is a former Japanese football player. He played for Japan national team. He was a forward but sometimes played in the midfield.

Club career

After studying at and playing for Sagami Institute of Technology High School and Chuo University, Fukuda joined Mitsubishi Motors in 1989 and started to play for their football club that played in the Japan Soccer League Division 2. In his rookie season, he scored 36 goals and helped the club to gain the promotion to Division 1. When Japan's first-ever professional league J1 League started in the early 1990s, Mitsubishi was transferred to the Urawa Reds. He turned professional and continued to play for the club. He scored his first J1 League goal on June 9, 1993 against the Kashima Antlers at Kashima Soccer Stadium. All the Urawa players except the goalkeeper flocked around Fukuda to celebrate the goal. While the celebration was prolonged, the referee signaled the restart and Kashima's Hisashi Kurosaki equalized immediately. In the 1995 season, Fukuda scored 32 goals, which made him the League's top scorer and a member of the J.League Best XI. Urawa was fighting the relegation battle in the 1998 season. In order to stay up, Urawa needed to win the last match in the normal 90 minutes. The J1 League employed extra time with the golden goal rule even for a league match at that time, and 2 points were awarded for an extra win while a regulation win earned 3 points. Urawa failed to win in the 90 minutes and the players fielded for the extra time knowing that they had already been relegated. Fukuda scored the golden goal, which fans now remember as the "saddest golden goal in the world." He retired from the game after the 2002 season. He played his senior club football with one club. He was the symbolic player of Urawa Red Diamonds and the fans refer to him as Mr. Reds. At the beginning of 2003, the testimonial match for Fukuda was held at Saitama Stadium where more than 50,000 supporters attended to bid farewell.

National team career

Fukuda was capped 45 times and scored 9 goals for the Japanese national team between 1990 and 1995.Japan National Football Team Database
/ref> His first international appearance came on July 27, 1990 in a

Dynasty Cup Dynasty Cup was an East Asian international association football tournament. The tournament was held every 2 or 3 years. It was hosted by Beijing in 1990 and 1992, Hong Kong in 1995, Yokohama and Tokyo in 1998. In 2002 the East Asian Football F ...

match 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 ...

in Beijing. He scored his first goal for his country on August 24, 1992 in another Dynasty Cup match against

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

in Beijing. He was a member of the Japan team that won the

1992 Asian Cup The 1992 AFC Asian Cup was the 10th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan between 29 Octobe ...

and he played 4 games and scored 1 goal in the semi-final against

. Under national coach Hans Ooft, Japan reached the

1994 World Cup qualification File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson M ...

for the 1994 World Cup. He was on the pitch, after replacing Kenta Hasegawa in the 59th minute, when Japan's hope to play in the finals in the USA was dashed by an injury-time Iraqi equaliser in the last qualifier, the match that the Japanese fans now refer to as the

Agony of Doha In the final round of matches of the final round of Asian qualification for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, Japan and Iraq drew 2–2 in Doha, Qatar. If Japan had won the match, they would have qualified for the World Cup for the first time. Instead, Ja ...

After retirement

He works as a football commentator and columnist for various programs and magazines. He also acquired the S-Class Coaching license that was a prerequisite to manage a J.League club in 2007. He became an assistant coach at Urawa in 2008 and he resigned in 2010.

Club statistics

National team statistics

Honors and awards

Individual honors

J.League Top Scorer The J.League Top Scorer is awarded by the J.League to the top scoring player of the season. Wins by club See also * J.League awards *Japanese football champions, for Japan Soccer League predecessors. References ULTRAZONE Website : All-Time Aw ...

: 1995 * J.League Best XI: 1995 *

AFC AFC may stand for: Organizations * Action for Children, a UK children's charity * AFC Enterprises, the franchisor of Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits * Africa Finance Corporation, a pan-African multilateral development finance institution * A ...

Player of the Month: 1995 * Urawa Red Diamonds Top Scorer: 152

Team honors

(Champions)

References

External links

* *
Japan National Football Team Database
*
Fukuda Masahiro Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fukuda, Masahiro 1966 births Living people Chuo University alumni Association football people from Kanagawa Prefecture Japanese footballers Japan international footballers Japan Soccer League players J1 League players J2 League players Urawa Red Diamonds players 1992 AFC Asian Cup players 1995 King Fahd Cup players AFC Asian Cup-winning players Footballers at the 1990 Asian Games Association football forwards Asian Games competitors for Japan