Masaaki Higashiguchi 東口 順昭

Masaaki Higashiguchi (東口 順昭, Higashiguchi Masaaki, born 12 May 1986) is a Japanese footballer who currently plays for Gamba Osaka and the Japan national football team as a goalkeeper. He previously played for Albirex Niigata.

Club Career

A native of Osaka, Higashiguchi spent time in Gamba Osaka's youth system prior to entering university, first at the Fukui University of Technology and later at the Niigata University of Management where he represented their football team in the 2008 Emperor's Cup.

After graduating from university, Higashiguchi signed his first professional contract with then J1 League outfit Albirex Niigata. He spent 5 seasons with the men from the Japan Sea coast and played a total of 84 league games before returning to Osaka in 2014.

Gamba Osaka had just been promoted back to J1 League following their shock relegation in 2012, when they acquired Higashiguchi to be their new first-choice goalkeeper ahead of the 2014 campaign. Things couldn't have got off to a better start for him at his new club as they went on to lift the J1 League title, the J.League Cup and the Emperor's Cup. The Osaka giants followed that up by winning the 2015 Japanese Super Cup and Emperor's Cup trophies, defeating Urawa Red Diamonds in the final of both competitions, as well as reaching the semi-finals of the AFC Champions League before going down to Guangzhou Evergrande over two legs in the semi finals. Higashiguchi played 55 times in all competitions in 2015 adding to the 50 appearances he made in 2014.

Gamba didn't win any silverware between 2016 and 2018, however, Higashiguchi remained the undisputed first-choice between the sticks; he was an ever present during the 2016 league campaign before missing 1 and 5 league games respectively due to injury in the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

This page also has a version in other languages :  Масааки Хигасигути (russian)