Yukinari Sugawara, born 28 June 2000 (age 26), is a Japan international right-back now with Southampton. He was linked with a move to Celtic in August 2026, though his career to this point has been shaped far more clearly by his time in the Netherlands.
His development was accelerated by the move to AZ, initially on loan, and that spell became the main body of his club career rather than a useful stop-off. Across five league seasons with AZ, he made 135 league appearances and scored 12 goals, a substantial run for a full-back still building his senior career.
The 2023-24 season was his most productive in the league, with four goals in 30 appearances for AZ. That was the period when his role looked properly settled: regular football, clear responsibility, and enough end product to move him beyond the usual neat-and-tidy full-back bracket.
Sugawara is now at Southampton, with his market value listed at around £4.5m by Transfermarkt. He has also been involved with Japan this season, making four World Cup appearances and five Asian World Cup qualifying appearances, scoring twice in the qualifiers.
His career so far is a straightforward one: early progress in Japan, a formative loan that became a long AZ spell, and then a move to English football with Southampton.
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