Maaya Sako

Maaya Sako grew up inside Tokyo Verdy's own academy, moving through the Soccer School and Junior Youth levels before graduating to the Youth side and finally into the first-team squad in 2021. Rather than being handed a place straight away, the club sent him out to gather minutes elsewhere: a loan at Fujieda MYFC brought ten league appearances and two goals in 2021, a second loan took him to AC Nagano Parceiro for seventeen appearances in 2023, and a third spell at Iwate Grulla Morioka added sixteen more in 2024. Between those stints, he made his J.League debut for Tokyo Verdy in 2022, appearing four times that season.

At 193 cm, Sako is a left-footed defender. He was part of the Japan squad that won the 2018 AFC U-16 Championship, and he has since added two caps at U-23 level. His performances as a teenager also earned him a nomination for the J.League's NXGN award in 2021, though he has not collected any senior individual honours.

Back at Tokyo Verdy after his run of loans, Sako has established himself as part of the squad rotation, with starts against sides including Cerezo Osaka and Vissel Kobe as well as appearances in the J.League Cup. The path has been a gradual one — academy graduate, three separate loans, then a return to compete for a first-team place — rather than an overnight breakthrough, and it reflects a defender still building senior experience step by step.