Junichi Inamoto

is a Japanese former 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, at the age of 17, he made his debut in the 1997 season, which made him the youngest player to play in the 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. After that, he played for many European clubs including 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 for five seasons. In 2015, he moved to J2 League club Consadole Sapporo (later _Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo_). Although the club were the champions in 2016 and was promoted to J1, he could not play many matches in the 2016 season. In 2019, he moved to J3 League club SC Sagamihara. The club reached second place in 2020 and was promoted to J2.

In August 1995, Inamoto was selected for the Japan U-17 national team in the [the [1995 FIFA U-17 World Championship|1995 U-17 World Championship]] and played all three matches. In April 1999, he was selected for the Japan U-20 national team for the 1999 World Youth Championship. At this tournament, he played three matches and Japan came in 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 and 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 by Japan for 2006 World Cup. He played two matches while Japan was eliminated in the group stages. After the 2006 World Cup, Inamoto was not selected Japan for a year. 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 by Japan for the 2010 World Cup. He played two matches and Japan qualified for the knockout stage. This World Cup saw his last game for Japan. He played 82 games and scored 5 goals for Japan.

### Club

|rowspan="2"|Club|rowspan="2"|Season|colspan="3"|League|colspan="2"|National cup|colspan="2"|League cup|colspan="2"|Continental|colspan="2"|Total|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|Gamba Osaka|1997|J1 League|27|3|3|0|6|0|–|36|3|||
|1998|28|6|1|0|4|0|–|33|6|||||
|1999|22|1|2|0|0|0|–|24|1|||||
|2000|28|4|2|0|4|1|–|34|5|||||
|2001|13|2|0|0|3|0|–|16|2|||||
|Arsenal (loan)|2001–02|Premier League|0|0|0|0|2|0|2|0|4|0||
|Fulham (loan)|2002–03|Premier League|19|2|2|0|2|0|10|4|33|6||
|2003–04|22|2|2|1|1|0|–|25|3|||||
|West Bromwich Albion|2004–05|Premier League|3|0|0|0|0|0|–|3|0|||
|2005–06|Premier League|22|0|2|0|2|1|–|26|1||||
|2006–07|Championship|3|0|0|0|0|0|–|3|0||||
|Cardiff City (loan)|2004–05|Championship|14|0|2|0|0|0|–|16|0|||
|Galatasaray|2006–07|Süper Lig|25|0|3|0|–|5|1|33|1|||
|Eintracht Frankfurt|2007–08|Bundesliga|24|0|2|0|–|–|26|0||||
|2008–09|19|0|1|0|–|–|20|0||||||
|Rennes|2009–10|Ligue 1|5|0|0|0|0|0|–|5|0|||
|Kawasaki Frontale|2010|J1 League|28|0|2|0|4|0|5|0|39|0||
|2011|12|2|1|0|1|0|–|14|2|||||
|2012|20|0|1|0|3|0|–|24|0|||||
|2013|25|0|3|0|10|0|–|36|0|||||
|2014|14|1|1|0|1|0|3|0|19|1||||
|Consadole Sapporo|2015|J2 League|31|0|1|0|–|–|32|0||||
|2016|J2 League|8|1|0|0|–|–|8|1|||||
|2017|J1 League|6|0|0|0|0|0|–|6|0||||
|2018|2|0|1|0|5|0|–|8|0|||||
|SC Sagamihara|2019|J3 League|9|1|0|0|–|–|9|1||||
|2020|1|0|0|0|–|–|1|0||||||
|2021|J2 League|9|0|2|0|–|–|11|0|||||
|Nankatsu SC|2022|Kanto Soccer League|2|0|0|0|–|–|2|0||||

### International

|National team|Year|Apps|Goals||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan="11"|Japan|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|||

- _Scores and results list Japan's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Inamoto goal._

|scope="col"|No.|scope="col"|Date|scope="col"|Venue|scope="col"|Opponent|scope="col"|Score|scope="col"|Result|scope="col"|Competition|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|4 July 2001|Ōita, Japan|||1–0|Friendly match||||||||
|2|4 June 2002|Saitama, Japan|||2–2|2002 FIFA World Cup Group Stage||||||||
|3|9 June 2002|Yokohama, Japan|||1–0|2002 FIFA World Cup Group Stage||||||||
|4|28 March 2003|Tokyo, Japan|||2–2|Friendly match||||||||
|5|9 September 2009|Utrecht, Netherlands|||4–3|Friendly match||||||||

## Honours

**Fulham**
- UEFA Intertoto Cup: 2002

**Hokkaido Consodale Sapporo**
- J2 League: 2016

**Japan U17**
- AFC U-17 Championship: 1994

**Japan U20**
- FIFA World Youth Championship runner-up: 1999

**Japan**
- AFC Asian Cup: 2000
- FIFA Confederations Cup runner-up: 2001

**Individual**
- J.League Best Eleven: 2000

## Infobox (football biography)

- **name**: Junichi Inamoto

- **image**: Junichi Inamoto.jpg
- **upright**: 0.9
- **caption**: Inamoto playing for Kawasaki Frontale in 2010
- **full name**: Junichi Inamoto
- **birth place**: Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan
- **height**: 1.81 m
- **position**: Midfielder
- **youthyears1**: 1992–1997
- **youthclubs1**: Gamba Osaka
- **years1**: 1997–2004
- **clubs1**: Gamba Osaka
- **caps1**: 118
- **goals1**: 16
- **years2**: 2001–2002
- **clubs2**: → Arsenal F.C., Arsenal (loan)
- **caps2**: 0
- **goals2**: 0
- **years3**: 2002–2004
- **clubs3**: → Fulham F.C., Fulham (loan)
- **caps3**: 41
- **goals3**: 9
- **years4**: 2004–2006
- **clubs4**: West Bromwich Albion F.C., West Bromwich Albion
- **caps4**: 28
- **goals4**: 0
- **years5**: 2004–2005
- **clubs5**: → Cardiff City F.C., Cardiff City (loan)
- **caps5**: 14
- **goals5**: 0
- **years6**: 2006–2007
- **clubs6**: Galatasaray S.K. (football), Galatasaray
- **caps6**: 25
- **goals6**: 0
- **years7**: 2007–2009
- **clubs7**: Eintracht Frankfurt
- **caps7**: 43
- **goals7**: 0
- **years8**: 2009–2010
- **clubs8**: Stade Rennais F.C., Rennes
- **caps8**: 5
- **goals8**: 0
- **years9**: 2010–2014
- **clubs9**: Kawasaki Frontale
- **caps9**: 99
- **goals9**: 3
- **years10**: 2015–2018
- **clubs10**: Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo
- **caps10**: 47
- **goals10**: 1
- **years11**: 2019–2021
- **clubs11**: SC Sagamihara
- **caps11**: 19
- **goals11**: 1
- **years12**: 2022–2024
- **clubs12**: Nankatsu SC
- **caps12**: 2
- **goals12**: 0
- **totalcaps**: 441
- **totalgoals**: 25
- **nationalyears1**: 1995
- **nationalteam1**: Japan national under-17 football team, Japan U-17
- **nationalcaps1**: 3
- **nationalgoals1**: 0
- **nationalyears2**: 1998–1999
- **nationalteam2**: Japan national under-20 football team, Japan U-20
- **nationalcaps2**: 11
- **nationalgoals2**: 4
- **nationalyears3**: 1998–2000
- **nationalteam3**: Japan national under-23 football team, Japan U-23
- **nationalcaps3**: 15
- **nationalgoals3**: 5
- **nationalyears4**: 2000–2010
- **nationalteam4**: Japan national football team, Japan
- **nationalcaps4**: 82
- **nationalgoals4**: 5