Gaku Nawata (; born 29 July 2006) is a Japanese

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a striker for

Gamba Osaka is a Japanese professional association football, football club based in Suita, Osaka Prefecture. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. The club's home stadium is Panasonic Stadium Suita. They form a ...

Club career

Nawata began his career as a football player at Konokawauchi SC when he was an elementary school student. He achieved second place in the U-12 tournament in Miyazaki when he was in sixth grade. In 2018, he enrolled in Kamimura Gakuen, which is known for its excellence in football. He won the national junior high school tournament and was the top scorer. And then, he skipped a grade to join the high school team, and he was a key player there. On 15 December 2024, Nawata was announced at Gamba Osaka from the 2025 season.

International career

In 2022, he was first called up to the Japan U-16. At

2023 AFC U-17 Asian Cup The 2023 AFC U-17 Asian Cup was the 19th edition of the AFC U-17 Asian Cup (including previous editions of the AFC U-16 Championship and AFC U-17 Championship), the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football ...

, he scored the most of all the players and led his national team to victory. He also won the MVP award for the tournament. On 11 October, he was named by English newspaper ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' as one of the best players born in 2006 worldwide. In the same year, he has continued to represent Japan at

2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup The 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the 19th edition of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth association football, football tournament contested by the under-17 national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It was hel ...

. In the first game at the knockout round, he scored the equalizer against Spain, but Japan conceded a goal later and ended up in defeat.

Honours

International *

AFC U-17 Asian Cup The AFC U-17 Asian Cup, formerly known as the AFC U-16 Championship and AFC U-17 Championship, is a football competition, organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) held once every two years for Asian under-17 teams that also serves as a q ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Individual * Top Goal Scorer AFC U-17 Asian Cup 2023: 5 goals * Player of the Tournament AFC U-17 Asian Cup 2023

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nawata, Gaku Living people 2006 births Japanese men's footballers Men's association football forwards Association football people from Miyazaki Prefecture Japan men's youth international footballers 21st-century Japanese sportsmen