Shinji Okazaki

Shinji Okazaki is a striker of VfB Stuttgart and the national team of Japan. He was born in Takarazuka, Hyōgo Prefecture. Shinji won the AFC Asian Cup in 2011 with the Japan national team.

In 2004 Okazaki graduated from high school and in a year signed a professional deal with Shimizu S-Pulse. In 2008 he was selected to the Japanese national team for the Summer Olympics in Beijing, but the Samurai Blue failed with zero points in the group stage. Shinji made two sub appearances and played one match in the starting line-up.

Okazaki’s senior national squad debut came on 9 October 2008 in a friendly game versus the UAE. The footballer netted his debut hat-trick against Hong Kong on 8 October 2009 and 6 days later fired another hat-trick versus Togo.

He scored 6 goals in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup qualification and became the best goalscorer of that qualification round. In January 2010 the IFFHS named Shinji the World’s Top Goal Scorer 2009 thanks to his 15 goals for the national squad during that season.

Okazaki delivered the winning goal versus Denmark in the World Cup 2010 group stage. Japan won 3-1, qualifying for the knockout stage.

On 17 January 2011 the striker netted his third hat trick for the national team during a 5–0 thrashing of Saudi Arabia in the final match of the 2011 Asian Cup group stage.

Right after Japan had won the Asian cup with a 1–0 victory over Australia, the Japanese footballer flew to Germany in order to agree terms with VfB Stuttgart. On 30 January 2011 Shinji underwent medical tests and signed a three-and-a-half year contract with the Swabians.

On 14 February 2011 the footballer’s former club Shimizu S-Pulse made an unexpected statement, referring to the fact that Stuttgart had violated a number of FIFA rules when signing Okazaki. The first violation was the negotiations between the Swabians and the player without Shimizu’s consent. The second Stuttgart’s misconduct was the contract, offered to the Japanese and coming into effect on 31 January, notwithstanding that Shinji was still the player of his former club. Shimizu S-Pulse, therefore, demanded FIFA to cancel Okazaki’s transfer until the Swabians pay a fine to the Japanese club. FIFA Executive Committee urgently examined S-Pulse’s press-release. However, on 17 February 2011 they officially let Okazaki play for the German team. Owing to this, the Japanese striker debuted for Stuttgart on the same night his team took part in a Europa League game versus Benfica. Shinji spent all 90 minutes on the pitch, but didn’t manage to score.

During the 2nd half of the 2010/11 season the footballer appeared in 12 Bundesliga games, netting 2 goals. During the 2011/12 season the Japanese played even better with 7 goals in 26 matches for VfB Stuttgart.