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, rugby ...

who plays as a

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 South Korean club

Bucheon FC 1995 Bucheon FC 1995 (Hangul: 부천 FC 1995) is a South Korean professional football club based in Bucheon that competes in the K League 2, the second tier of South Korean football. The club was founded in 2007 by a group of former Bucheon SK suppo ...

. Mainly acting as a central midfielder, he can also play in more offensive or more defensive positions of the midfield.

Club career

Albirex Niigata (S)

After graduating from

Juntendo University is a private university in Japan. Its headquarters are on its campus in Bunkyo, Tokyo, for the School of Medicine and in Inzai, Chiba, for the School of Health and Sports Science. The university was established in 1838 for medical and in 1946 ...

, Murofushi signed for

Albirex Niigata Singapore Albirex Niigata Singapore FC, abbreviated as Albirex Niigata (S), is a Singaporean football club that plays in the Singapore Premier League. The club is a satellite team of Albirex Niigata of Japan. History Albirex Niigata Singapore, a satellite ...

, despite he originally intended to go to the United States to take trials. He debuted in the local Premier League on March 31, 2018, playing the entirety of the match against

Tampines Rovers Tampines Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Tampines, Singapore, that competes in the Singapore Premier League, the top tier of Singapore football league system. Founded in 1945, the club have won the national league ...

, ended in a 2-1 win for his side. His first goal came on April 14, when he took part in the ''White Swans''' 2-0 win against DPMM, while he scored his first brace on June 3, in another victory (5-0) against the same team. He also scored two consecutive braces in the semi-final and the final of the local cup, eventually won by Albirex. With a total amount of 28 appearances and 13 goals, Murofushi played a considerable role in the ''White Swans brilliant season, which saw his team win all three domestic trophies (the SPL, the Singapore Cup and the

Singapore Community Shield The Singapore Community Shield (also known as the AIA Community Shield due to sponsorship reasons; formerly the Charity Shield) is the curtain-raiser to the football season in Singapore. The match is contested between the champions of the previou ...

) completely unbeaten, while he was awarded as the Player of the Year, as well as nominated by fans for the league's Best XI.

York9

On January 22, 2019, Murofushi signed with Canadian side York9 (later renamed York United), which was set to participate in the debut season of the

national Premier League The National Premier League, also known for sponsorship purposes as the Red Stripe Premier League, is sanctioned by the Jamaican Football Federation as the top division for men's association football in Jamaica. Contested between 12 clubs, it op ...

. He made his debut in the CPL's inaugural match, when York9 played against

Forge FC Forge FC is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Hamilton, Ontario, that competes in the Canadian Premier League, the top tier of Canadian soccer. The club plays its home matches at Tim Hortons Field. Forge FC joined the CPL in 2019 as ...

on April 27, 2019, while he scored his first goal for York on August 25, 2019 against

FC Edmonton FC Edmonton was a Canadian professional soccer club based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club was founded in 2010 and competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 2011 to 2017. The club went on hiatus when NASL ceased competitive operat ...

. With a total amount of 23 appearances and three goals, the Japanese was involved in the team's historic first season, ended in sixth place in the Spring round and in third place in the Autumn round. He also played six times in the Canadian Championship, where York reached the third qualifying round before being eliminated by the Montreal Impact after a two-legged tie. Although the second season of the CPL was postponed and later rescheduled due to the consequences of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Murofushi was still able to join York for the so-called "Island Games" (as a shortened edition of the CPL was entirely organized in

Charlottetown Charlottetown is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County. Named after Queen Charlotte, Charlottetown was an unincorporated town until it was incorporated as a city in ...

, on the

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has seve ...

) and played in all of the seven matches his team was involved in, without scoring a single goal. However, York9 failed to progress to the second round of the competition as they finished in fifth place, just one point behind last-qualified

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

Bucheon

On 9 February 2021, Murofushi signed with South Korean side

, which was set to play in

K League 2 The K League 2 (Hangul: K리그2) is the men's second-highest division of the South Korean football league system. It is contested between thirteen professional clubs, and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the K League 1. Hi ...

, for an undisclosed fee.

Career statistics

Honours

Albirex Niigata (S) *

Singapore Premier League The Singapore Premier League, commonly abbreviated as SPL, officially known as the AIA Singapore Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is a men's professional football league sanctioned by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), which ...

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 ...

Singapore Cup The Singapore Cup is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic Singaporean football. Established in 1998, it is the foremost football cup competition in the country. It is open to clubs in the Singapore Premier League. Since ...

: 2018 Individual * SPL Player of the Year: 2018 *

SPL SPL may refer to: Association football * Saudi Professional League * Scottish Premier League * SportPesa Premier League, Kenya * Singapore Premier League * RoboCup Standard Platform League, matches between autonomous robots Computing Program ...

Fan XI: 2018

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Murofushi, Wataru 1995 births Living people Association football midfielders Japanese footballers Association football people from Aichi Prefecture Japanese expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Singapore Japanese expatriate sportspeople in Singapore Expatriate soccer players in Canada Japanese expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate footballers in South Korea Japanese expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Juntendo University alumni Albirex Niigata Singapore FC players York United FC players Bucheon FC 1995 players Singapore Premier League players Canadian Premier League players