is a former

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

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

He first played for

Yokohama Flügels was a Japanese football club that played in the J.League between 1993 and 1998. The club was an original member ("Original Ten") of the J.League in 1993. In 1999 the club was officially merged with local rivals Yokohama Marinos and the two tea ...

youth team but became a

Yokohama F. Marinos is a Japanese professional football club based in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, part of the Greater Tokyo Area. The club competes in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. Having won the J-League title four times an ...

youth player when both teams merged in 1999. He was promoted to the top team in 2001. His first league appearance came on June 16, 2001 in a 0-2 defeat by

FC Tokyo Football Club Tokyo, commonly known as , is a Japanese professional football club based in Chōfu, Tokyo. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. The team is one of only four in the J.League to be si ...

at the

International Stadium Yokohama , also known as , is a multi-purpose stadium in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, which opened in March 1998. It is the home stadium of Yokohama F. Marinos of the J1 League. International Stadium Yokohama had the highest seating capaci ...

. His first league goal came on August 18, 2001 when he scored the lone goal against

Kashiwa Reysol is a Japanese professional football club based in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, part of the Greater Tokyo Area. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. Their home stadium is Sankyo Frontier Kashiwa Stadiu ...

Kashiwanoha Stadium is a multi-use stadium in north-west area of Kashiwa, Japan. It is currently used mostly for football matches and rugby union. The stadium holds 20,000 people and was built from 1995, and served from 1999. It's defined as one of home ground o ...

. He became a regular player from 2003. The club won the champions

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 ...

and 2004 J1 League. Sakata joined

Superleague Greece The Super League Greece 1 ( el, Ελληνική Σούπερ Λιγκ 1), or Super League 1, is the highest professional association football league in Greece. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and replaced ''Alpha Ethniki'' at the top of ...

side

Aris Thessaloniki Athlitikos Syllogos Aris Thessalonikis, means Athletic Club Aris Thessaloniki
...

in 2011 after ten years at

but only stayed for a short time before returning to

for the 2nd half of the season. In January 2012 it was announced he had signed for

Avispa Fukuoka is a Japanese professional football club, currently competing in the J1 League. The team is located in Hakata, Fukuoka. "Avispa" means "wasp" in Spanish. They were originally called Fujieda Blux and based in Fujieda, Shizuoka before moving t ...

J2 League The or simply J2 is the second division of the and the second level of the Japanese association football league system. The top tier is represented by the J1 League. It (along with the rest of the J.League) is currently sponsored by Meiji Yas ...

. Avispa won the 3rd place in

2015 J2 League The 2015 Meiji Yasuda J2 League (2015 明治安田生命J2リーグ) season was the 44th season of the second-tier club football in Japan and the 17th season since the establishment of J2 League. The season began on 8 March 2015 and ended on 23 ...

and was promoted to

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 ...

. However Avispa finished at the bottom place in

2016 J1 League The 2016 Meiji Yasuda J1 League (2016 明治安田生命J1リーグ) season was the 51st season of top-flight football in Japan, and the 24th since the establishment of the J.League in 1993. For a five-year period starting in 2015, the J.Leag ...

and was relegated to J2 in a year. He opted to retire end of 2017 season.

National team career

He was a member of the Japan U-20 national team for the

2002 AFC Youth Championship The 2002 AFC Youth Championship was the 32nd edition of the AFC U-19 Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-19 national teams of Asia. The tou ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

. The team finished runners-up and was qualified for the 2003 World Youth Championship. At the World Youth Championship hosted by

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

, he scored 4 goals in the tournament including 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 ...

at knockout stage and became one of the top scorers along with

Fernando Cavenaghi Fernando Ezequiel Cavenaghi (; born 21 September 1983) is a retired Argentine professional footballer. He played as a striker who was efficient in front of goal with either foot and from any range. He spent most of his career with River Plate ...

(Argentine), Dudu (Brazil) and Eddie Johnson (United States). The team exited at the quarter final stage after beaten by Brazil. He made his full international debut 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 ...

on August 9, 2006 in a friendly 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 ...

at the

Tokyo National Stadium The Japan National Stadium, officially named and formerly known as or , is a multi-purpose stadium used mostly for association football in Kasumigaokamachi, Kasumigaoka, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. The facility served as the main stadium for ...

when he replaced

Alessandro Santos , often known as Alex, is a former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Born in Brazil, he became a Japanese citizen and made 82 appearances for the Japan national team. Club career Santos was born in Maringá in Paraná and m ...

in the 86th minute.

Personal life

Sakata married actress and TV Tarento Sayaka Fukuoka in February 2009．

Club statistics

Avispa Fukuoka
/ref>

National team statistics

Honors and awards

Team honors

; Yokohama F. Marinos *

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 ...

J.League Cup The is a Japanese football (soccer) competition organized by J.League. It has been sponsored by Yamazaki Biscuits (YBC) of Yamazaki Baking (formerly Yamazaki Nabisco) since its inception in 1992. It is also known as the or (Levain is one of YB ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

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 ...

: 2004, 2005

Personal awards

2003 FIFA World Youth Championship The 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship took place in United Arab Emirates between 27 November and 19 December 2003. U20 Brazil claimed their fourth title. The 2003 championship was the 14th contested. The tournament was originally planned to be ...

: Silver Shoe *

Fair Play Player Award:

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

References

External links

* *
Japan National Football Team Database
*
Profile at Avispa Fukuoka
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sakata, Daisuke 1983 births Living people Association football people from Kanagawa Prefecture Japanese footballers Japan youth international footballers Japan international footballers J1 League players J2 League players Yokohama F. Marinos players FC Tokyo players Avispa Fukuoka players Super League Greece players Aris Thessaloniki F.C. players Japanese expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Greece Japanese expatriate sportspeople in Greece Association football forwards