is a former

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player. He played for the Japan national team. He is a cousin of

Koki Mizuno is a Japanese football player who plays for Iwate Grulla Morioka in J3 League. Mizuno began his professional career with JEF United Chiba, with whom he won the J.League Cup in 2005 and 2006; he was named most valuable player of the 2006 comp ...

. His wife is Japanese actress

Hiroko Hatano is a Japanese model and actress. As an 18-year-old, she made her model debut on Japanese fashion magazine '' JJ'' in March 1994. She was one of the top models for the magazine until 2001, when she temporarily quit modelling to concentrate on he ...

Club career

After graduating from Tokai University Shoyo High School, he joined

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 Yasud ...

side

Urawa Reds The or simply Urawa Reds (浦和レッズ, ''Urawa Rezzu''), also known as Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club from April 1992 to January 1996, are a professional football club in the city of Saitama, part of the Greater Tokyo Area in Japan, who p ...

in 2000. His first professional appearance came in an

Emperor's Cup , commonly known as or Japan FA Cup, and rebranded as The JFA Emperor's Cup from 2024 onwards, is a Japanese annual football competition. It has the longest tradition of any football tournament in Japan, dating back to 1921, before the formatio ...

match against

Honda Lock SC , formerly are a Japanese football (soccer) club based in Miyazaki, the capital city of Miyazaki Prefecture. They play in the Japan Football League, Japanese 4th tier of league football. Their team colour is blue. History The club was foun ...

on 3 December 2000. He broke into Urawa's first team in 2001 and became a mainstay in midfielder. He contributed to the club winning the

J1 League The , the J.League or the for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Japan and the highest level of the Japanese football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation ...

championship in

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

and was chosen as one of the 2006

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 on two occasions there has been a full-Japanese Best X ...

. In 2007, the club won the champions

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

and the 3rd place Club World Cup. He was also elected Japanese Footballer of the Year award. Although he played many matches every seasons, he lost opportunity to play in 2015. In October, he announced that he would be leaving his only club at the end of that season. After the last game of

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

regular season in November, he announced his retirement from football.

National team career

Suzuki was captain for Japan U-23 national team throughout the 2004 Summer Olympics Qualifiers. However, he was not included in the final squad for the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

as manager

Masakuni Yamamoto is a former Japanese football player and manager. He played for Japan national team. Club career Yamamoto was born in Numazu on April 4, 1958. After graduating from Kokushikan University, he joined Yamaha Motors in 1981. First season, the clu ...

favoured overage player Shinji Ono. Japan national team manager

Ivica Osim Ivan Osim (6 May 1941 – 1 May 2022), best known as Ivica Osim, was a Bosnian professional Football player, footballer and Manager (association football), football manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest Bosnian football managers of all ...

rated Suzuki highly and handed him his first senior cap on 9 August 2006, in a friendly match against

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, smaller i ...

. He was the only player who started all 20 matches under Osim's reign. Osim once referred to him as the Japanese answer to

Claude Makélélé Claude Makélélé Sinda (born 18 February 1973) is a French Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, professional player who played as a defensive midfielder. He last managed Super League Greece club Astera ...

.【日本代表 vs イエメン代表】前日練習後のオシム監督コメント（06.09.06）
He played 28 games for Japan until 2008.
/ref>

Club statistics

¹Includes

J.League Championship The J.League Championship is a two-legged championship series which determined the season champion for the first 12 J.League seasons (1993–2004) excluding the 1996 season. In the early years, the J.League seasons were Apertura and Clausura, ...

Japanese Super Cup The , the for sponsorship reasons, is an annual one-match association football competition in Japan organised by J.League and the Japan Football Association. This competition serves as the season opener and is played between the reigning J1 Leag ...

A3 Champions Cup A3 Champions Cup (also known as East Asian Champions Cup) was an annual football (soccer) tournament jointly organized by the China PR, Japan and Korea Republic football Association. It began in 2003, involving the league champions of Chinese Supe ...

and

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup (FIFA CWC) is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (FIFA), the sport's global sports governing body, governing body. The compe ...

National team statistics

Appearances in major competitions

International goals

:''Scores and results list Japan's goal tally first.''

Under-23

Honours

Japan

Afro-Asian Cup of Nations The Afro-Asian Cup of Nations, also called the AFC Asia/Africa Challenge Cup, was an intercontinental football competition endorsed by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), contested between repr ...

: 1 :: 2007

Club

;Urawa Red Diamonds *

: 1 ::

First Stage: 1 ::

: 2 ::

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

J.League Cup The is a Japanese Association football, football (soccer) competition organised by J.League, the men's association football league in Japan. It has been sponsored by Yamazaki Biscuits (YBC) of Yamazaki Baking (formerly Yamazaki Nabisco) since it ...

: 1 ::

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

: 1 ::

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

: 1 ::

Individual

*Japanese Footballer of the Year: 1 :: 2007 *

: 2 ::

References

External links

* *
Japan National Football Team Database
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Suzuki, Keita 1981 births Living people Japanese men's footballers Japan men's international footballers J1 League players J2 League players Urawa Red Diamonds players 2007 AFC Asian Cup players Footballers at the 2002 Asian Games Men's association football midfielders Asian Games silver medalists for Japan Medalists at the 2002 Asian Games Association football people from Shizuoka (city) AFC Champions League Elite–winning players Asian Games silver medalists in football