Tomoaki Okubo played in the Meiji Yasuda J1 League Round 13 match against Kawasaki Frontale on the 21st, achieving his Trial appearance in the J1 League.

Okubo began participating in Urawa Reds training as a JFA/J.League special designated player during his third year at Chuo University, and officially joined the team in 2021.

He made his professional debut on March 7th of the same year in the first match of the YBC Levain Cup group stage against Shonan Bellmare at Lemon Gas Stadium Hiratsuka, and his first J1 League Trial was against Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo at Saitama Stadium on March 17th.

Although he made his debut early, he did not have many opportunities to play for a while afterwards. However, he continued to work hard without getting discouraged, inspired by his senior teammates at the time, Abe Yuki (Urawa Reds Youth Manager and Role Model Coach) and Hitoshi Shiota (Urawa Reds Goalkeeper Coach), who did not slack off in training even though they did not have many opportunities to play.

In the second half of the season, he made his presence felt by playing in Trial of the 15 Trial, and scoring his first professional goal in the 28th round match against Yokohama FC.

In 2022, he did not get as many playing opportunities as he would have liked in the early part of the season, but he gradually showed his ability, and in 2023 he played in Trial of the 34 Trial, including Trial as a starter, earning the trust of manager Maciej Skorza.

After a 2024 season in which he was limited to 23 Trial due to continued injury, he was slow to start the 2025 season due to the same injury, but he continued to be included in the squad and make substitute appearances, and made his first start of the season in the 17th Trial match against FC Tokyo, his 99th J1 League appearance.

Not only did he demonstrate his prowess with dribbling, but he also demonstrated his presence by creating space to hold the ball and handling passes to set an attacking rhythm, making a strong impression that he has made a complete recovery.

In his fifth year as a pro, at the age of 26, he has played in 100 J1 League Trial. How many Trial will this clever dribbler, who thinks and plays with his mind, play in from now on? How many Reds fans and supporters will be stirred into a frenzy? We are looking forward to seeing Tomoaki Okubo in the future.