Koji Funamoto

Funamoto was born in Hiroshima on August 12, 1942. He played for Hiroshima University High School from 1958 to 1960. He and teammates Aritatsu Ogi, Yasuyuki Kuwahara, Takayuki Kuwata, Kensei Mizote, and Sonkyo Nomura became locally famous together by leading their school to a second-place finish in the All Japan High School Soccer Tournament in 1959. Ogi, Kuwahara, Funamoto, and Mizote carried the team to the quarterfinals of this tournament in 1960. Funamoto moved on to club football immediately after high school, while Ogi, Kuwahara, and Kuwata would play four years at Chuo University before joining Funamoto in club play with Toyo Industries.

Funamoto joined the Toyo Industries in 1961. Toyo then won the National Sports Festival football tournament in 1962 and were Emperor's Cup semifinalists (1961, 1962) and quarterfinalists (1963) with Funamoto at goalkeeper. In 1965, the club became an inaugural member of the newly formed Japan Soccer League (JSL), the first national league of soccer clubs in Japan. He remained with the club for 11 seasons in the JSL until his retirement in 1975. In 11 seasons, he played all matches, 166 matches in the league. With Funamoto and his former high school teammates, Toyo dominated the JSL for the first six years, winning the championship five times (1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1970) and placing second once (1969). The club won the Emperor's Cup three times (1965, 1967, 1969) during this period and finished third in the Asian Club Championship in 1969. As goalkeeper, Funamoto played a critical role on Toyo's early success in the JSL when they won 75 of their first 112 matches (67%), allowing opponents just 87 goals. He was named goalkeeper of the year in the JSL in 1970. The golden era of Hiroshima football then came to an end over the next three years when the club won 15 of 54 matches (28%), while allowing 82 goals.

In September 1967, Funamoto was selected Japan national team for 1968 Summer Olympics qualification. At this qualification, on September 27, he debuted against Philippines. He shared goalkeeping duties with two-time Olympian, Kenzo Yokoyama, on the Japan national team from 1967 to 1975. Funamoto appeared in 19 matches, 17 as a starter and 2 as a substitute, shutting out opponents 5 times. He allowed 25 goals, while the Japan team went 9-8-2 (W-L-D). He played in the Pestabola Merdeka (1970, 1972, 1975), Asian Games (1970), AFC Asian Cup qualifiers (1975), Olympic Games qualifiers (1967), and FIFA World Cup qualifiers (1969, 1973) during his International career.

Japan Soccer League Best Eleven: 1970