Junichi Inamoto

is a Japanese football player. He played for the Japan national team.

Biography
Inamoto was born in Osaka Prefecture on September 18, 1979. He joined J1 League club Gamba Osaka from their youth team in 1997. In April when at the age of 17, he debuted opening match in 1997 season, which made him the youngest player who played J1 League at that time. He played for Gamba until summer 2001 and played 118 matches in J1 League. In summer 2001, he moved to English Premier League club Arsenal FC. After that, he played many European club, Fulham, West Bromwich Albion, Cardiff City, Galatasaray, Eintracht Frankfurt and Stade Rennais. In 2010, he returned to Japan and joined Kawasaki Frontale. He played for the club in 5 season. In 2015, he moved to J2 League club Consadole Sapporo (later Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo). Although the club won the champions in 2016 and was promoted to J1, he could not play many matches from the 2016 season. In 2019, he moved to J3 League club SC Sagamihara. The club won the 2nd place in 2020 and was promoted to J2.

In August 1995, Inamoto was selected the Japan U-17 national team for 1995 U-17 World Championship and played all 3 matches. In April 1999, he was selected the Japan U-20 national team for 1999 World Youth Championship. At this tournament, he played three matches and Japan came second place.

On February 5, 2000, Inamoto debuted for the Japan national team under manager Philippe Troussier against Mexico. After the debuted, Inamoto played 10 matches or more every year. In September 2000, Inamoto was selected Japan U-23 national team for 2000 Summer Olympics. He played full-time in all 4 matches and scored a goal against Slovakia. In 2000, Inamoto played at 2000 Asian Cup. He played four matches while Japan won the championship. In 2001, he also played at 2001 Confederations Cup. He played four matches and Japan came second place. In 2002, he was selected Japan for 2002 World Cup. He played all four matches and scored two goals against Belgium at first match and Russia at second match. Japan qualified to the knockout stage first time in Japan's history. After 2002 World Cup, Inamoto played at 2003 and 2005 Confederations Cup. In 2006, he was selected Japan for 2006 World Cup. He played two matches while Japan was eliminated in the group stages. After 2006 World Cup, Inamoto was not selected Japan 1 year for generational change. In June 2007, he played for Japan for the first time in a year. After that, he played several matches every year. In 2010, he was selected Japan for 2010 World Cup. He played two matches and Japan qualified to the knockout stage. This World Cup is his last game for Japan. He played 82 games and scored 5 goals for Japan.

Statistics

|-
|1997||rowspan="5"|Gamba Osaka||rowspan="5"|J1 League||27||3||3||0||6||0||colspan="2"|-||36||3
|-
|1998||28||6||1||0||4||0||colspan="2"|-||33||6
|-
|1999||22||1||2||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||24||1
|-
|2000||28||4||2||0||4||1||colspan="2"|-||34||5
|-
|2001||13||2||0||0||3||0||colspan="2"|-||16||2

|-
|2001/02||Arsenal||Premier League||0||0||0||0||2||0||2||0||4||0
|-
|2002/03||rowspan="2"|Fulham||rowspan="2"|Premier League||19||2||2||0||2||0||6||0||29||2
|-
|2003/04||22||2||2||1||1||0||colspan="2"|-||25||3
|-
|2004/05||West Bromwich Albion||Premier League||3||0||0||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||3||0
|-
|2004/05||Cardiff City||Championship||14||0||2||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||16||0
|-
|2005/06||rowspan="2"|West Bromwich Albion||Premier League||22||0||2||0||2||1||colspan="2"|-||26||1
|-
|2006/07||Championship||3||0||0||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||3||0

|-
|2006/07||Galatasaray||Süper Lig||25||0||3||0||colspan="2"|-||5||1||33||1

|-
|2007/08||rowspan="2"|Eintracht Frankfurt||rowspan="2"|Bundesliga||24||0||2||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||26||0
|-
|2008/09||19||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||20||0

|-
|2009/10||Stade Rennais||Ligue 1||5||0||0||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||5||0

|-
|2010||rowspan="5"|Kawasaki Frontale||rowspan="5"|J1 League||28||0||2||0||4||0||5||0||39||0
|-
|2011||12||2||1||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||14||2
|-
|2012||20||0||1||0||3||0||colspan="2"|-||24||0
|-
|2013||25||0||3||0||10||0||colspan="2"|-||38||0
|-
|2014||14||1||1||0||1||0||3||0||19||1
|-
|2015||Consadole Sapporo||J2 League||31||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||32||0
|-
|2016||rowspan="3"|Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo||J2 League||8||1||0||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||8||1
|-
|2017||rowspan="2"|J1 League||6||0||0||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||6||0
|-
|2018||2||0||1||0||5||0||colspan="2"|-||8||0
|-
|2019||rowspan="3"|SC Sagamihara||rowspan="2"|J3 League||9||1||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||9||1
|-
|2020||1||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||1||0
|-
|2021||J2 League||||||||||||||||||||
274||21||18||0||41||1||8||0||341||22
83||4||8||1||7||1||8||0||106||6
25||0||3||0||colspan="2"|-||5||1||33||1
43||0||3||0||colspan="2"|-||5||1||51||1
5||0||0||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||5||0
430||25||32||1||48||2||26||2||536||30
|}

|-
|2000||14||0
|-
|2001||11||1
|-
|2002||11||2
|-
|2003||10||1
|-
|2004||6||0
|-
|2005||10||0
|-
|2006||4||0
|-
|2007||3||0
|-
|2008||2||0
|-
|2009||4||1
|-
|2010||8||0
|-
!Total||82||5
|}

References

Other websites

1979 births
Living people
Footballers from Osaka Prefecture
Japan international footballers
J1 League players
J2 League players
J3 League players
Gamba Osaka players
Kawasaki Frontale players
Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo players
SC Sagamihara players
2002 FIFA World Cup players
2006 FIFA World Cup players
2010 FIFA World Cup players
2001 FIFA Confederations Cup players
2003 FIFA Confederations Cup players
2005 FIFA Confederations Cup players
Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics
2000 AFC Asian Cup players
AFC Asian Cup-winning players