Ken Tajiri

Born in Minoh in the north of Osaka, Tajiri came up through Gamba Osaka's youth system and earned his first professional contract ahead of the 2012 season. He spent his first 5 years with the club as a reserve and didn't see a single minute of game time. He finally got the chance to get on the field in 2017. After starting the season as third-choice goalkeeper, an injury to first-choice Masaaki Higashiguchi saw Tajiri make the bench for the clash at home to Urawa Red Diamonds on 19 March 2017. Starting goalkeeper Yōsuke Fujigaya got injured in the 73rd minute and Tajiri was brought on as a replacement with Gamba leading 1-0 courtesy of Yasuyuki Konno's goal earlier in the second half. Unfortunately he was unable to keep a clean sheet and Rafael Silva equalised for Urawa in the 92nd minute. That was to be his only appearance for Gamba in 2017 and he was then loaned out to J2 side Zweigen Kanazawa for the next 18 months where he could only play 9 league games before moving back to Osaka for the 2019 season. Tajiri played 9 games across the 2014 and 2015 seasons for the J.League U-22 Selection, a team set up to increase the number of competitors in J3 League and give young Japanese players a platform to perform ahead of the 2016 Olympic games. The following year he played 13 times for Gamba Osaka's newly formed Under-23 side in J3 League.