Yutaro Tsukada

Yutaro Tsukada (born 28 July 2001) is a Japanese footballer who plays for MLS Next Pro club Orlando City B.

Early life
Tsukada was born in Tokyo, Japan. He played youth football with FC Tokyo.

College career
In 2020, Tsukada began attending Daytona State College in the United States. On 11 September 2021, he scored a hat trick in a 4–2 victory over the Georgia Military College Bulldogs. At the end of his sophomore season, he was named to the USC First Team All-America, the NJCAA DI All-American Team, Junior College Division I Men All-East Region, and the Region 8 All-Region Team and the Region 8 Player of the Year. He departed the school holding 6 school records - most goals in a season (20), most goals in 2 seasons (26), most hat tricks (4), fastest goal in school history (32 seconds), most free kicks scored (4), and most points (63).

In 2022, he transferred to West Virginia University to play for the men's soccer team in NCAA Division I. He made his debut on August 25 against the Robert Morris Colonials. On October 11, 2022, he scored his first goal in a victory over the Lehigh Mountain Hawks. In October 2023, he was named the WVU Student-Athlete of the Week and the Sun Belt Conference Offensive Player of the Week, and earned WVU Student-Athlete of the Week honors a second time in November. At the end of his senior season, he was named to the All-Sun Belt First Team, Sun Belt All-Tournament Team, All-Southeast Region First Team, Scholar All-South Region First Team, TopDrawerSoccer Best XI Second Team, All-America Third Team, and the College Soccer News All-America Second Team.

Club career
In 2022, Tsukada joined New Mexico United U23 in USL League Two. In 2023, he played with Capital FC.

At the 2024 MLS SuperDraft, Tsukada was selected in the first round (25th overall) by Orlando City SC. In March 2024, he signed a one-year contract with the reserve affiliate, Orlando City B, in MLS Next Pro. On 16 March 2024, he made his professional debut, scoring a free kick in a 3–2 victory over Atlanta United 2. In May 2024, Tsukada signed two short-term loans with the first team. He made his Major League Soccer debut on 15 May 2024 in a substitute appearance against Inter Miami CF.