is a former Japanese

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and manager and currently academy manager for Gamba Osaka.

Playing career

Matsunami was born in

Gifu is a Cities of Japan, city located in the south-central portion of Gifu Prefecture, Japan, and serves as the prefectural capital. The city has played an important role in Japan's history because of its location in the middle of the country. Durin ...

on November 21, 1974. After graduating from high school, he joined Gamba Osaka in 1993. He played as regular player from the first season. On 20 November, he became the youngest player to score a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

J1 League The , the J.League or the for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Japan and the highest level of the Japanese football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation ...

at age 18 years, 364 days. In 1997, he played with Patrick M'Boma and he played all 32 matches and scored 13 goals. M'Boma also scored 25 goals and became a top scorer. In 2000s, although he played as substitutes behind young players Hiromi Kojima, Kota Yoshihara and so on, he played many matches. In 2005, the club won the champions

first league champions in club history. The club also won the 2nd place 2005 J.League Cup. He retired end of 2005 season.

Coaching career

After retirement, Matsunami started coaching career at Gamba Osaka in 2006. He mainly coached for youth team until 2009. In 2010, he became a coach for top team under manager Akira Nishino. In 2012, José Carlos Serrão became new manager as Nishino successor. However, the club's results were bad and Serrão was sacked in March. Matsunami named new manager as Serrão successor. However, the club was relegated to

J2 League The or simply J2 is the second division of the and the second level of the Japanese association football league system. The top tier is represented by the J1 League. It (along with the rest of the J.League) is currently sponsored by Meiji Yasud ...

end of season. Although the club won the 2nd place Emperor's Cup, he resigned end of 2012 season. In 2014, he moved to newly was relegated to

J3 League or simply J3 is the third division of . It was established in 2013 as the third-tier professional association football league in Japan under the organization of J.League. The league is known as the for sponsorship reasons. The third-tier nation ...

club, Gainare Tottori. Although he managed in 2 seasons, the club could not return to J2 and he resigned end of 2015 season.

Club statistics

Managerial statistics

J.League Data Site
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References

External links

* * * * 1974 births Living people Association football people from Gifu Prefecture Japanese men's footballers J1 League players Gamba Osaka players Japanese football managers J1 League managers J3 League managers Gamba Osaka managers Gainare Tottori managers Men's association football forwards Sportspeople from Gifu 20th-century Japanese sportsmen {{Japan-footy-forward-1970s-stub