Sakuma Jirou

Sakuma Jirou (佐久間 次郎) is one of the supporting characters in the original Inazuma Eleven anime. He is a forward and midfielder of Teikoku Gakuen, and Inazuma Japan. He also was a forward of Shin Teikoku Gakuen in season 2. In the Inazuma Eleven GO series, he is the coach-assistant of Teikoku Gakuen and is a member of the Resistance.

Background
Not much of his past is show except that he good friends with Kidou. He was born on the day of May 8th.

Personality
He was at first shown to be very arrogant. However, during the local Football Frontier finals against Raimon, he sided with Kidou and said he would not follow Kageyama anymore. But he is still shown to be competitive, and would do anything to win when he resorted to using a forbidden technique when he fought Raimon as the striker of Shin Teikoku Gakuen. However he is actually pretty nice, and is shown to care a lot for his friend Kidou. He is also quite fast at running and receiving. He also did not like Fudou Akio at first, since Fudou was creating problems for Kidou, but after learning that Fudou has changed, they changed their view of Fudou otherwise.

In GO, he however seems to have matured more, although he was still a bit arrogant but he is more serious while helping Kidou in Teikoku (GO).

Appearance
He has a light cyan hair, light brown tan skin and has long gray hair. He has a eye patch covering his left eye. In Shin Teikoku, he has longer hair, and his eye-patch has a hole to show his right eye, which has a black sclera. His hairstyle is similar to Tominaga, Miyasaka and Urabe's. In Inazuma Eleven GO, his hair is waist length and he is wearing a black suit. His eyepatch is also brown instead of gray.

Season 1
He along with other Teikoku Gakuen members agreed with Kidou that Kageyama was wrong so they separated from him. Teikoku loses against Raimon. Even so, Teikoku advance to the next round. His team loses against Zeus. He is also seen with Kidou watching the game between Raimon and Occult.

Season 2
In the Aliea Gakuen Arc, after Kidou leaves Teikoku and joins Raimon's team, he and Genda become part of Shin Teikoku Gakuen with Fudou as the new captain. Apparently, Fudou had used the power of the Aliea Meteorite to persuade Sakuma and Genda to join him because two of them are still upset at Kidou for leaving Teikoku. This is shown in the match of Raimon against Shin Teikoku Gakuen when Sakuma used Koutei Penguin 1gou shot in order to defeat Raimon's team, saying that with this technique, he could finally beat Kidou and kept using the technique despite Kidou's protests. After a heated battle which ended in a tie, Sakuma collapses from overusing Koutei Penguin 1gou and is taken to the hospital. However, before that, he apologizes to Kidou for taking things too far and tells Kidou that he would like to play with him sometime again.

He reappears in episode 56 along with the other old Teikoku Gakuen members to help Endou, Kidou and Domon master Death Zone but has not recovered from his leg injury and is shown holding a crutch. He helped Kidou understand how to fully master Death Zone, saying that Raimon each has its own abilities, while Teikoku are all exactly on the same level. After that watches Raimon's macth against Chaos. He is also seen watching Raimon's match against the Dark Emperors in Teikoku.

Season 3
Sakuma is invited to the FFI recruitment match. Sakuma wasn't chosen for the team, but joins them after the Asia preliminaries to replace Midorikawa who got injured and goes to the islands with the rest of the Raimon team to represent Japan. He, Kidou and Fudou are shocked to find Kageyama there, and proceed to investigate what their old coach is up to. Later he follows Kidou down to Demon's Gate to rescue Otonashi Haruna, which they are successful in. Afterwards they battled against The Kingdom and won. Their final match against Little Gigant was tough, but they eventually won. He is later seen to be visiting Raimon in their graduation.

Inazuma Eleven Go (Anime)
He is now 24 years old. He is seen with Kidou Yuuto towards the end of episode 14 and in episode 15. He gives the orders to Teikoku's players. It is stated that his true goal in the current Teikoku is to get rid of SEEDs in his team. He is one of the Resistance's members. When Raimon's goes to the Resistance base, he warns Yamana Akane that photos aren't allowed because whatever they witnessed must be kept secret. He is the trainer for Teikoku's players.

Quotes

 * I think you should go with them Kidou

Knownable Relatives

 * Unnamed Mother'
 * Unnamed Father

Trivia

 * His birthday is May 8.
 * His english version name is David Samford.
 * His eyepatch was probably given to him by Kageyama, same as Kidou with his goggles.
 * He seems to be a bit 'colder' and serious in the GO series.
 * According to the Inazuma Eleven Ares no Tenbin trailer, he is known as Teikoku's Musketeer (帝国の銃士).

Voice Actresses & Actors

 * Japanese : Megumi Tano (Young)
 * Japanese voice actor : Daisuke Kishio (Older)
 * English : ???
 * all information on Sakuma Jirou came from http://inazuma-eleven.wikia.com/wiki/Sakuma_Jirou