Ryo Fujii ( ja, 藤井亮; born 7 August 1996) is a

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

-born

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

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

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 ...

for Liga 1 club

PSIS Semarang Persatuan Sepak Bola Indonesia Semarang ( 'Indonesian Football Association of Semarang'), commonly known by its abbreviation PSIS is an Indonesian professional football club based in Semarang, Central Java. The club play their home matches in ...

Early life and education

Fujii was born 7 August 1996 in

to a Japanese father and a Korean mother. At a young age, Fujii and family relocated to

Torrance, California Torrance is a city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area located in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay region of the m ...

, where he was raised. Fujii attended South High School and played for the school's varsity team for all 4 years. He joined and played with

Chivas USA Chivas USA (pronounced ''CHEE-vahs'') was an American professional soccer team based in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California. The club played from 2005 to 2014 in Major League Soccer (MLS) and was a subsidiary of Mexican club C.D. Guada ...

's youth side for the 2011–2012

U.S. Soccer Development Academy The U.S. Soccer Development Academy (DA) was an American soccer league. Formed in 2007, the league features youth academies and youth clubs from various organizations, including Major League Soccer and the United Soccer League. The DA's mission ...

season before appearing with

LA Galaxy LA Galaxy, also known as the Los Angeles Galaxy, are an American professional soccer club based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Galaxy competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), as a member of the Western Conference. The club began pl ...

's youth side for the 2013–2014 season. With his background, Fujii was considered a top collegiate soccer prospect. Fujii elected to attend the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

after being recruited by head coach

Tim Vom Steeg Timothy Harold Vom Steeg (born October 29, 1966) is an American collegiate soccer head coach who is currently with the University of California, Santa Barbara men's soccer team. He has been with the Gauchos since 1999 and is the most successful ...

. While there, he played

college soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United Kingd ...

as a member of the

UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's soccer The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's soccer team is an NCAA Division I college soccer team composed of student-athletes attending the University of California, Santa Barbara. The Gauchos play their home matches at Harder Stadium. Like most of the ...

team. He appeared in 19 games for the Gauchos and added 2 assists. He was named to the

Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...

All-Freshman Team following the conclusion of the season.

Club career

LA Galaxy

In February 2015, Fujii turned professional by signing with

LA Galaxy II LA Galaxy II is an American professional soccer team based in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California, United States founded in 2014. It is the reserve team of the LA Galaxy. The team competes in MLS Next Pro, the third tier of the United Sta ...

of the

United Soccer League United Soccer League (USL), formerly known as United Soccer Leagues, is a Association football, soccer league in the United States and Canada. It organizes several men's and women's leagues, both professional and amateur. Men's leagues curren ...

. By turning professional, he forfeited his amateur status and scholarship with UC Santa Barbara, but Fujii was the first player to sign for

under a new partnership with

California State University The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a public university system in California. With 23 campuses and eight off-campus centers enrolling 485,550 students with 55,909 faculty and staff, CSU is the largest four-year public univers ...

that provided additional financial resources for schooling.

Jovan Kirovski Jovan Kirovski ( mk, Јован Кировски; born March 18, 1976) is an American former soccer player who is the Technical Director for the Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer. Kirovski is the first American to win the UEFA Champions Le ...

, the one responsible for Fujii's path, is unaware of any previous similar agreements and that this may be the first of its kind. During his first professional season, he made twelve appearances for LA Galaxy II with 1 assist.

Nyköpings BIS

On 1 March 2018, Fujii joined Nyköpings in

Ettan Fotboll Ettan Fotboll, or simply Ettan ( en, the one), which also is its common name in everyday speech, is the third level in the Swedish football league system and consists of 32 Swedish football teams. It was formerly simply known as ''Division 1''. ...

, the Swedish third tier.

Global F.C.

On 25 February 2020, Fujii reportedly signed a deal with 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 ...

club

Global Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to: Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989 * ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015 * Bruno ...

but the club was banned by the

Philippine Football Federation The Philippine Football Federation (PFF) is the governing body of association football in the Philippines. Established as the Philippine Amateur Football Association (PAFA) in 1907, the PFF is one of the oldest national football associations in ...

before the season could start.

Kaya F.C.–Iloilo

club Kaya–Iloilo announced on 8 April 2021 that they have signed in Fujii.

PSIS Semarang

After 1 month trial, Ryo Fujii was officially signed by

to face the second round of 2022–23 Liga 1. Fujii made his professional debut on 16 January 2023 in a match against RANS Nusantara at the

Pakansari Stadium Stadion Pakansari is an all-seater stadium at Pakansari, Cibinong, Bogor, West Java in Indonesia. It is mostly used for football matches and is the home stadium of Persikabo 1973. It can hold 30,000 spectators. The stadium is one of the venues for ...

Bogor Bogor ( su, , nl, Buitenzorg) is a city in the West Java province, Indonesia. Located around south of the national capital of Jakarta, Bogor is the 6th largest city in the Jakarta metropolitan area and the 14th overall nationwide.LA Galaxy player profile
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UC Santa Barbara player profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fujii, Ryo 1996 births Living people UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's soccer players LA Galaxy II players Nyköpings BIS players Global Makati F.C. players PSIS Semarang players USL Championship players Philippines Football League players Liga 1 (Indonesia) players Japanese expatriate footballers Expatriate soccer players in the United States Expatriate footballers in Sweden Expatriate footballers in Indonesia Japanese expatriate sportspeople in the United States Japanese expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Japanese expatriate sportspeople in Indonesia Hong Kong people of Japanese descent Japanese footballers Association football midfielders Japanese people of Korean descent