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, rugb ...

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 boundari ...

for

Vissel Kobe is a Japanese professional football club based in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. The team's home stadium is Noevir Stadium Kobe, in Hyōgo-ku, though some home matc ...

. He is also a member of the Japan national team.

Club career

Early career

Yamaguchi began playing football in the third grade, playing mostly as an

attacking 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 ...

. Upon entering junior high, he participated in trials with the

Cerezo Osaka is a Japanese professional football club based in Osaka. The club currently plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. The club's name ''Cerezo'' (Spanish for cherry blossom) is also the flower of the city of Osaka. ...

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 ...

and

Kyoto Purple Sanga is a Japanese professional football club based in Kyoto. "Sanga" comes from the Sanskrit word ''sangha'', a term meaning "group" or "club" and often used to denote the Buddhist priesthood, associating the club with Kyoto's many Buddhist templ ...

youth academies and ultimately joined the Cerezo Under-15 team, from whom he received an invitation on the spot. He enjoyed steady progress at the club, being selected to be part of the first entering class of the

Japan Football Association The Japan Football Association (JFA, ) is the governing body responsible for the administration of football, futsal, beach soccer and efootball in Japan. It is responsible for the national team, as well as club competitions. History The organi ...

Elite Program at the end of his first year. In 2006 Yamaguchi was promoted to the Cerezo Under-18 team, which later won the JFA Prince League U-18 in the 2008 season, in which he served as captain and was named league MVP.

Cerezo Osaka

Along with academy teammate Yusuke Maruhashi, Yamaguchi was promoted to the senior team in 2009, spending three months of the season training with the

Palmeiras Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras (), commonly known as Palmeiras, is a Brazilian professional football club based in the city of São Paulo, in the district of Perdizes. Palmeiras is one of the most popular clubs in South America, with around ...

Under-21 academy. He was named to the Japan Under-21 team in his second season and played in all of the matches in a gold medal campaign at the

2010 Asian Games The 2010 Asian Games (), officially known as the XVI Asian Games () and also known as Guangzhou 2010 (), was a regional multi-sport event celebrated from November 12 to November 27, 2010 in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, although several event ...

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...

. Yamaguchi began to receive substantial playing time with Cerezo in 2011, scoring his first league goal on Matchday 24 against

Urawa Reds , 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 ...

. The addition of

Fábio Simplício Fábio Henrique Simplício (born 23 September 1979) is a Brazilian retired footballer who played as a midfielder. He appeared in 243 Serie A games for three clubs and scored 43 goals, having played for nearly a decade in the country. Club care ...

resulted in Yamaguchi being increasingly deployed as an

toward the latter part of the season, which he finished with 30 appearances. He followed up by winning a regular position in the Cerezo side in 2012, combining with

Takahiro Ogihara is a Japanese footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Vissel Kobe in the J1 League. Career Ogihara debuted for Cerezo Osaka in the 2–1 loss to Kashima Antlers on 27 August 2011. International career Ogihara debuted for the Jap ...

in central midfield for both club and country, being named to the Under-23 team.

Hannover 96

On 21 December 2015,

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), Hannover, HSV or simply 96, is a German professional football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years betw ...

announced that they signed Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi played for Hannover 96 in 2016, however returned to Cerezo Osaka mid-season.

International career

Yamaguchi represent the U-23 national side under

Takashi Sekizuka is a former Japanese football player and manager. Playing career Sekizuka was born in Funabashi on October 26, 1960. After graduating from Waseda University, he joined Honda in 1984. In 1984 season, he was selected Rookie of the Year awards and ...

in Japan's successful qualification for the 2012 Summer Olympics. He was included in the final squad at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, th ...

, contributing to a fourth-place finish at the tournament. In July 2013, Yamaguchi received his first call up to the senior

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

side by

Alberto Zaccheroni Alberto Zaccheroni (; born 1 April 1953) is an Italian football manager, formerly in charge of the United Arab Emirates and Japan national football teams. He has managed a number of top clubs in Serie A, the high point of his career being his s ...

for the

2013 EAFF East Asian Cup The 2013 EAFF East Asian Cup was the 5th edition of this regional competition, the football championship of East Asia. Two preliminary competitions were held during 2012. Mongolia were suspended from the EAFF and could not compete in any EAFF c ...

, where he played in all three matches and was named tournament MVP. In May 2018, he was named in Japan's preliminary

squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and US doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while US Army d ...

for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

in Russia.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Japan's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Yamaguchi goal.''

Honours

Cerezo Osaka *

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 ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

J.League Cup The is a Japanese 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 (Levain is one of Y ...

Vissel Kobe *

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 ...

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 ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

Japan *

EAFF East Asian Cup EAFF E-1 Football Championship, known as the East Asian Football Championship from 2003 to 2010, and the EAFF East Asian Cup for the 2013 and 2015 editions, is a men's international football competition in East Asia for member nations of the East ...

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 fa ...

Japan U-23 *

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until t ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Individual * EAFF East Asian Cup Most Valuable Player:

J.League Best XI The J.League Best XI is an acknowledgement of the best eleven players in J.League. J1 League (1993–present) Multiple appearances Appearances by club Appearances by country * Only in two occasions there was a full-Japanese Best XI (20 ...

References

External links

* * *
Profile at Cerezo Osaka
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yamaguchi, Hotaru Living people 1990 births Association football people from Mie Prefecture Association football midfielders Japanese footballers Japan international footballers J1 League players J2 League players Bundesliga players Cerezo Osaka players Hannover 96 players Vissel Kobe players Olympic footballers of Japan Footballers at the 2010 Asian Games Asian Games medalists in football Asian Games gold medalists for Japan Footballers at the 2012 Summer Olympics 2014 FIFA World Cup players Expatriate footballers in Germany Japanese expatriates in Germany Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games 2018 FIFA World Cup players