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 ...

who plays as a defender for

Western United FC Western United Football Club is an Australian professional football club. The club is based in the western Melbourne suburb of Truganina, the club aims to represent western Victoria, incorporating the western suburbs of Melbourne; the regio ...

in the

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competit ...

Career

Born in the

Chiba Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to the n ...

, Imai made his debut for

Omiya Ardija is a professional association football club based in Ōmiya in Saitama, Japan. Its "hometown" as designated by the league is the whole of Saitama city, which is shared with neighbours Urawa Red Diamonds. Omiya competed in the J1 League follo ...

of the

J1 League The , known as the for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the system. Founded in 1992, it is one of the most successful leagues in Asian club football. Contested by 18 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the ...

on March 20, 2013 against

Júbilo Iwata is a professional Japanese association football team that currently play in the J2 League. The team name ''Júbilo'' means 'joy' in Spanish and Portuguese. The team's hometown is Iwata, Shizuoka prefecture and they play at Yamaha Stadium. For ...

in the J.League Cup in which he came on in the 56th minute for

Daisuke Watabe is a Japanese footballer who plays for Omiya Ardija in the J. League. Club career stats ''Updated to 23 February 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, ...

as Omiya suffered a 2–0 defeat. On 11 February 2020, Imai moved to Australia, signing for

side

. He signed a five-month contract.

Club statistics

''Updated to 24 February 2019''.

References

External links

Profile at Kashiwa Reysol
* 1990 births Living people Chuo University alumni Association football people from Chiba Prefecture Japanese men's footballers J1 League players J2 League players Omiya Ardija players Kashiwa Reysol players Matsumoto Yamaga FC players Western United FC players Men's association football defenders {{Japan-footy-defender-1990s-stub