Kota Sakurai

Kota Sakurai (櫻井 功大; born May 26, 1999) is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Lithuanian A Lyga club FK TransINVEST.

Early life
Sakurai played youth soccer in Japan with Yokohama F. Marinos. He joined the Toronto FC Academy in October 2015.

College career
After receiving scholarship offers from 14 American universities, Sakurai enrolled at Dartmouth College in 2017. In his freshman year, he won the Ivy League Title with the team. He scored his first goal on October 13, 2018, against the Penn Quakers. In 2020, the season was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so Sakurai trained with a team in his native Japan four times per week. During his time with the Big Green from 2017 to 2019, he scored two goals and added six assists in 47 appearances.

Club career
Sakurai regularly featured for Toronto FC III during their League1 Ontario  and Premier Development League campaigns from 2016 to 2018. He scored his first goal on May 15, 2016, against Windsor TFC. He was named the League1 Ontario Young Player of the Year in 2016, as well as a league Second Team All-Star.

With a number of Toronto FC II players unavailable for upcoming fixtures, Sakurai was called up to the squad in June 2016. He made his professional debut on July 2, 2016, appearing for 14 minutes in a 3–0 defeat to Wilmington Hammerheads in the USL. In doing so, he became the first ever Japanese player to feature competitively for Toronto FC II.

In April 2021, he joined Ituano FC Yokohama, remaining until April 2022.

In April 2022, he signed a professional contract with Toronto FC II in MLS Next Pro, returning to his former club.

In 2023, he joined Latvian Second League club Ogre United.

In February 2024, he joined Lithuanian club FK TransINVEST in the first tier A Lyga.