Kozo Tashima

Kozo Tashima
Personal information
Full name	Kozo Tashima
Date of birth	November 21, 1957 (age 63)
Place of birth	Amakusa District, Kumamoto, Japan
Playing position	Midfielder, Forward
Youth career
1973–1975	Saitama Urawa Minami High School
1976–1979	University of Tsukuba
Senior career*
National team
Teams managed
2001	Japan U-17
Furukawa Electric
	* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Kozo Tashima (田嶋幸三, Tashima Kozo, born November 21, 1957) is a former Japanese football player. He played for the Japan national team. He is current president of Japan Football Association.

Biography[change | change source]

Tashima was born in Amakusa District, Kumamoto on November 21, 1957. After graduating from University of Tsukuba, he joined Japan Soccer League club Furukawa Electric in 1980. The club won the 2nd place in 1982 JSL Cup. Although he played as a regular player, he retired in 1982. He played 39 games and scored 6 goals in the league.

On June 27, 1979, when Tashima was a University of Tsukuba student, he debuted for the Japan national team against Malaysia. He also played in 1980. He played 7 games and scored 1 goal for Japan until 1980.

Afterwards, Tashima studied from 1983 to 1986 at the German Sport University Cologne and received a B coaching license. As he returned, he was a technical coach for the football club of his alma mater University of Tsukuba, and taught for several years at Rikkyo University. In 2001, he coached the Japan U-17 national team, to which he led for the first time since 1995 in the first round of the 2001 U-17 World Championship.

In July 2010, Tashima served as vice-president of Japan Football Association (JFA). Since January 2011, he has been a member of the Asian Football Confederation Executive Committee. He has been a FIFA Council member since April 2015. In March 2016, he became president of JFA. In April 2016, he also became president of East Asian Football Federation and served until March 2018.