Ryoichi Maeda

Maeda was born in Kobe, Japan but spent his childhood in the United States.^[2] He was educated at and played for Gyosei Junior and Senior High School in Tokyo. While he was a high school student, he was chosen as one of the Designated Players for Development by J.League and JFA. Because of this status, Maeda was able to register as a Verdy Kawasaki player while he was still eligible to play for his high school club. However, he did not play any official match for Verdy.

After graduating from his high school in 2000, he joined Júbilo Iwata. His first appearance as a professional player came on 3 May 2000 in a league match against Kawasaki Frontale. His first professional goal came on 28 August 2001 in a J.League Cup game against JEF United Ichihara. Although he could not play many matches behind Masashi Nakayama and Naohiro Takahara until 2002, he played as regular player from 2003. In the season 2009 was the J.League Top Scorer with twenty goals. In the 2010 season, Maeda became the top scorer again, netting 17 times.^[3] Júbilo also won the champions in 2010 J.League Cup. At 2010 J.League Cup Final, he scored two goals and was selected MVP award in the tournament. However Júbilo was relegated to J2 League end of 2013 season. In 2014, although he scored 17 goals, Júbilo finished at the 4th place and missed promotion to J1.

In 2015, Maeda moved to J1 club FC Tokyo. He played as regular player until 2016. However his opportunity to play decreased from 2017 and he could hardly score goals in the match.

In 2019, Maeda moved to J2 club FC Gifu.^[4]

Since the 2007 season, for six straight seasons, each team Maeda scores his first goal of the league campaign against has eventually been relegated to J2 League. This has given rise to the so-called "curse of (Ryoichi) Maeda".^[5] It became a topic of wide public conversation in late 2012 as Gamba Osaka, the team that he scored his first goal of that season against, was in the relegation zone despite having not ranked lower than third in the previous three seasons. Consistent with the "curse", Gamba Osaka was relegated to J2 following the last game of the season in which they lost against, funnily enough, Jubilo Iwata 2–1 with Maeda scoring a goal and an assist. The curse came to an end by the end of the 2013 season, as Maeda's first goal of the 2013 season came in a loss to Urawa, who will not be relegated.^{[citation needed]}

Maeda played for Japan U20 at the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship in Argentina. He also played for Japan U23 at the 2004 Summer Olympics qualification but failed to be picked up to the squad for the finals in Greece.

After impressive performance at club, Maeda made his international debut for Japan in a friendly against Cameroon on 22 August 2007 at Oita Stadium.^[6] He scored his first international goal on 17 October 2007 in a friendly against Egypt at Nagai Stadium in Osaka.^[6] In 2011, Maeda participated in his first major full international tournament at 2011 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar and started all six games in Japan's Asian Cup winning campaign.^{[citation needed]} He was selected Japan for 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup. He played 33 games and scored 10 goals for Japan until 2013.^[6]

As of end of 2018 season^[7]

Scores and results list Japan's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Maeda goal.

List of international goals scored by Ryoichi Maeda^[6]

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	17 October 2007	Nagai Stadium, Osaka, Japan	Egypt	3–0	4–1	2007 Afro-Asian Cup of Nations
2	17 February 2008	Olympic Sports Center, Chongqing, China	North Korea	1–1	1–1	East Asian Football Championship 2008
3	17 January 2011	Ahmed bin Ali Stadium, Al Rayyan, Qatar	Saudi Arabia	3–0	5–0	2011 AFC Asian Cup
4				4–0
5	25 January 2011	Al-Gharafa Stadium, Doha, Qatar	South Korea	1–1	2–2	2011 AFC Asian Cup
6	11 November 2011	Pamir Stadium, Dushanbe, Tajikistan	Tajikistan	3–0	4–0	2014 FIFA World Cup qualification
7	24 February 2012	Nagai Stadium, Osaka, Japan	Iceland	1–0	3–1	Friendly
8	3 June 2012	Saitama Stadium 2002, Saitama, Japan	Oman	2–0	3–0	2014 FIFA World Cup qualification
9	8 June 2012	Saitama Stadium 2002, Saitama, Japan	Jordan	1–0	6–0	2014 FIFA World Cup qualification
10	11 September 2012	Saitama Stadium 2002, Saitama, Japan	Iraq	1–0	1–0	2014 FIFA World Cup qualification

Júbilo Iwata

• J1 League: 2002
• J.League Cup: 2010
• Japanese Super Cup: 2003

Japan

• AFC Asian Cup: 2011
• Afro-Asian Cup of Nations: 2007

Individual

• Asian Young Footballer of the Year: 2000^[9]
• J.League Top Scorer: 2009, 2010
• J.League Best XI: 2009, 2010
• J.League Cup MVP: 2010

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ryoichi Maeda.

• Ryoichi Maeda – FIFA competition record (archived)
• Ryoichi Maeda at National-Football-Teams.com
• Japan National Football Team Database
• Ryoichi Maeda at J.League (archive) (in Japanese)
• Ryoichi Maeda at Soccerway