is a former

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player. He played for Japan national team.

Club career

Matsunaga was born in

Shizuoka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northea ...

on August 8, 1948. After graduating from Waseda University, he joined

Hitachi () is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Ni ...

in 1971. In 1972, the club won the champions in Japan Soccer League and

Emperor's Cup , commonly known as or also Japan FA Cup is a Japanese football competition. It has the longest tradition of any football match in Japan, dating back to 1921, before the formation of the J.League, Japan Football League and their predecessor, J ...

. The club also won

1975 Emperor's Cup Statistics of Emperor's Cup in the 1975 season. Overview It was contested by 26 teams, and Hitachi won the championship. Results 1st Round * Nippon Kokan 2–0 Waseda University * Tanabe Pharmaceuticals 1–3 Eidai Industries *Osaka Universit ...

and

1976 JSL Cup Statistics of JSL Cup in the 1976 season. Overview It was contested by 20 teams, and Hitachi won the championship. Results East-A East-B West-A West-B Quarterfinals *Mitsubishi Motors 2-0 Honda * Eidai 2-1 Fujita Industries *Hitachi 2-1 ...

. He scored many goals in early 1970s and competed with Kunishige Kamamoto for top scorer. Matsunaga retired in 1982. He played 176 games and scored 82 goals in the league and became a top scorer in

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

and

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

. He was also selected Best Eleven for 4 years in a row (

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

National team career

In May 1973, Matsunaga was selected Japan national team for

1974 World Cup qualification Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

. At this qualification, on May 22, he debuted against Hong Kong. He also played at 1976 Summer Olympics qualification. This qualification was his last game for Japan. He played 10 games and scored 2 goals for Japan until 1976.Japan National Football Team Database
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Club statistics

National team statistics

Personal honors

* Japan Soccer League Division 1 Top Scorer -

References

External links

*
Japan National Football Team Database
1948 births Living people Waseda University alumni Association football people from Shizuoka Prefecture Japanese men's footballers Japan men's international footballers Japan Soccer League players Kashiwa Reysol players Japanese football managers Men's association football forwards {{Japan-footy-forward-stub