Full name Kazuya Maekawa Role Footballer Playing position Height 1.89 m | Years Team Weight 98 kg Name Kazuya Maekawa Position Goalkeeper | |
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Date of birth (1968-03-22) 22 March 1968 (age 47) Place of birth Hirado, Nagasaki, Japan 1986–1999 Mazda/Sanfrecce Hiroshima | ||
Kazuya Maekawa (前川 和也, Maekawa Kazuya, born March 22, 1968) is a former Japanese football player. He played for Japan national team. He was a goalkeeper.
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Career
Maekawa was educated at and played for Hirado High School. After graduating in 1986, he joined Japan Soccer League side Mazda. When Japan's first-ever professional league J1 League started in 1993, Mazda was transformed to Sanfrecce Hiroshima for whom he continued to play. In April 1990, he went had a trial at Manchester United. He had been the first-choice GK for the club since 1989 although he was prone to injuries. He decided to have operation on his shoulder in 1998 and his place was filled in by Takashi Shimoda who kept the place after Maekawa came back. Maekawa was transferred to J2 League side Oita Trinita in 2000 before retiring from the game after the 2001 season.
He was capped 17 times for the Japanese national team from 1992 to 1996. His first cap came on June 7, 1992 in a friendly against Wales in Matsuyama, Ehime. He was a member of the Japan team that won the 1992 AFC Asian Cup. He played 2 games after first-choice keeper Shigetatsu Matsunaga was shown a red card in the semi-final against China.
After finishing his playing career, he remained at Trinita and worked in the areas of marketing, operations and developments until 2005. He is now a coach at Sanfrecce Tsuneishi Soccer School, one of the affiliated soccer schools of Sanfrecce Hiroshima. (as of September 2007)