Hiroki Sakai

is a Japanese football player. He plays for the Japan national team.
Biography.
Sakai was born in Nagano Prefecture on April 12, 1990. He joined J1 League club Kashiwa Reysol from their youth team in 2009. He did not play in the match and Kashiwa was relegated to J2 League end of the 2009 season. He debuted in 2010 and Kashiwa won the champions in 2010 J2 League. In 2011, he became a regular player as right side back and won the champions in J1 League. In July 2012, he moved to German Bundesliga club Hannover. He played 92 matches for the club in 4 seasons. However Hannover was relegated to 2. Bundesliga end of the 2015/16 season. In 2016, he moved to French Ligue 1 club Olympique Marseille.
On May 23, 2012, Sakai debuted for the Japan national team against Azerbaijan. He battles with Atsuto Uchida for right side back. In July 2012, he was selected the Japan U-23 national team for 2012 Summer Olympics. He played 4 matches and Japan won the 4th place. In 2014, he also participated 2014 World Cup, but he did not play in the match. From 2016, he played many matches instead Uchida who injured. In 2018, Sakai participated 2018 World Cup. He played all 4 matches and Japan qualified to the knockout stage. In 2019, he also played at 2019 Asian Cup and Japan won the 2nd place.
Statistics.
51||2||5||0||2||0||7||2||65||4
92||2||7||0||colspan="2"|-||3||0||102||2
116||1||8||0||5||0||18||1||147||2
259||5||20||0||7||0||28||3||314||8
!Total||64||1