Hotaru Yamaguchi is a Japanese footballer who is the team captain and plays as a midfielder for Cerezo Osaka. He is also a member of the Japanese national team. In 2006 Yamaguchi was promoted to the Cerezo Under-18 team, which later won the JFA Prince League U-18 in the 2008 season, in which he served as captain and was named league MVP. Cerezo Osaka & Japanese National Team
Along with academy teammate Yusuke Maruhashi, Yamaguchi was promoted to the senior team in 2009, spending three months of the season training with the Palmeiras Under-21 academy. He was named to the Japan Under-21 team in his second season and played in all of the matches in a gold medal campaign at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou. Yamaguchi began to receive substantial playing time with Cerezo in 2011, scoring his first league goal on Matchday 24 against Urawa Reds. He also continued to represent Japan under Takashi Sekizuka in qualification for the 2012 Summer Olympics. He followed up by winning a regular position in the Cerezo side in 2012, combining with Takahiro Ogihara in central midfield for both club and country, being named to the Under-23 team representing Japan at the 2012 Summer Olympics, contributing to a fourth-place finish at the tournament. The addition of Fábio Simplício resulted in Yamaguchi being increasingly deployed as an attacking midfielder toward the latter part of the season, which he finished with 30 appearances. In July 2013, Yamaguchi received his first callup to the senior Japan side by Alberto Zaccheroni for the 2013 EAFF East Asian Cup, where he played in all three matches and was named tournament MVP. Hannover 96
On 21 December 2015, Hannover 96 announced that they signed Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi played for Hannover 96 in 2016, however returned to Cerezo Osaka mid-season. World Cup 2018
In June 2018 he was named in Japan's squad for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. |
