Yuichiro Nagai (永井 雄一郎, Nagai Yūichirō, born 14 February 1979) is a Japanese former professional footballer who played as a forward. He made four appearances for the Japan national team scoring once.
Club career
Nagai played his youth football at Mitsubishi Yowa Club. After graduating from high school in 1997, he joined Urawa Reds. He made his professional debut on 12 April of that year in the opening league match against Yokohama Marinos at Urawa Komaba Stadium.
In 2003, Nagai took over the number "9" jersey from iconic Masahiro Fukuda after the latter retired from the game. He scored a hat trick against Tokyo Verdy on 21 August 2004. In the same match, his teammate Koji Yamase also scored three goals. On 1 January 2007, he was instrumental in Urawa defending the Emperor's Cup by scoring a late winner assisted by Masayuki Okano. The club won the champions 2006 J1 League, 2003 J.League Cup, 2005 and 2006 Emperor's Cup until 2006.
Nagai was a member of the Japan team for the 1997 World Youth Championship hosted by Malaysia. He played all 5 matches and scored a goal against Costa Rica at the group stage. The team was eliminated at the quarterfinal. He also represented Japan at the 1999 World Youth Championship hosted by Nigeria. He played all 7 matches and scored a goal in the semi-final against Uruguay and contributed to the team finishing runners-up in the competition.
He made his full international debut for Japan on 21 April 2003 in a friendly against South Korea at Seoul World Cup Stadium. His first international goal was the winner in the same match. He also played at 2003 Confederations Cup. He is so far capped 4 times and scored 1 goal.[4]
Career statistics
Club
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition[5][6]
