Naohiro Takahara - TheSportsDB.com

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Name
Naohiro Takahara

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50%

Born
1979 (44 years old)

Birth Place

Mishima, Japan

Position
Forward

Status

Ethnicity
Asian

Team Number

Height
180 cm

Outfitter

Kit

Side

Agent

Wage Year

Player Cutout

Player Action Render

Sport

Soccer

Team
_Retired Soccer

2nd Team

League
_No League Soccer

Creative Commons Artwork
No

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Naohiro Takahara (高原直泰, Takahara Naohiro, born 4 June 1979) is a Japanese football player and manager. He played for Japan national team. Currently, he plays for Okinawa SV.

Takahara was born in Mishima on 4 June 1979. After graduating from high school, he joined Júbilo Iwata in 1998. In 1998, the club won J.League Cup and he was selected New Hero awards. In 1999, the club won J1 League and Asian Club Championship. The club also reached second place at the 1999–2000 and 2000–01 Asian Club Championships. In August 2001, he moved to Boca Juniors on loan. He became the first Japanese player to play in the Argentine Primera División.

In 2002, he returned to Júbilo Iwata. The club went on to win the 2002 J.League Division 1, while Takahara became the top scorer and was elected Most Valuable Player of the year.

After the 2002 season, Takahara moved to Hamburger SV. He made his Bundesliga debut on in January 2003 in a 2–2 draw against Hannover 96, thereby becoming the third Japanese footballer to play in Bundesliga after Yasuhiko Okudera and Kazuo Ozaki. On 3 December 2006, he scored his first hat-trick in the Bundesliga in a match against Alemannia Aachen.

In January 2008 he moved to Urawa Reds for a transfer fee of around ¥180 million (around $1.7 million). Due to a disagreement with the style of coach Volker Finke, who had taken over as coach of Urawa in 2009, Takahara was leased to Suwon Samsung Bluewings of the South Korean K League 1 in July of the following year. On 31 July 2010, he made his debut as a substitute for the 39th minute of the match against Gwangju FC. On 29 August, he scored a goal in the 39th minute of the second half of the game against FC Seoul. He helped victorious game 4-2 and won the MVP in this game.

In 2011, he returned to Japan and signed with Shimizu S-Pulse. After that, he played for J2 League club Tokyo Verdy (2013–14) and J3 League club SC Sagamihara (2014–15). In December 2015, along with Japanese judoka Tadahiro Nomura, Takahara founded Okinawa SV. He served as president as well as playing manager for the club.