Kenichi Uemura

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

Biography
Uemura was born in Yatsushiro on April 22, 1974. After graduating from Matsunaga High School, he joined J1 League side Sanfrecce Hiroshima in 1993. The club won the 2nd place in 1994 J1 League and 1995, 1996 and 1999 Emperor's Cup. He played in many matches as defender from his first season, except at times when he was injured.

After 11 year's long service at Sanfrecce Hiroshima, he moved to Cerezo Osaka in 2004, then Tokyo Verdy (2005–2006). After a brief spell at YSCC Yokohama, he joined his local club Rosso Kumamoto (later Roasso Kumamoto) in 2007. He damaged his knee ligaments three times and experienced seven operations. These injuries have affected his form. Uemura retired from professional football after the 2008 season.

He represented the Japan U-23 national team at the 1996 Summer Olympics. He played in 2 matches. He scored a goal in a group stage match against Hungary. Although Japan won 2 matches, Japan exited in the first round. Japan beat Brazil in their first game. It was known as the "Miracle of Miami" (マイアミの奇跡) in Japan.

In April 2001, Uemura was selected by the Japan national team. National team manager Philippe Troussier gave him his first full international cap on April 25 in a friendly against Spain. He was a member of the Japan team for the 2001 Confederations Cup. He played three games and Japan won second place. He played 4 games for Japan in 2001.

After the retirement, Uemura started coaching career at J2 League club Roasso Kumamoto in 2009. In 2013, he moved to J2 club Kamatamare Sanuki and served as assistant coach under manager Makoto Kitano. However the club was relegated to J3 League end of 2018 season. In 2019, Uemura became a manager as Kitano successor and he managed the club in 1 season.

Statistics

|-
|1993||rowspan="11"|Sanfrecce Hiroshima||rowspan="10"|J1 League||17||1||2||0||6||0||25||1
|-
|1994||26||0||2||0||1||0||29||0
|-
|1995||46||4||4||0||colspan="2"|-||50||4
|-
|1996||12||2||0||0||7||0||19||2
|-
|1997||3||0||0||0||0||0||3||0
|-
|1998||17||0||3||0||0||0||20||0
|-
|1999||29||7||5||1||4||1||38||9
|-
|2000||28||6||2||0||3||0||33||6
|-
|2001||25||2||2||0||5||0||32||2
|-
|2002||10||1||4||0||0||0||14||1
|-
|2003||J2 League||38||0||4||0||colspan="2"|-||42||0
|-
|2004||Cerezo Osaka||J1 League||15||0||0||0||6||0||21||0
|-
|2005||rowspan="2"|Tokyo Verdy||J1 League||18||0||1||0||4||0||23||0
|-
|2006||J2 League||1||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||1||0
|-
|2006||YSCC Yokohama||Regional Leagues||0||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||0||0
|-
|2007||Rosso Kumamoto||Football League||30||3||1||0||colspan="2"|-||31||3
|-
|2008||Roasso Kumamoto||J2 League||28||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||28||0
343||26||30||1||36||1||409||28
343||26||30||1||36||1||409||28
|}

|-
|2001||4||0
|-
!Total||4||0
|}

References

Other websites

1974 births
Living people
Footballers from Kumamoto Prefecture
Japan international footballers
Japanese football managers
J1 League players
J2 League players
Sanfrecce Hiroshima players
Cerezo Osaka players
Tokyo Verdy players
YSCC Yokohama players
Roasso Kumamoto players
2001 FIFA Confederations Cup players
Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics