Gotoku Sakai

Gotoku Sakai is a Japanese footballer of German origin, who plays as a left fullback or a winger. Sakai is currently on loan at VfB Stuttgart until summer 2013.

Gotoku was born in the largest city of the USA, New York, to a German mother and a Japanese father. When Gotoku was only 2-years old, his family moved to Japan after his father had got a job there. The Sakai family settled down in Sanjō, Niigata prefecture. Gotoku began playing football in high school. When 15, he entered Albirex Niigata youth academy and started climbing up the career ladder. In 2008 the young defender was promoted to the reserve team of Albirex and a year later he signed a professional contract with the first squad. The same year Gotoku made his official senior debut in the opening J1 League game versus FC Tokyo. Thanks to bright play Sakai was capped for the Japan U-20 and U-22 teams. In 2011 he was named in the senior squad to represent Japan at the AFC Asian Cup, but had to miss the tournament through an injury.

In January 2012 Sakai joined VfB Stuttgart on a 1-and-a-half-year loan deal with the club’s option to sign the player permanently.