Yasuhiko Okudera

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Yasuhiko Okudera (奥寺康彦 Okudera Yasuhiko, born March 12, 1952) is a retired footballer from Japan and is currently the president of the J. League Division 2 club Yokohama FC. Okudera was the first Japanese footballer to play professionally in Europe and had 27 appearances and 8 goals with the Japanese national team.

Okudera began his playing career in 1970 as an employee of Furukawa Electric Co Ltd., whose soccer team played in the corporate Japan Soccer League, the top flight league in Japan at the time. In the summer of 1977, during the team's trip to Germany, he was spotted by Bundesliga club 1. FC Köln manager Hennes Weisweiler. 1. FC Köln made a contract offer. Okudera made his debut on October 5, 1977, becoming the first Japanese player to play top flight football in Europe, and Köln won the Bundesliga title that year.

After Weisweiler left Cologne during the 1980/81, Okudera joined second division Hertha BSC Berlin. Although Hertha missed promotion to the first division, he joined the newly promoted Werder Bremen, whose coach Otto Rehhagel saw his play when the two sides met and offered a contract. Between 1981/82 and 1984/85, Bremen finished second in the league three times.

In the summer of 1985, Okudera returned to his old Japanese club, Furukuwa Electric and became one of the first recognized professional players in JSL. He ended his German career with 234 appearances and 26 goals. He retired as a player in 1988.

After the J. League started play in 1993, he served as the president and manager of Furukawa, which had become JEF United Ichihara (now JEF United Ichihara Chiba) with limited success. In 1998, he joined his Köln teammate Pierre Littbarski and helped form Yokohama FC. With Okudera as president and Littbarski the manager, Yokohama climbed up the ranks from the lower-tier Japan Football League and currently plays in the J. League's second division.

On December 5, 2003, Okudera and former South Korean star Cha Bum-Kun were the Asian representatives at the preliminary draw, which determined the groupings for the qualifying matches for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.