, nicknamed Masa, is a Japanese former 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 ...

who played as a defender. He spent the majority of his career with Filipino club

Kaya Kaya may refer to: People *Kaya (given name) *Kaya (surname) Places *Kaya, Burkina Faso, a town in Burkina Faso, capital of the department *Kaya Airport, serving the town * Kaya Department, a department or commune of Sanmatenga Province in centr ...

. He was awarded the

United Football League Cup The United Football League Cup, commonly known as UFL Cup, was a Football in the Philippines, Filipino association football competition. It was played on a multistage format that culminated in a single-elimination tournament, knockout stage (sin ...

Golden Ball in

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 ...

and had also captained his club.

Early life

Masanari Omura was born on 14 July 1984 in

Komaki is a city located in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 148,872 in 68,174 households, and a population density of . The total area of the city was . Komaki is commonly associated with the former Komaki Airport, whic ...

Aichi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,552,873 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the west, Gifu Prefectur ...

, Japan. He started playing football at the age of 10, although he originally liked

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

better but chose football as it was more popular in his school. He went on to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

the football team of

Chukyo University is a private university in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, with campuses in Nagoya and Toyota. The main building is located in Yagoto, Shōwa-ku, Nagoya. Notable faculty members * Naomi Miyake, cognitive scientist * Koji Murofushi, Olympic hammer t ...

. After graduating, he spent three years working for a

warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities ...

company and was also a part-time football coach for elementary school students.

Career

Fraser Park

Deciding to pursue his dream of becoming a professional footballer but unable to find opportunities in Japan, Omura headed to Australia. He joined

NSW Super League The NSW League One Men is an Australian semi-professional association football league comprising teams from New South Wales. The league sits at Level 2 on the New South Wales league system, behind the National Premier Leagues NSW, (Level 3 of th ...

club

Fraser Park FC Fraser Park FC, is an Australian soccer club with teams competing at all grades of the National Premier Leagues NSW and in various divisions of the Canterbury District Soccer Football Association. The club also has teams participating in the Fo ...

and played in almost every match of the 2011 season. However, difficulties renewing his working holiday visa made it unlikely for him to return for another season. Opting to continue his career in another country, his Fraser Park teammate, former Philippines national team player

Leigh Gunn Leigh James Gunn (born 24 December 1980) is an Australian–Filipino footballer who plays as a forward for Fraser Park FC. He has also represented the Philippines at international level. Career Club career Gunn played in various Austra ...

, suggested he tryout in the Philippines.

Kaya

Omura joined Filipino United Football League (UFL) club

in September 2011 and made his debut in that year's UFL Cup. He scored a goal in their 3–0 round of 16 win over Team Socceroo on 20 November. In the 2015 UFL Cup, wherein Kaya won the title, Omura received the Golden Ball award as the best player of the tournament. In the

2016 UFL Cup The 2016 United Football League Cup is the sixth edition of the United Football League Cup which started on February 6 and ended on April 9, 2016. There will be no guest teams with all competing teams also participating in the main UFL competitio ...

quarter-finals, he scored the equaliser in their 2–1 win over

Loyola Meralco Sparks Loyola Football Club is a Filipino association football club based in Metro Manila. The club has won one UFL Cup and one PFF National Men's Club Championship. Founded as Loyola Agila Football Club in 2006, the club changed its name to Loyola M ...

. However, Kaya finished third place in what turned out to be the last UFL Cup. That same year, he participated in Kaya's first-ever campaign in the

AFC Cup The AFC Cup is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Under its current rules, the competition is played primarily between clubs from nations that did not receive direct qualifying s ...

, wherein they reached the

round of 16 A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

. In 2017, the

Philippines Football League The Philippines Football League, commonly known as PFL, is a Filipino professional football league sanctioned by the Philippine Football Federation (PFF). It is the Philippines' highest level of men's club football, supplanting the United Footb ...

(PFL) supplanted the UFL. During the PFL's inaugural season, Omura shared Kaya's captaincy with Aly Borromeo. In 2018, Kaya won the

inaugural In government and politics, inauguration is the process of swearing a person into office and thus making that person the incumbent. Such an inauguration commonly occurs through a formal ceremony or special event, which may also include an inaugur ...

Copa Paulino Alcantara The Copa Paulino Alcantara, also known as the PFL Cup, is an annual football tournament in Philippines, sanctioned by the Philippine Football Federation. The cup's first iteration began on September 1, 2018. It replaced the PFF National Men's Clu ...

, the new domestic cup competition of the Philippines. The cup win qualified them for the 2019 AFC Cup. In the 2019 Copa Paulino Alcantara, he scored the second goal in their 3–0 semi-final win over

Mendiola Mendiola Street (simply known as "Mendiola") is a short thoroughfare in Manila, Philippines. The street is named after Enrique Mendiola, an educator, textbook author, and member of the first Board of Regents of the University of the Philipp ...

. However, they failed to defend their title, falling to Ceres–Negros in

the final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

. Nonetheless, they still qualified for the

2020 AFC Cup The 2020 AFC Cup was the 17th edition of the AFC Cup, Asia's secondary club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The competition was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic after group stage matches on 11 March ...

. In 2021, he played in Kaya's first-ever

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 ...

campaign. In their last group match, a 1–0 loss to Vietnamese champions

Viettel The Viettel Military Industry and Telecoms Group (), less formally recognized as Viettel Group () or simply Viettel, is a Vietnamese multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Hanoi, Vietnam. Viettel is the largest telecommuni ...

, Omura was

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

for a foul on Nguyễn Trọng Hoàng. Later, in the 2021 Copa Paulino Alcantara, Kaya regained their title. On 31 January 2022, Omura announced his retirement from professional football, having spent 10 years with Kaya. The club's president and general manager, Paul Tolentino, referred to him as a "true club legend".

Style of play

Omura mostly played as a

centre-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 ...

defensive 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 ...

. In Australia, most of the centre-backs were taller than him, so he opted for the latter position. In Kaya, in addition to his defensive roles, he has also played as a winger or

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

Honours

Kaya *

; third place:

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

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 ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

; runner-up:

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Individual *

Golden Ball:

Career statistics

Club

References

External links

Omura lifts Kaya FC to UFL Cup semifinals

Masanari Omura has message for Kaya-heads after loss

at Soccerway
{{DEFAULTSORT:Omura, Masanari Association football defenders 1984 births Japanese footballers Japanese expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in the Philippines Expatriate soccer players in Australia Japanese expatriate sportspeople in the Philippines Association football people from Aichi Prefecture Kaya F.C. players Japanese expatriate sportspeople in Australia Chukyo University alumni Living people