Yukinari Sugawara

Yukinari Sugawara (菅原 由勢) is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Eredivisie club AZ Alkmaar and the Japan national team.

He made his first-team debut on 25 July, as a 59th-minute substitute during AZ's 0–0 home draw against BK Häcken in the second qualifying round of the Europa League.

At AZ he was mainly utilised as a right back, where he competed with the older Jonas Svensson, and was set to become his future successor.

In doing so, he became the second youngest player to appear in J1 League match ever at 17 years, 7 months and 27 days, only passed by former Gamba Osaka player Junichi Inamoto in 1997.

Sugawara represented Japan at the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Sugawara made his debut for Nagoya Grampus on 24 February 2018, the opening day of the 2018 season in a match against Gamba Osaka.

On 6 April 2018, Sugawara signed his first professional contract with Nagoya Grampus, the youngest in the club's history to sign a professional deal, at 17 years and 10 months.

Sugawara joined Dutch Eredivisie club AZ on 21 June 2019 on a season-long loan.

On 4 August 2019, Sugawara started in the home match against Fortuna Sittard and scored the final goal in the 84th minute, to make it 4–0 after preliminary work by Calvin Stengs.

Both in the league and group stage of the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League, Sugawara was a regular rotational player during the season, while also making some appearances for the reserve team of Jong AZ in the second-tier Eerste Divisie.

During this season he played 16 league games in which he scored two goals.

On 23 February 2020, it was announced that Sugawara would sign a five-year contract to join AZ permanently from 1 June 2020.

He was awarded by the Eredivisie in January 2022 and August 2023.

In October 2023, he achieved the distinction of becoming the record-holder for the highest number of European appearances for AZ, reaching his 47th game in European competitions during a match against Aston Villa.

Sugawara made his debut with the senior Japan national team in a friendly 0–0 tie with Cameroon on 9 October 2020.

In March 2023, he made his first start for the Japan national team against Uruguay.

In September of the same year, he provided the assist for the first goal against Germany and was also the starting point for the second goal.

Japan U19

Individual

Records