Ayase Ueda

Ayase Ueda (上田 綺世) is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a striker for Eredivisie club Feyenoord and the Japan national team.

Born in the city of Mito, located in the Ibaraki Prefecture, he began playing football at age 6 and was inspired by seeing his father score a hat-trick in a match.

Ueda began his youth career with Kashima Antlers Norte whilst at junior high school and then moved on to play at Kashima Gakuen High School.

He represented his high school in both the Inter High School Championship and the Japan High School Soccer Tournament – he scored two goals in the first round of the competition but the team were knocked out in the second round.

After graduating high school, Ueda then went on to study Sport Studies at Hosei University and he was part of the football team right from his first year.

In his first year at Hosei, Ueda scored 15 goals in 27 games and won the JUFA Kanto League 1 Best Rookie award.

In his second year, Ueda helped Hosei University win the All Japan University Football Championship for the first time in 42 years.

He scored in the semi-final against Juntendo University and scored 2 goals in the tournament overall, where he was also selected as the Best Forward in the competition.

In November 2017 whilst still at Hosei University, Ueda received his first national team call up to represent the U-20 team at the friendly M-150 Cup competition.

In the 2018 JUFA Kanto League 1, he was also inducted into the season's Best XI after scoring 11 goals in 19 appearances.

After the success of his first two years at university, in February 2019 it was announced that he would be joining his boyhood club Kashima Antlers as a designated special player, with a view to join the club fully in 2021.

He began the season back representing Hosei, but in July 2019 it was announced that he would be retiring from the university team and would be joining Kashima earlier than initially planned.

His national team call up accelerated his departure from the university team and provided him with an opportunity to take the next step – Ueda saying "I have done what I can do in Hosei".

He made his debut for Kashima Antlers in July 2019, coming on as a late substitute for Shoma Doi in a 1–1 league draw with Urawa Red Diamonds.

He scored his first professional goal the following month, in a 2–1 league victory over Yokohama F. Marinos.

On his first start for the club in September, he scored two goals in a 4–0 league win against Shimizu S-Pulse.

He ended his debut season with 4 league goals in less than 400 minutes.

Ueda also made his first appearances in a continental competition, appearing in both games against Guangzhou F.C. in the quarter final of the 2019 AFC Champions League.

After a successful debut season, Ueda continued to make an impression in the 2020 season scoring 10 goals in 29 appearances across all competitions – made even more impressive by the fact he only played the full 90 minutes in two games all season.

In the 2021 season, Ueda's goals were vital to Kashima's top 4 finish.

In 29 league games, he scored 14 goals making him Kashima's top goalscorer for the season and the fourth highest goalscorer in the league.

This was in spite of him missing almost two months of football after suffering a groin strain in June.

His performances did not go unrewarded and was named one of the 31 Outstanding J.League players as voted for by managers and players, although he did not make it into the eventual overall Best XI.

In 2022, he scored a brace against Gamba Osaka in what was Kashima's first official match of the season.

Since then, he improved his goalscoring status, finishing as the 2022 J1 League topscorer in June, having scored 10 goals in 18 matches.

In his already outstanding previous year, he needed 21 matches to score his 10 goals.

And in 2022, he only needed 16 matches to match this goal tally.

He also won Moriyasu's trust, and was frequently called up for the national team, having participated in 5 out of the 6 matches the national team played in from March to June.

After this improvement in club performances, alongside more game-time with the national team, he secured a transfer to a European club.

On 1 July 2022, he was unveiled as Cercle Brugge new signing, joining the club in a complete transfer.

After passing the medical check, he signed a four-season contract, lasting to June 2026.

He made his debut in a 2–0 league defeat to Westerlo.

He had to wait until his sixth game before scoring his first goal for the club, netting in a 1–1 league draw with Zulte Waregem.

Before Ueda joined up with the rest of the Japan squad to participate in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in November, he had scored eight goals in eighteen games, including a brace and a man of the match performance in a 4–1 victory over Charleroi.

In the second half of the season, Ueda continued his goal-scoring form and finished the regular season with 18 league goals, making him the joint-second highest scorer in the league.

Ueda finished the season with 23 goals in 42 appearances across all competitions and was runner-up in Cercle Brugge's Player of the Season vote to Thibo Somers.

On 3 August 2023, Ueda signed a five year contract with Dutch champions Feyenoord for a fee of €8 million.

He was given the number 9 shirt.

He made his debut in 0–0 league draw with Fortuna Sittard in the opening game of the season, after coming on as a second-half substitute for Quilindschy Hartman.

He scored his first goal for the club on 3 September, scoring the fourth goal in a 5–1 away win against FC Utrecht.