is a 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 who plays for

Shimizu S-Pulse is a Japanese professional association football, football club located in Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka, Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka (city), Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture. S-Pulse is going to compete in the J1 League for the 2025 Season, after winning promotio ...

in the

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 ...

. He has previously played for both

Urawa Red Diamonds The or simply Urawa Reds (浦和レッズ, ''Urawa Rezzu''), also known as Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club from April 1992 to January 1996, are a professional association football, football club in the city of Saitama (city), Saitama, part of t ...

and

Fagiano Okayama is a Japanese football club based in Okayama, the capital of Okayama Prefecture. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. Name origin ''Fagiano'' in Italian means "pheasant", and it is a reference t ...

. His regular playing position is

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

Club career

Born and raised in the Urawa area of Saitama, Yajima came through the ranks with his local team

and joined their first team ahead of the 2012 season aged just 18. He made just a solitary appearance in the Emperor's Cup during his debut season as a professional, but the following year he earned more game time; playing 8 times in the league and 6 in the domestic cups where he found the back of the net 3 times. The next 2 seasons with Urawa saw him struggle to get on the pitch and he appeared just 7 and 6 times respectively in all competitions. Owing to a lack of game time, Yajima was sent on a 2-season loan 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 ...

side

in 2015. He immediately became a regular in their midfield and played 37 league games in both of his seasons with Okayama scoring 13 times in total as they finished 11th and 6th in the final standings. After gaining good top-team experience in J2 it was back to Urawa for 2017 and although he featured more than he had done prior to moving to Okayama, he was still rather a peripheral figure at the Saitama Stadium. He made just 11 appearances in the league and 19 in total, including 4 in Urawa's victorious

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

campaign. Yajima moved from Urawa to their fierce rivals Gamba Osaka ahead of the 2018 season. However, he was not flavour of the month with new Brazilian coach

Levir Culpi Levir Culpi (born 28 February 1953) is a Brazilian professional football coach and former player who played as a centre-back. Playing career Known as Levir during his playing days, he was born in Curitiba, Paraná, and started his career with ...

and played a mere 2 league and 2 league cup games in his first year in Osaka. Out of favour, he found himself featuring as an overage player for Gamba Under-23 in

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 ...

under the leadership of Tsuneyasu Miyamoto. He played 9 times in J3 before being loaned to J1 side

Vegalta Sendai is a Japanese professional association football, football club based in Sendai, Miyagi, Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. They currently play in J2 League, the Japanese second tier of professional football. History Founded in 1988 as ''Tohoku Elect ...

at the end of June. Game time was again hard to come by in Sendai and he played just 5 league games and 3 Emperor's Cup games as Vegalta finished runners up to his former club, Urawa. Tsuneyasu Miyamoto replaced Levir Culpi midway through the 2018 season with Gamba facing the real prospect of relegation to J2, he steadied the ship and was appointed as head coach permanently ahead of the 2019 campaign. Having worked with Yajima previously at Gamba Under-23, he recalled him to first team squad ahead of his first full season in charge at the Panasonic Stadium.

National team career

In August 2016, Yajima was selected in the Japan Under-23 national team squad for the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

. At this tournament, he played all 3 matches and scored a goal against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Club statistics

''Updated to 10 December 2018''.

¹Includes

Emperor's Cup , commonly known as or Japan FA Cup, and rebranded as The JFA Emperor's Cup from 2024 onwards, is a Japanese annual football competition. It has the longest tradition of any football tournament in Japan, dating back to 1921, before the formatio ...

²Includes J. League Cup.

³Includes

Japanese Super Cup The , the for sponsorship reasons, is an annual one-match association football competition in Japan organised by J.League and the Japan Football Association. This competition serves as the season opener and is played between the reigning J1 Leag ...

, J2 playoffs and

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup (FIFA CWC) is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (FIFA), the sport's global sports governing body, governing body. The compe ...

. ;Reserves performance

Honours

International

Last Updated: 7 February 2019name="Shinya Yajima Soccerway Player Statistics" ;Japan U-23 * AFC U-23 Championship:

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

Club

;Urawa Red Diamonds *

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yajima, Shinya 1994 births Living people Association football people from Saitama Prefecture Japanese men's footballers Japan men's youth international footballers J1 League players J2 League players J3 League players 21st-century Japanese sportsmen Urawa Red Diamonds players Fagiano Okayama players J.League U-22 Selection players Gamba Osaka players Gamba Osaka U-23 players Vegalta Sendai players RB Omiya Ardija players Shimizu S-Pulse players Footballers at the 2014 Asian Games Footballers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Japan Men's association football midfielders Asian Games competitors for Japan AFC Champions League Elite–winning players