is a Japanese

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 plays as a

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

Gamba Osaka is a Japanese professional football club based in Suita, Osaka Prefecture. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. The club's name ''Gamba'' comes from the Japanese , meaning "to do your best" or "to s ...

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 ...

Club career

Born and raised in Osaka, Fujiharu joined local club Gamba Osaka in 2011 after graduating from the

Osaka University of Health and Sport Sciences Osaka University of Health and Sports Sciences is a private university in the town of Kumatori in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. The school was established in 1965. Notable alumni * Nobuko Fujimura, athlete * Siro Fujise, baseball player * Yoshika ...

. He only played 11 league games during his debut campaign but went on to make the left-back position his own in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

. He played all 34 league matches that year, however it was not a successful one for his club as they found themselves relegated to

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 ...

after finishing in 17th place. Fujiharu was once again an ever present at left back in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

and notched a career high total of 4 goals throughout the year as Gamba bounced back at the first time of asking, finishing the season as league champions. Things got even better in

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

with Gamba completing the domestic treble; winning the league, J.League Cup and Emperor's Cup. Fujiharu played 25 league matches and 34 games in total as he rotated the left-back position with Korean full-back

Oh Jae-suk Oh Jae-suk ( ko, 오재석; or ; born 4 January 1990) is a South Korean football player who currently plays as full-back for Incheon United in the K League 1. He previously played for Suwon Samsung Bluewings and Gangwon FC in his homeland ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

saw Gamba lift the

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 ...

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 ...

, defeating

Urawa Red Diamonds , colloquially Urawa Reds (浦和レッズ), also known as Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club from April 1992 to January 1996, is a professional football club in the city of Saitama, part of the Greater Tokyo Area in Japan. The club plays in the J ...

in both matches. They also reached the semi-finals of the

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

before going down to Chinese side

Guangzhou Evergrande Guangzhou Football Club, formerly known as Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao Football Club, is a professional Chinese football club that participates in the Chinese Super League under the license of the Chinese Football Association. The team is based ...

over 2 legs. Fujiharu played a career high 54 games across all competitions in 2015. Gamba failed to add any silverware to their trophy cabinet between 2016 and 2018, however Fujiharu was by now fully established as his club's first choice in the left back position. He only missed 6 league games across the 2016 and 2017 seasons before a short spell out with injury in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

restricted him to just 25 league appearances.

National team career

Fujiharu received his first call up to the Japan national team in March 2015 and made his debut in a 2-0 home victory over

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on March 27. Later on in the year he was part of the squad which competed in the 2015 EAFF East Asian Cup. He played once in the 2-1 defeat to

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

on August 2. His final international involvement that year came in a World Cup qualifier away to

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

on November 17. He started and played the full 90 minutes in a 2-0 away victory.Japan National Football Team Database
/ref> In August 2016, he was selected in the Japan Under-23 squad for the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

. At this tournament, he played 2 matches at left back as Japan were eliminated in the group stages after finishing 3rd in Group B.

Club statistics

Last update: 4 December 2021 ¹ includes

J. League Championship The J.League Championship is a two-legged championship series which determined the season champion for the first 12 J.League seasons (1993–2004) excluding the 1996 season. In the early years, the J.League seasons were divided into two halve ...

and

Suruga Bank Championship The J.League Cup / Copa Sudamericana Championship was an annual intercontinental football match held in Japan, contested by the reigning champions of the J.League Cup and the Copa Sudamericana. The tournament was previously officially called the ...

appearances.

National team statistics

Last Update:4 February 2019

Honors

Gamba Osaka * J. League Division 1 -

J. League Division 2 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 Ya ...

J. League Cup The is a Japanese Association football, 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 ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fujiharu, Hiroki 1988 births Living people Osaka University of Health and Sport Sciences alumni Association football people from Osaka Prefecture Japanese footballers Japan international footballers J1 League players J2 League players Gamba Osaka players Footballers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Japan People from Higashiōsaka Association football defenders