Sota Hirayama

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

## Biography

Hirayama was born in Kitakyushu on June 6, 1985. After dropped out from University of Tsukuba, he joined Dutch Eredivisie club Heracles Almelo in summer 2005. He played many matches and scored 8 goals. In September 2006, he returned to Japan and signed with J1 League club FC Tokyo. He played many matches and FC Tokyo won the champions in the 2009 J.League Cup. However FC Tokyo was relegated to J2 League end of the 2010 season. In April 2011, he also broke his leg and he could only play one game. In 2012, the club returned to J1, however he broke his leg again in May and he could hardly play in the match. From 2013 he played many matches as substitute. He moved to Vegalta Sendai in 2017. However he got hurt on the day after the opening game. He could not play for the injury in this season. In January 2018, he announced his retirement after having too many injuries.

In November 2003, when Hirayama was 18 years old, he was selected the Japan U-20 national team for 2003 World Youth Championship. He played 4 matches and scored 2 goals. In 2004, he was selected for the Japan U-23 national team for 2008 Summer Olympics and played one game. In 2005, he played for U-20 Japan at 2005 World Youth Championship again. He played all 4 matches and score one goal. In January 2010, he was selected the Japan national team for 2011 Asian Cup qualification. At this qualification, he debuted against Yemen on January 6. He scored a hat trick to help Japan to a 3–2 victory. It was the first time in 80 years and the second time overall for a Japan player to score three goals on his debut. Takeo Wakabayashi last managed that in 1930. He played 4 games and scored 3 goals for Japan in 2010.

## Statistics

|-
|2005–06||rowspan="2"|Heracles Almelo||rowspan="2"|Eredivisie||31||8||0||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||31||8
|-
|2006–07||1||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||1||0

|-
|2006||rowspan="11"|FC Tokyo||rowspan="5"|J1 League||7||2||0||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||7||2
|-
|2007||20||5||3||2||2||0||colspan="2"|-||25||7
|-
|2008||24||2||3||2||8||4||colspan="2"|-||35||8
|-
|2009||26||4||3||1||9||4||colspan="2"|-||38||9
|-
|2010||30||7||4||4||6||1||colspan="2"|-||40||12
|-
|2011||J2 League||1||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||1||0
|-
|2012||rowspan="5"|J1 League||4||0||0||0||1||0||1||0||6||0
|-
|2013||21||5||3||1||3||0||colspan="2"|-||27||6
|-
|2014||19||3||2||2||6||1||colspan="2"|-||27||6
|-
|2015||2||0||0||0||2||0||colspan="2"|-||4||0
|-
|2016||15||5||2||1||2||0||2||0||21||6
|-
|2017||Vegalta Sendai||J1 League||0||0||0||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||0||0
32||8||0||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||32||8
169||33||20||13||39||10||3||0||231||56
201||41||20||13||39||10||3||0||263||64
|}

|-
|2010||4||3
|-
!Total||4||3
|}

## Infobox (football biography)

- **name**: Sota Hirayama
- **image**: Sota Hirayama - top.jpg
- **image size**: 200
- **caption**: Hirayama playing for FC Tokyo
- **fullname**: Sota Hirayama
- **birth place**: Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, Fukuoka, Japan
- **position**: Forward
- **youthyears1**: 2001–2003
- **youthclubs1**: Kunimi High School
- **youthyears2**: 2004–2005
- **youthclubs2**: University of Tsukuba
- **years1**: 2005–2006
- **clubs1**: Heracles Almelo
- **caps1**: 32
- **goals1**: 8
- **years2**: 2006–2016
- **clubs2**: FC Tokyo
- **caps2**: 169
- **goals2**: 33
- **years3**: 2017
- **clubs3**: Vegalta Sendai
- **caps3**: 0
- **goals3**: 0
- **totalcaps**: 201
- **totalgoals**: 41
- **nationalyears1**: 2003–2005
- **nationalteam1**: Japan national under-20 football team, Japan U-20
- **nationalcaps1**: 8
- **nationalgoals1**: 3
- **nationalyears2**: 2004
- **nationalteam2**: Japan national under-23 football team, Japan U-23
- **nationalcaps2**: 1
- **nationalgoals2**: 0
- **nationalyears3**: 2010
- **nationalteam3**: Japan national football team, Japan
- **nationalcaps3**: 4
- **nationalgoals3**: 3