Biography

Eiji Kawashima

Eiji Kawashima, a professional football player serving as a Goalkeeper for the Japanese national team was born on March 20, 1983, and the nation he belongs to is Japan. A tall guy Eiji, has a height of 6 feet 1 inch and has a weight of 78 kg. In regard to his Current Team, he is a member of Belgian club Standard Liege and the national football team of Japan.

Kawashima received his education from Yononishi Junior High School and Urawa Higashi High School, where he also played on their senior football teams. Even though he was brilliant in his studies and was offered enrollment to reputed universities, he took a decision to become a professional football player. The information about his Salary is not known but still, he earns a lot as he is a prominent football player.  

In 2001, he started his career from Omiya Ardija and later on got training at the amateur teams of Yononishi Junior High School and Urawa Higashi High School. Eiji abandoned Omiya Ardija for Nagoya Grampus Eight in 2004 and got debuted for the team in 2005. In collaboration with Omiya Ardija playing from 2001 to 2003, he subsequently gave 41 appearances and later on, from 2004 to 2006, he appeared for the Nagoya Grampus Eight in which he made 17 appearances. 

Kawashima got an agreement with Kawasaki Frontale in 2007 and successfully became the main goalkeeper for the team. He gave an appearance in the team’s each game during 2007 season, which included the important matches of J1 League and the AFC Champions League established himself as the most dedicated player in the team of Takeshi Okada, Japan.

He has played 14 international matches and his initial international career came in 2008 in which he got an opportunity to play against Korea DPR. He contributed outstanding efforts in the 2010 World Cup and joined Belgian side Lierse S.K. in the same year. Later on, he moved to Standard Liege in the summer of 2012. A 6 feet 1 inch tall, Eiji holds a jersey No.1. On 30 May he played a friendly against England in which he was the starting goalkeeper and saved many goals.

He was selected to appear in Japan's first Group E game which was against Cameroon on 14 June, in this game Japan recorded its first victory in the Cup with a score of 1–0. Kawashima was enrolled as Japan's goalkeeper in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup. On 13 January, he was restricted to play for causing a penalty in the group stage match against Syria but still won the game with a score of 2–1.

With his great efforts and dedication, he has received many awards among which the most significant award of him is: “the best goalkeeper at J1 League in 2009 season”. Individually, Eiji received the J. League Best Eleven award in 2009. The same year, he received the J. League Fair Play Award. He was declared man of The Match in the final of AFC Asian Cup in 2011. He was also awarded the Asia’s Best player in 2011 season.