Toshihide Saito

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

Biography
Saito was born in Shizuoka on April 20, 1973. After graduating from Waseda University, he joined his local club Shimizu S-Pulse in 1996. He played as regular player from first season. At 1996 J.League Cup, the club won the champions and he was selected "New Hero awards". End of 1996 season, he was also selected "J.League Rookie of the Year awards". The club also won the 2nd place at 1998 Emperor's Cup and 1999 J1 League, he was also selected Best Eleven in 1999. In 2000s, the club won 1999–2000 Asian Cup Winners' Cup and 2001 Emperor's Cup. In 2006, he moved to J2 League club Shonan Bellmare and played in 2 season. In 2009, he was appointed playing manager of Prefectural Leagues side Fujieda MYFC. After promotion to the Japan Football League in 2011 and acceptance into J3 League for the 2014 season, Saito decided to leave the club.

Saito was capped 17 times for the Japanese national team between 1996 and 1999. His first international appearance came on August 25, 1996 in a friendly against Uruguay. He was an unused substitute at the 1998 World Cup. He also played at 1999 Copa América.

Statistics

|-
|1996||rowspan="11"|Shimizu S-Pulse||rowspan="11"|J1 League||29||2||3||0||16||0||48||2
|-
|1997||22||2||3||0||0||0||25||2
|-
|1998||33||0||5||0||1||0||39||0
|-
|1999||28||3||3||0||4||0||35||3
|-
|2000||28||3||5||0||6||0||39||3
|-
|2001||20||1||0||0||2||0||22||1
|-
|2002||20||1||2||0||1||0||23||1
|-
|2003||2||0||0||0||0||0||2||0
|-
|2004||26||3||1||0||6||0||33||3
|-
|2005||28||0||0||0||7||1||35||1
|-
|2006||8||1||0||0||3||0||11||1
|-
|2007||rowspan="2"|Shonan Bellmare||rowspan="2"|J2 League||46||4||2||0||colspan="2"|-||48||4
|-
|2008||38||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||39||0
|-
|2009||rowspan="5"|Fujieda MYFC||Prefectural Leagues||11||3||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||11||3
|-
|2010||rowspan="2"|Regional Leagues||15||2||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||15||2
|-
|2011||5||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||5||0
|-
|2012||rowspan="2"|Football League||11||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||11||0
|-
|2013||15||1||1||0||colspan="2"|-||16||1
385||26||28||0||46||1||459||27
385||26||28||0||46||1||459||27
|}
Japan National Football Team Database

|-
|1996||2||0
|-
|1997||7||0
|-
|1998||4||0
|-
|1999||4||0
|-
!Total||17||0
|}

References

Other websites

Category:1973 births
Category:Living people
Category:Footballers from Shizuoka Prefecture
Category:Japan international footballers
Category:J1 League players
Category:J2 League players
Category:Shimizu S-Pulse players
Category:Shonan Bellmare players
Category:Fujieda MYFC players
Category:1998 FIFA World Cup players
Category:1996 AFC Asian Cup players