is a former

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 ...

ese

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

player and manager. He is the current head coach

J1 League The , known as the for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the system. Founded in 1992, it is one of the most successful leagues in Asian club football. Contested by 18 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the ...

club of Nagoya Grampus. He played for the Japan national team.

Club career

Hasegawa was educated at and played for Shimizu Higashi High School. He won the national high school championship with his teammates including

Katsumi Oenoki is a former Japanese football player. He played for Japan national team. Club career Oenoki was educated at and played for Shimizu Higashi High School. He won the national high school championship with his teammates including Kenta Hasegawa a ...

and Takumi Horiike. He continued his study and football at

University of Tsukuba is a public university, public research university located in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, Ibaraki, Japan. It is a top 10 Designated National University, and was ranked Type A by the Japanese government as part of the Top Global University Pro ...

where he won the Kanto University League title in 1987. After graduating from the university in 1988, he joined

Japan Soccer League , or JSL, was the top flight association football league in Japan between 1965 and 1992, and was the precursor to the current professional league, the J.League. JSL was the second national league of a team sport in Japan after the professional ...

side

Nissan Motors , trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the Nissan, Infiniti, and Datsun bran ...

(current Yokohama F. Marinos). He contributed to the club winning the

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 ...

twice in 1988 and

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

. When Japan's first-ever professional league

started,

Shimizu S-Pulse is a professional Japanese football club. Located in Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture, S-Pulse currently competes in the J2 League (J2). The club was formed in 1991 as a founding member of the J.League (''"Original Ten"''), which be ...

was founded in his local city. He joined the club in 1992 and re-united with his high school teammates Oenoki and Horiike. He helped the club to win the J.League Cup in 1996. He retired as a Shimizu player after the club won the second stage of the J1 League 1999 season. He played 207 league matches and scored 45 league goals in 7 seasons at Shimizu.

International career

Hasegawa was capped 27 times and scored 4 goals for the Japanese national team between 1989 and 1995.Japan National Football Team Database
/ref> His first international appearance came on January 20, 1989 in a friendly against

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

Teheran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

. He scored for the first time for his country on June 11, 1989 in a 1990 World Cup qualification against

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

at Nishigaoka Soccer Stadium in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

. He was a member of the Japan squad who participated in 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. In the crucial last match, Hasegawa was substituted in the 59th minute by

Masahiro Fukuda 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, Fu ...

and watched from the bench a late Iraqi equaliser dashed Japan's hope to qualify for the finals in the US, 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 ...

Coaching career

After retiring from the game, Hasegawa started working as a pundit for national television NHK. He was also installed as the general manager of two university clubs, Hamamatsu University and

Fuji Tokoha University was a private university in Fuji City, Shizuoka Prefecture 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 ...

(2000–2001). He became the manager of Hamamatsu University and lead them to win the Tokai University League title and the Shizuoka Prefectural qualification for the

. He acquired the S-class coaching license that was required to manage a J1 League club in 2004 and became the manager of his old club

in 2005. The club struggled and narrowly escaped relegation in the 2005 season but they fought back strongly in the 2006 season and finished 4th in the league; a position equaled in 2007. In 2008 Hasegawa led S-Pulse to the final of the J.League Cup and a fifth-placed finish in the league, a placing which included them being the strongest performing team in the second half of the season. He was rewarded with an extended contract which will keep him at S-Pulse until 2010. He left Shimizu after he led the club to the final of 2010-11

when his contract was expired. Hawegawa was appointed as a manager at

J2 League The or simply J2 is the second division of the and the second level of the Japanese association football league system. The top tier is represented by the J1 League. It (along with the rest of the J.League) is currently sponsored by Meiji Y ...

club Gamba Osaka in 2013. The club won the champions in 2013 and was promoted to

. In 2014, the club won all three major title in Japan;

, J.League Cup and

. He also was selected J.League Manager of the Year awards. In 2015, the club won the champions at

and 2nd place at

and J.League Cup. He resigned end of 2017 season. In 2018, Hasegawa signed with

FC Tokyo Football Club Tokyo, commonly known as , is a Japanese professional football club based in Chōfu, Tokyo. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. The team is one of only four in the J.League to be sim ...

. In 2021, after a three year spell in which the club finished 6th, 2nd, 6th, and 9th in four respective seasons, Hasegawa resigned after an 8 - 0 loss to 2nd place Yokohama F. Marinos. Shortly after the conclusion of the J1 league's 21/22 season, Hasegawa signed a contract with J1 league club Nagoya Grampus.

Career statistics

Club

International

Managerial

Update; ''November 5, 2022''

In popular culture

In popular

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...

and

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

series '' Chibi Maruko-chan'', a boy called Kenta kun occasionally makes an appearance.Chibi Maruko-chan (2006) (TV)
/ref> He loves football and is a classmate of title character Chibi Maruko. Momoko Sakura, the author of the manga, created this character after Hasegawa. Sakura and Hasegawa attended the same primary school during the same period.

Honours

As a coach

;Gamba Osaka *

J.League Division 1 The , known as the for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the system. Founded in 1992, it is one of the most successful leagues in Asian club football. Contested by 18 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the J ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wa ...

J.League Division 2 The or simply J2 is the second division of the and the second level of the Japanese association football league system. The top tier is represented by the J1 League. It (along with the rest of the J.League) is currently sponsored by Meiji Yas ...

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 ...

* J.League Cup:

* Japanese Super Cup:

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 April ...

;Individual *

J.League Manager of the Year J.League Manager of the Year is an annual award given to one manager by the J.League The , officially is Japan's professional football league including the first division J1 League, second division J2 League and third division J3 League of th ...

: 2014

References

External links

* *
Japan National Football Team Database
* *
Kenta Hasegawa
at

Giant Bomb ''Giant Bomb'' is an American video game website and wiki that includes personality-driven gaming videos, commentary, news, and reviews, created by former ''GameSpot'' editors Jeff Gerstmann and Ryan Davis. The website was voted by '' Time' ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hasegawa, Kenta 1965 births Living people University of Tsukuba alumni Association football people from Shizuoka Prefecture Japanese footballers Japan international footballers Japan Soccer League players J1 League players Yokohama F. Marinos players Shimizu S-Pulse players 1995 King Fahd Cup players Japanese football managers J1 League managers J2 League managers Shimizu S-Pulse managers Gamba Osaka managers FC Tokyo managers category:Nagoya Grampus managers Footballers at the 1990 Asian Games Association football forwards Asian Games competitors for Japan