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 ...

for Eredivisie club

Sparta Rotterdam Sparta Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam. Established on 1 April 1888, Sparta Rotterdam is the oldest professional football team in the Netherlands. Sparta currently compete in the Eredivisie, the top flight ...

, on loan from Belgian club

Lommel Lommel () is a municipality and a city in the Belgian province of Limburg. The Kempen city has about 34,000 inhabitants and is part of the electoral district and the judicial district Lommel Neerpelt. Besides residential town of Lommel also has ...

Club career

After impressive performances with the Japan U-17 team, Koki Saito debuted on 21 July 2018 in a league match against

FC Gifu Football Club Gifu, abbreviated as is a Japanese football club based in Gifu, Japan. They play in the J3 League, the third tier of Japanese professional football. They also run a reserve team that play in the Tōkai Adult League Division 2. Hi ...

. On his debut, Saito even had the chance to share the field with

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 ...

, who is 34 years his senior. In January 2021, he joined

Belgian First Division B The Challenger Pro League (previously known as ''1B Pro League'') is the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian First Division A. It was created by the Royal Belgian Football Association in 201 ...

side

. In summer 2022 he was loaned to Eredivisie side

Sparta Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referre ...

. The loan was extended for the 2023–24 season.

Career statistics

Honours

Individual *

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

Team of the Month: March 2023,

References

External links

Koki Saito
at j-league.or.jp
Koki Saito
at jleague.jp (archived 24 August 2018)
Koki Saito
at

Yokohama FC is a Japanese professional football club based in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, part of the Greater Tokyo Area. The club currently plays in the J1 League, which is the first tier of football in the country. The club was formed by fans of Yokoh ...

(archived) * 2001 births Living people Association football people from Tokyo Japanese men's footballers Japan men's youth international footballers Men's association football forwards Yokohama FC players Lommel S.K. players Sparta Rotterdam players J1 League players J2 League players Challenger Pro League players Japanese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Japanese expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Japanese expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Japan men's under-20 international footballers {{Japan-footy-forward-2000s-stub