Shūichi Gonda

Goalkeeping is a thankless trade: make ten saves, concede one, and the one is all anyone remembers. Shuichi Gonda has stood in that spot at two World Cups, in 2014 and again in 2022 — eight years apart, which is the part I find remarkable. Plenty of keepers get one bruising tournament and are never heard from again. Gonda carried whatever 2014 left him with, kept working, and came back to the same stage nearly a decade later. Born in Setagaya, Tokyo, in 1989, standing 188 cm, he now keeps goal for Vissel Kobe in the J1 League. He has never been marketed as a glamour athlete, and I suspect that suits him. What a defense actually wants behind it is not charisma but someone who has already been to the bottom and chose to climb back. That kind of durability is rarer than talent, and it does not show up in any highlight reel.

Name (English)

Shūichi Gonda

Name (Japanese)

権田修一

Reading

ごんだ しゅういち

Born

March 3, 1989 (age 37)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Pisces / Snake

Origin

Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan

Height

188 cm

Occupation

association football player

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/shuichi33g/
• Xhttps://x.com/gonchan20
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%ABichi%20Gonda
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A8%A9%E7%94%B0%E4%BF%AE%E4%B8%80
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q558874

Tags

• Tokyo
• association football player

Last updated

2026-08-07

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.