Sōichirō Tanaka (footballer)

Sōichirō Tanaka (Japanese: 田中 総一郎, Hepburn: Tanaka Sōichirō, born 30 April 1993) is a Japanese former professional footballer who played as a defender. He played in Japan, Singapore, Cambodia, Philippines, Montenegro, Latvia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mongolia and Malta.

Tanaka was born in Tsu, Mie Prefecture. Before beginning his international football career, he played at Albirex Niigata. However, he lacked opportunities in the home-based club, thus he played during his early career in the satellite clubs such as Japan Soccer College, Albirex Niigata Singapore and Albirex Niigata Phnom Penh.^{[citation needed]} He made his professional debut playing with the Albirex Niigata Singapore franchise in the 2014 S.League.^[1]

In 2015, he played for JP Voltes in the Philippines before moving to Europe at the end of the year signing with FK Iskra Danilovgrad and playing with them the second half of the 2015–16 Montenegrin First League. Next summer, when the season ended, he signed with FK Ogre playing in the Latvian First League. He returned to Balkans in 2017 and played with FK Slavija Sarajevo in the 2017–18 First League of the Republika Srpska, a second-tier team in Bosnia and Herzegovina. His next experience was playing with FC Ulaanbaatar in 2019 Mongolian Premier League.^{[citation needed]}

In January 2020, he returned to Europe, this time by signing with Maltese premier-league team Sliema Wanderers.^[2]