is a Japanese professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Club career

He started up his professional career at

Tokyo Verdy is a Japanese professional football club based in Inagi, Tokyo. The club plays in the J2 League, the second tier of football in the country. Founded as Yomiuri F.C. in 1969, Tokyo Verdy is one of the most decorated clubs in the J.League, with ...

where he won the

2004 Emperor's Cup The 84th Emperor's Cup Statistics of Emperor's Cup in the 2004 season. Overview It was contested by 80 teams, and Tokyo Verdy won the cup for the fifth time. Results 1st Round *Hiroshima University of Economics 4–0 Sanyo Electric Tokushima * ...

and the

2005 Japanese Super Cup 2005 Japanese Super Cup was the Japanese Super Cup competition. The match was played at International Stadium Yokohama in Kanagawa on February 26, 2005. This was the clubs' first Super Cup encounter since their clash in 1984 under their former cor ...

. In the same year, they were relegated from the

J1 League The , known as the for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the system. Founded in 1992, it is one of the most successful leagues in Asian club football. Contested by 18 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the J ...

, which marked his end in Tokyo. He signed for

Omiya Ardija is a professional association football club based in Ōmiya in Saitama, Japan. Its "hometown" as designated by the league is the whole of Saitama city, which is shared with neighbours Urawa Red Diamonds. Omiya competed in the J1 League follow ...

at the start of the 2006 season and quickly became their star player. The club's successes were limited and after the 2008 season, he was offered the chance to go on trial at Norwegian club Stabæk. His trial was a success, and in February 2009 he was loaned out to the Norwegian champions. He was given the number 10 shirt, which had recently been worn by

Veigar Páll Gunnarsson Veigar Páll Gunnarsson (born 21 March 1980) is a retired Icelandic football striker. His transfer in 2011 led to football clubs Stabæk and Vålerenga being nominated for fines of Norwegian kroner 500,000 and 350,000 respectively, by a comm ...

. On 8 March, he made his official debut for Stabæk in the 2009 Super Cup where the league champions won 3–1 against cup champions

Vålerenga Vålerenga () is a neighbourhood in the city of Oslo, Norway, belonging to the borough of Gamle Oslo. Vålerenga is located between the neighbourhoods of Gamlebyen, Jordal, Ensjø, Etterstad and Lodalen. Vålerenga is in particular known for it ...

, with Kobayashi playing an important part, getting on the score-sheet with a free kick and showing trickery with the ball. Stabæk decided to not to buy him at the end of the season. On 27 January 2010, Kobayashi signed on a free transfer to the Greek team

Iraklis Thessaloniki Gymnasticos Syllogos Iraklis ( el, Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Ηρακλής, en, Gymnastics Club Heracles), commonly referred to as Iraklis, is a Greek multi-sports club based in Thessaloniki. The club was founded in 1908 as "Mace ...

for 18 months. Kobayashi only appeared in 15 matches for Iraklis. At the end of the 2010–11 season he returned to Japan, signing a deal with

Shimizu S-Pulse is a professional Japanese football club. Located in Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture, S-Pulse currently competes in the J2 League (J2). The club was formed in 1991 as a founding member of the J.League (''"Original Ten"''), which began ...

. During January 2013 he went on trial with

Vancouver Whitecaps FC Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on Marc ...

in the

MLS Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

. He impressed during his trial stint and signed with the club for the 2013 season. The club declined to offer him a contract for the 2014 season and his rights were traded to

New England Revolution The New England Revolution is an American professional soccer club based in the Greater Boston area that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), in the Eastern Conference of the league. It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having compet ...

before the start of the season in exchange for a fourth-round pick in the

2016 MLS SuperDraft The 2016 MLS SuperDraft was the seventeenth SuperDraft conducted by Major League Soccer. The SuperDraft is held each year in conjunction with the annual National Soccer Coaches Association of America convention. The 2016 convention was held in Ba ...

. In late 2015, Kobayashi received his U.S. green card, which qualifies him as a domestic player for MLS roster purposes. In March 2018, Kobayashi joined

Las Vegas Lights FC Las Vegas Lights FC is an American professional soccer team based in Las Vegas, Nevada, that plays in the USL Championship. The team made its debut in 2018 and plays its home games at Cashman Field. The team employs neon imagery in its crest a ...

. In January 2019, Kobayashi signed with

Birmingham Legion FC Birmingham Legion FC is an American professional soccer club based in Birmingham, Alabama, that competes in the USL Championship, the second division of American soccer. The team was established in August 2013 and played under the name Birming ...

National team

He represented Japan U-20 national team at the World Youth Championship in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, where they reached the quarter-finals before being beaten by eventual champions

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. He did not start their first group game, a loss against

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

, but he started the next two which they won to secure a top spot, including a win against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He further played in the round of 16 win against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, but had to be replaced early in the quarter finals. He also represented Japan U20 at the

AFC Youth Championship The AFC U-20 Asian Cup, formerly known as the AFC Youth Championship and AFC U-19 Championship, is a biennial international association football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-20 national teams ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, where they came second, after losing 1–0 in against South Korea in the final. He earned his first cap for

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 ...

in a friendly match against

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

on 9 August 2006, coming on as a 56th-minute substitute for

Koji Yamase is a Japanese football player who plays for Renofa Yamaguchi FC. His father Isao Yamase participated in the 1984 Winter Olympics as a biathlete. His brother Yukihiro Yamase is also footballer. Club career Yamase was born in Sapporo on 22 Sept ...

.Japan National Football Team Database
/ref>

Statistics

Club

International

''Sources'':

Honours

;Tokyo Verdy *

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 ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

Japanese Super Cup The , known as the for sponsorship reasons, is an annual one-match association football competition in Japan organised by J. League and the Japan Football Association (JFA). This competition serves as the season opener and is played between the r ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

;Stabæk *

Super Cup A super cup is a competition, usually but not exclusively in association football, which often forms the 'curtain raiser' to a season, and typically involves only two teams who have qualified through success in other competitions during the prev ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

;Japan *

Runner-up:

;New England Revolution * MLS Eastern Conference **Winners (Playoff): 2014

Individual

* J.League All-Star Soccer selected: 2006, 2007

References

External links

* *
Japan National Football Team Database
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kobayashi, Daigo 1983 births Living people Association football people from Shizuoka Prefecture Iraklis Thessaloniki F.C. players J1 League players Japan international footballers Japan youth international footballers Japanese expatriate footballers Japanese expatriate sportspeople in Norway Japanese expatriate sportspeople in Greece Japanese expatriate sportspeople in Canada Japanese expatriate sportspeople in the United States Japanese footballers Expatriate soccer players in Canada Expatriate footballers in Greece Expatriate footballers in Norway Expatriate soccer players in the United States Major League Soccer players New England Revolution players Omiya Ardija players Shimizu S-Pulse players Super League Greece players Stabæk Fotball players Eliteserien players Tokyo Verdy players Vancouver Whitecaps FC players Las Vegas Lights FC players Birmingham Legion FC players Association football midfielders USL Championship players