is a Japanese 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 plays as a winger for club

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Coventry, West Midlands. The club plays in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club is nicknamed The Sky Blues after the sky blue colou ...

Club career

Early career

Starting out playing for

Toyo University is a private university with the main Hakusan Station (Tokyo), Hakusan campus in Bunkyō, Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. The university operates multiple satellite campuses in the Kanto region, including. Asaka, Saitama, Asaka, Kawagoe, Saitama, Kawagoe, ...

, Sakamoto was a specially designated player for

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 ...

in the 2018 season. Despite not making an appearance during this time, Sakamoto fully joined Montedio Yamagata for the 2019 season playing in the

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 ...

. Sakamoto appeared in every single league game that Montedio Yamagata played in the 2019 season, scoring seven goals in the process. The team also advanced into the second round of the promotion playoffs but were beaten 1–0 by Tokushima Vortis.

Cerezo Osaka

After a successful debut season in the J2 League, Sakamoto was signed by

Cerezo Osaka is a Japanese professional football club based in Osaka. The club currently plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. The club's name ''Cerezo'' (Spanish for cherry blossom) is also the flower of the city of Osak ...

for the 2020 season. He went on to appear in 33 of their 38 league games and cement himself as part of the team.

KV Oostende

On 5 January 2022, Sakamoto joined Belgian club

KV Oostende Koninklijke Voetbalclub Oostende, also called KV Oostende () or KVO, was a Belgian professional football club based in Ostend, West Flanders. The team was founded in 1904 as ''VG Oostende'' and had ''matricule'' number 31. The club was declare ...

on loan until the end of the season, with an option to buy. This option was triggered later in 25 May, with Oostende signing him on a contract transfer lasting to 2025.

Coventry City

On 10 July 2023, Sakamoto signed for

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, it is the highest divi ...

team

in a three-year deal. The transfer fee was undisclosed. On 6 August, he made his debut for Coventry as a late substitute in a 2–1 loss at

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

. He scored his first goal in English football in a 3–0 win at

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Poplar, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east of ...

on 25 November, becoming the first Japanese player to score for Coventry. On 7 April 2025, Sakamoto signed a new two-year contract with Coventry.

International career

He made his debut for

Japan national football team The , also known by the nickname , represents Japan in men's international Association football, football. It is controlled by the Japan Football Association (JFA), the governing body for football in Japan. Prior to the late 1980s, Japan's nat ...

on 7 June 2021 in a World Cup qualifier against

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

* 1996 births Living people Japanese men's footballers Japan men's international footballers Men's association football wingers J2 League players J1 League players Belgian Pro League players English Football League players Montedio Yamagata players Cerezo Osaka players K.V. Oostende players Coventry City F.C. players Japanese expatriate men's footballers Japanese expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Japanese expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England 21st-century Japanese sportsmen {{Japan-footy-midfielder-1990s-stub