Takashi Hirano

Takashi Hirano

Personal information
Full name	Takashi Hirano
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Position(s)	Defender / Defensive Midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1993–2000	Nagoya Grampus Eight	213	(43)
2000	Kyoto Purple Sanga	5	(1)
2001	Júbilo Iwata	3	(1)
2002	Vissel Kobe	28	(6)
2003–2005	Tokyo Verdy 1969	53	(17)
2006	Yokohama F. Marinos	9	(0)
2007	Omiya Ardija	3	(0)
2008–2010	Vancouver Whitecaps	66	(1)
International career‡
1992	Japan U-19
1997–2000	Japan	15	(4)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of September 24, 2010 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of April 16, 2009

Takashi Hirano (born July 15, 1974 in Shizuoka, Shizuoka) is a former Japanese international footballer.

Career

Club

Hirano attended Shimizu Commercial High School, where he won the All-Japan High School Championship in 1991.

Hirano began his professional career in the J. League in 1993 with Nagoya Grampus Eight, winning the Emperor's Cup in 1995 and 1999 and the Japanese Super Cup in 1996, and scoring 43 goals in 213 appearances for the team. He transferred to Kyoto Purple Sanga in 2000, and although his team won promotion from the J. League Division 2 in 2001, he played just 5 league games before moving on to Jubilo Iwata.

After brief and largely unremarkable stints at Vissel Kobe, Tokyo Verdy 1969, Yokohama F. Marinos and Omiya Ardija, Hirano moved to North America and signed for Vancouver Whitecaps in the USL First Division in 2008.

On September 30, 2008, Hirano was called up to the USL First Division All-League Team, and on October 12, 2008, helped the Whitecaps capture their second USL First Division Championship by beating the Puerto Rico Islanders 2-1 in the USL1 Championship game.

On January 20, 2009 the Whitecaps announced a contract extension for Hirano for the 2009 season.

Hirano announced his retirement from the game in January 2011.

International

Hirano played for the Japanese U-19 team which competed at the 1992 AFC Youth Championship, and received his first callup to the senior Japanese national team in 1997. He played two games as a substitute at the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

Club career statistics

Template:Football player club statistics 1 Template:Football player club statistics 2 |- |1993||rowspan="8"|Nagoya Grampus Eight||rowspan="8"|J. League 1||19||4||3||1||3||1||25||6 |- |1994||36||4||2||0||1||0||39||4 |- |1995||50||9||5||2||colspan="2"|-||55||11 |- |1996||29||7||0||0||14||5||43||12 |- |1997||21||4||1||0||6||3||28||7 |- |1998||30||8||4||0||0||0||34||8 |- |1999||28||7||5||1||6||2||39||10 |- |2000||9||0||0||0||0||0||9||0 |- |2000||Kyoto Purple Sanga||J. League 1||7||1||1||0||4||0||12||1 |- |2001||Júbilo Iwata||J. League 1||3||0||1||0||0||0||4||0 |- |2002||Vissel Kobe||J. League 1||28||1||1||0||5||0||34||1 |- |2003||rowspan="3"|Tokyo Verdy||rowspan="3"|J. League 1||25||4||3||1||5||0||33||5 |- |2004||28||4||1||0||7||1||36||5 |- |2005||27||0||1||1||6||0||34||1 |- |2006||Yokohama F. Marinos||J. League 1||9||0||0||0||6||0||15||0 |- |2007||Omiya Ardija||J. League 1||3||1||1||0||0||0||4||1 Template:Football player club statistics 2 |- |2008||rowspan="3"|Vancouver Whitecaps||rowspan="2"|USL First Division||22||1||||||||||22||1 |- |2009||28||0||||||||||28||0 |- |2010||D2 Pro League|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player club statistics 3352||54||29||6||63||12||444||72 Template:Football player club statistics 450||1||||||||||50||1 Template:Football player club statistics 5402||55||29||6||63||12||494||73 |}

International career statistics

Template:Football player national team statistics |- |1997||5||1 |- |1998||7||2 |- |1999||0||0 |- |2000||3||1 |- !Total||15||4 |}

Honors

Nagoya Grampus Eight

• Emperor's Cup (2): 1995, 1999
• Japanese Super Cup (1): 1996

Tokyo Verdy 1969

• Emperor's Cup (1): 2004
• Japanese Super Cup (1): 2005

Vancouver Whitecaps

• USL First Division Championship (1): 2008
• Vancouver Whitecaps Outstanding Defender: 2009
• Vancouver Whitecaps Newcomer of the Year: 2008

External links

• Vancouver Whitecaps bio
• National Football Teams stats