The game has been evolving in the last decades and even no. 1s have become something different. They’ve become capable of playing outside the post, build-up the play, coming to the “sweeper-keeper” evolution state. It was just the final stage of this journey, probably best exemplified by Manuel Neuer between 2013 and 2015. Nonetheless, an adventurous keeper wasn’t a new figure.
Take the scoring ones – Rogerio Ceni, José Luis Chilavert, Hans-Jörg Butt, or even René Higuita. The “scoring goalkeeper” wasn’t an accident between the 90s and the 2000s, but Japan was too behind in the game to actually for some of these figures. Sure, some of the keepers scored a goal – Norihiro Yamagishi famously decided a J2 play-off semifinal with a header or Kohei Doi scored once from his penalty box in J3.
But even Japan’s keepers evolved – although Moriyasu and the squad might have struggled to find that “sweeper-keeper” evolution. Nevertheless, the “scoring keeper” arrived in Japan too… although he’s not playing as a pro. He had a shot at it, but didn’t take it – he had to return to the place where he started getting noticed to actually make a career out of his efforts.
Despite being still young – he’s turning 26 this year -, Riku Hirosue’s career seemed over at a certain point. Nothing was working out, until he returned to Aomori, where everything started in high school. Now he’s leading a team, with the hope of reaching J3, and with the awareness that he might have found his true self.
Forward or keeper?
Looking back, Hirosue wasn’t exactly destined to be a keeper when he was little – his passion for football started at 3-4 years old. He was actually a forward, alongside Takumi Nagura (former V-Varen Nagasaki, now on loan at Vegalta Sendai), serving as a no. 1 only through penalties. But when he started attending the youth ranks of FC Tokyo – natural for him, he was born in Adachi, a special ward of Tokyo – he opted to chase the dream of defending the posts.
And he pursued that way, although his father would have wanted him to keep being a striker. When at FC Tokyo, though, problems started to arise: the missing height and the struggles in stopping shots prevented him from getting promoted to the U-18 (while Louis Yamaguchi and Go Hatano instead went forward). Without an option, Hirosue thought about his career – until a new opportunity present itself.
Aomori Yamada High School just lost back then their keeper, and offered Hirosue a chance to join them. Kiyoshi Okuma, back then director of the academy at FC Tokyo, hoped to convince him quickly. Hirosue had to think, but then accepted. That train ride to Aomori changed his destiny – in Aomori, Hirosue where his weaknesses became his strength. He became one of the strongest and most lauded goalkeepers in the country.
Not by accident, under Go Kuroda, Hirosue won the high school’s first national championship. He was on everyone’s mouth – the improvement of his game was under everyone’s eyes. And FC Tokyo didn’t forget about him, so they brought him back after three years if he was up to the test.
Hard times
Signed and finally promoted by FC Tokyo, Hirosue had finally the chance of being in his environment. Being 19 years old, he rarely was on the bench for the first time – in the end, Akihiro Hayashi, Takuo Okubo, and Go Hatano were already chosen as the three keepers. Instead, Hirosue had some pitch time with the U-23 team, still active back then in J3, but even getting a starting spot in the third tier wasn’t the easiest of job.
Hatano tended to play more than him, and in two seasons (2017-18), Hirosue gathered just 27 caps in J3. In the end, with the U-23 team looming into disbanding, FC Tokyo knew they needed to loan him somewhere to make him gather some experience. But little did they know in Tokyo that the two successive loans proved to be unsuccessful in the second tier.
First Renofa Yamaguchi in 2019. Masahiro Shimoda coached a fun team to watch, but he had so many choices on the goalkeeping position – Daisuke Yoshimitsu, Genki Yamada, and Takumi Nagaishi were all preferred. No league caps, just a mere appearance in the first round of the Emperor’s Cup against FC Ryukyu. So FC Tokyo loaned him somewhere else for 2020 – this time in the Kanto region.
Machida Zelvia had a terrible 2020, but Hirosue was a mere bystander in that context. No Emperor’s Cup due to COVID restrictions, and no league caps – expert Yota Akimoto and youngster Koki Fukui shared the spot between the posts. Hirosue barely got called up for match days. After two disappointing loans, what’s next? The keeper decided it was time to go back to the place where he enjoyed the most success: the Aomori Prefecture.
Prophet in the North
No loans this time around – Hirosue left Tokyo for good. In the club’s note of the operation, you can read between the lines the disappointment from the keeper: “I’m sorry I couldn’t reach what I wanted with this club, but I promise I’ll crawl back towards J1”. And we have to give some context about his new destination – because if Aomori Yamada High School enjoyed success in the high school world, ReinMeer Aomori is a different thing.
The club was founded in 1995, but got its real breakthrough back in 2015, when they got promoted to the Japan Football League. Since 2016, they retained the category, mostly enjoying good seasons (2nd in 2016, 4th in 2022, 5th in 2023). They have the aim of reaching J1, but that’s not why everything changed for Hirosue. First of all, gaming time: just in 2021, the keeper got 26 caps, two less than his entire professional career until then.
Second: the goals. It started like an accident – in the home game against Kochi United, in the attempt of recovering the result, Hirosue scored from 25 meters with a wonderful shot in injury time. Lone case? No, because in 2022 the keeper took a penalty against FC TiAmo Hirataka to score it. And in 2023 he repeated the heroics of two years earlier, scoring with a header at home against Honda FC.
And besides keeping the scoring record alive and well – knocking down already a PK in the second game of the season in 2024 -, his goalkeeping form showed. Hirosue has been included in the Best Eleven of JFL in 2023, the first award since his days as a youngsters. And he conceded just 47 goals in 57 games in the two last years, with 25 clean sheets. We don’t know if Hirosue will go back to J1, but surely he found a purpose and a direction for his career.
J. League Regista 