Career
He was a forward but sometimes played in the midfield. Club After studying at and playing for Sagami Institute of Technology High School and Chuo University, he joined Mitsubishi Motors in 1989 and started to play for their football club that played in the Japan Soccer League Division 2. In his rookie season, he scored 36 goals and helped the club to gain the promotion to Division 1.
When Japan"s first-ever professional league J. League started in early 90"s, Mitsubishi was transformed to Urawa Red Diamonds.
He turned professional and continued to play for the club He scored his first J. League goal on June 9, 1993 against Kashima Antlers at Kashima Soccer Stadium.
All the Urawa players except the goalkeeper flocked around Fukuda to celebrate the goal. While the celebration was prolonged, the referee signalled the restart and Kashima"s Hisashi Kurosaki equalised immediately.
Urawa was fighting the relegation battle in the 1998 season.
Fukuda scored the golden goal, which fans now remember as the "saddest golden goal in the world." He retired from the game after the 2002 season. He played his senior club football with one club He was the symbolic player of Urawa Red Diamonds and the fans refer to him as Mr.
Reds.
At the beginning of 2003, the testimonial match for Fukuda was held at Saitama Stadium where more than 50,000 supporters attended to bid farewell. International He was capped 45 times and scored 9 goals for the Japanese national team between 1990 and 1995. His first international appearance came on July 27, 1990 in a Dynasty Cup match against of Korea Republic in Beijing.
He scored his first goal for his country on August 24, 1992 in another Dynasty Cup match against China in Beijing.
He was on the pitch, after replacing Kenta Hasegawa in the 59th minute, when Japan"s hope to play in the finals in the United States.A. was dashed by an injury-time Iraqi equaliser in the last qualifier, the match that the Japanese fans now refer to as the Agony of Doha. After retirement He works as a football commentator and columnist for various programs and magazines.
He also acquired the South-Class Coaching license that was a prerequisite to manage a J. League club in 2007. He has been an assistant coach at Urawa since 2008.
Individual honors J. J. Team honors.