2011 AFC Asian Cup	Senior	6	0	3	Champion

Goals for senior national team

^[4]

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	17 October 2007	Nagai Stadium, Osaka, Japan	Egypt	3–0	4–1	2007 Afro-Asian Cup of Nations
2.	17 February 2008	Olympic Sports Center, Chongqing, China PR	North Korea	1–1	1–1	East Asian Football Championship 2008
3.	17 January 2011	Ahmed bin Ali Stadium, Al Rayyan, Qatar	Saudi Arabia	0–3	0–5	2011 AFC Asian Cup
4.	17 January 2011	Ahmed bin Ali Stadium, Al Rayyan, Qatar	Saudi Arabia	0–4	0–5	2011 AFC Asian Cup
5.	25 January 2011	Al-Gharafa Stadium, Doha, Qatar	South Korea	1–1	2–2	2011 AFC Asian Cup
6.	11 November 2011	Pamir Stadium, Dushanbe, Tajikistan	Tajikistan	0–3	0–4	2014 FIFA World Cup qualification
7.	24 February 2012	Nagai Stadium, Osaka, Japan	Iceland	1–0	3–1	International Friendly
8.	3 June 2012	Saitama Stadium 2002, Saitama, Japan	Oman	2–0	3–0	2014 FIFA World Cup qualification
9.	8 June 2012	Saitama Stadium 2002, Saitama, Japan	Jordan	1–0	6–0	2014 FIFA World Cup qualification
10.	11 September 2012	Saitama Stadium 2002, Saitama, Japan	Iraq	1–0	1–0	2014 FIFA World Cup qualification

Honours

Japan

• AFC Asian Cup (1) : 2011
• Afro-Asian Cup of Nations (1) : 2007

Club

Júbilo Iwata

• J. League Cup (1) : 2010

Individual

• Asian Young Footballer of the Year (1) : 2000^[7]
• J. League Top Scorer (2) : 2009, 2010
• J. League Best XI (2) : 2009, 2010
• J. League Cup MVP (1) : 2010

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ryoichi Maeda.

• Profile at FC Tokyo
• Ryoichi Maeda at National-Football-Teams.com
  
• Ryoichi Maeda at Soccerway
  
• Ryoichi Maeda at J.League (in Japanese)
  
• Ryoichi Maeda at the Japan National Football Team