is a

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese professional

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 currently plays as a

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

for

Thai League 1 The Thai League (, pronounced as ') or Thai League 1 (, pronounced as '), often referred to as T1, is the highest level of the Thai football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with Thai L ...

club Khon Kaen United. Suganuma previously had spells with

Roasso Kumamoto is a Japanese football club based in Kumamoto, the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture. The club currently plays in the J2 League, Japan's 2nd tier of professional league football. Name origin ''Roasso'' is a portmanteau of the Italian words ...

Júbilo Iwata is a Japanese professional association football, football team based in Iwata, Shizuoka, Iwata, located in Shizuoka Prefecture. The club competes in J2 League following relegation from J1 League in 2024 J1 League, 2024. Etymology The team's ...

Kyoto Sanga is a Japanese professional football club based in Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Ho ...

Montedio Yamagata is a Japanese people, Japanese professional association football club based in Tendo, Yamagata. The club currently playing in J2 League, the Japanese second tier of professional football. Name origin Montedio is a coined word combining the I ...

and

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 ...

in Japan.

Club career

A native of Osaka, Suganuma came through the youth team ranks at

and earned his first professional contract ahead of the 2009 season. In total, he spent 3 years in the Gamba first-team squad and had only 2

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 ...

appearances to show for it. He was loaned out 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 ...

club

for the second half of the 2011 season and played 17 times as the men from Kyushu finished in 11th place. Suganuma joined

in 2012 and played 21 league games in his first season which saw them finish mid-table. However, the following year he featured just 16 times as Júbilo were relegated to J2. The club would stay in Japan's second tier for just one season with Suganuma featuring 17 times as they were promoted via the playoffs. Júbilo moved up to

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 ...

in 2015. However, Suganuma spent the next 3 seasons in J2, first with

before moving north to link up with

in 2017. His consistent performances once again brought him to the attention of Gamba Osaka who re-signed him in

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

. Suganuma spent most of his first season back in Osaka on the substitutes bench as a backup to the first-choice centre-back pairing of

Genta Miura is a Japanese footballer who is the captain of J1 League side Gamba Osaka. He is also a Japanese international and his regular playing position is centre back. Club career Born in Toyohashi in Aichi, central Japan, Miura moved to Osa ...

and

Fábio Fabio is a given name descended from Latin ''Fabius'' and very popular in Italy and Latin America (due to Italian migration). The name is written without an accent in Italian and Spanish, but is usually accented in Portuguese as ''Fábio'' (with t ...

. Still, he did manage to rack up 16 appearances in total, 11 in the league and 5 in the J.League Cup, helping Gamba to finish 9th and reach the quarter-finals in those respective competitions. Additionally, he had a brief spell playing with Gamba's Under-23 side 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 ...

, making 5 appearances and scoring once. On 23 August 2024, Suganuma joined

Hong Kong Premier League The Hong Kong Premier League () is a Hong Kong professional football league organised by the Football Association of Hong Kong, China. It is currently sponsored by BOC Life and officially known as BOC Life Hong Kong Premier League (). The inau ...

club HK Rangers.

International career

Suganuma was a member of the Japan squad for the

2009 East Asian Games The 2009 East Asian Games, officially known as the V East Asian Games, was an international multi-sport event that hosted by Hong Kong, between 5 December and 13 December 2009. A total of 2,377 athletes from 9 east asia, East Asian national compet ...

and won a gold medal with Japan under-23 in the

2010 Asian Games The 2010 Asian Games (), officially known as the XVI Asian Games () and also known as Guangzhou 2010 (), were a regional multi-sport event held from November 12 to 27, 2010 in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China (although several events commenced ear ...

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

Career statistics

Club

''Updated to 2 December 2018''.Nippon Sports Kikaku Publishing inc./日本スポーツ企画出版社
"2016J1&J2&J3選手名鑑"
10 February 2016, Japan, (p. 223 out of 289)

Reserves

''Updated to 2 December 2018''

References

External links

* * 1990 births Living people Association football people from Osaka Prefecture Sportspeople from Toyonaka, Osaka Japanese men's footballers Japanese expatriate men's footballers Men's association football defenders J1 League players J2 League players J3 League players Taiwan Football Premier League players Shunya Suganuma Hong Kong Premier League players Gamba Osaka players Gamba Osaka U-23 players Roasso Kumamoto players Júbilo Iwata players Kyoto Sanga FC players Montedio Yamagata players FC Machida Zelvia players Taichung Futuro F.C. players Shunya Suganuma Hong Kong Rangers FC players Expatriate men's footballers in Taiwan Japanese expatriate sportspeople in Taiwan Expatriate men's footballers in Thailand Japanese expatriate sportspeople in Thailand Expatriate men's footballers in Hong Kong Japanese expatriate sportspeople in Hong Kong Footballers at the 2010 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for Japan Asian Games footballers for Japan Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games 21st-century Japanese sportsmen Asian Games gold medalists in football {{Japan-footy-defender-1990s-stub