Gabriel Kazu Rossato Yanagu (born 9 June 1999), commonly known as Kazu, is a Brazilian

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 ...

for

Avaí Avaí is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in 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 milli ...

on loan from Tombense.

Early life

Kazu was born in Japan to Brazilian parents: his father is of Japanese descent, and his mother of Italian descent. His parents were injured in a car accident in 1998, and spent their life savings to pay the hospital bills. Kazu's father moved his family to his ancestral Japan to work as

dekasegi Dekasegi ( pt, decassegui, decasségui, , ) is a term that is used in Brazil to refer to people, primarily Japanese Brazilians, who have migrated to Japan, having taken advantage of Japanese citizenship or ''nisei visa'' and immigration laws to w ...

s to rebuild their life. Kazu was born in Seki, Japan, and named after the Japanese international footballer

Kazuyoshi Miura , often known simply as Kazu (nicknamed "King Kazu"), is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a forward for Japan Football League club Suzuka Point Getters on loan from Yokohama FC. He played for the Japan national team from 1990 t ...

Career

Flamengo

On 14 February 2018

Flamengo Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; English: ''Flamengo Rowing Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea, best known for their professional football t ...

signed Kazu from Luverdense on a free transfer, although the two parts agreed that Luverdense would keep 30% of this economic rights. In his first year at the club he was kept as a member of the under-20 team.

Tombense

Kazu left Flamengo at the end of 2019 where his contract expired and had already signed a pre-contract with Tombense in December 2019. He was immediately loaned out to

Paraná Clube Paraná Clube, commonly referred to as Paraná, is a Brazilian professional club based in Curitiba, Paraná founded on 19 December 1989. It competes in the Campeonato Paranaense Série Prata, the second tier of the Paraná state football leag ...

for the 2020 season.

International career

Kazu was called up to the Brazil under-20 squad for the

2017 Toulon Tournament The 2017 Toulon Tournament (officially french: 45ème Festival International "Espoirs" – Tournoi Maurice Revello) was the 45th edition of the Toulon Tournament. The tournament was named after Maurice Revello, who started the tournament in 1967 a ...

. He played 45 minutes before being replaced by Igor in a 1–0 win over

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

Career statistics

Club

;Notes

References

External links

1999 births Living people Association football people from Gifu Prefecture Brazilian footballers Brazil youth international footballers Japanese footballers Association football midfielders Brazilian people of Japanese descent Brazilian people of Italian descent Japanese people of Brazilian descent Japanese people of Italian descent Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Campeonato Brasileiro Série B players Luverdense Esporte Clube players CR Flamengo footballers Tombense Futebol Clube players Paraná Clube players Avaí FC players Campeonato Paranaense players {{Brazil-footy-midfielder-1990s-stub