Sakuma Jirou

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

Inazuma Eleven (game)

 * "Supports the team as a strategist, coordinating the other players."Kidou_and_sakuma.jpg

Appearance
He has a light cyan hair, tan skin and has a gray eyepatch covering his right eye. In Shin Teikoku, his eye-patch has a hole to show his right eye, which has a black sclera. In Inazuma Eleven GO, his hair is waist-length and is wearing a suit. He still wears an eyepatch although the eyepatch is now brown instead of gray.

Personality
He was first shown to be arrogant, however, during the local Football Frontier finals against Raimon, he sided with Kidou and said he would not follow Kageyama anymore. However, 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 ace striker of Shin Teikoku. However, he is actually pretty nice and is shown to care a lot for 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 seems to have matured more, though he was still a bit arrogant. But he is more serious while helping Kidou in Teikoku (GO).

Season 1
Sakuma along with other Teikoku members agreed with Kidou that Kageyama has been wrong so they separated from him.Teikoku loses against Raimon.Even so, Teikoku step to the next round. His team loses against Zeus. He is also seen with Kidou watching the game Raimon against Occult. Then, after Teikoku were destroyed by Zeus, Sakuma was happy to know that Kidou joined Raimon, and also hope that they can defeat Kageyama.

Season 2
In the Aliea Academy Arc, after Kidou leaves Teikoku and joins Raimon's team, he and Genda become part of Shin Teikoku with Fudou as the new captain. Apparently, Fudou had used the power of the Aliea Meteorite to persuade Sakuma and Genda to join him due to the two of them still being angry at Kidou for leaving Teikoku. This is shown in the match of Raimon against Shin Teikoku when Sakuma used Emperor Penguin No.1 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 Emperor Penguin No.1 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 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. He is also seen watching Raimon's match against the Dark Emperors in Teikoku. Sakuma also told to Kidou that Raimon is the only team where Kidou can truly shines, and that everyone in Teikoku are always proud about Kidou.

Season 3
In the third season after getting out of the hospital, 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. Sakuma, Kidou and Fudou are shocked to find Kageyama there, and proceed to investigate what their old coach is up to. Then, he along with Kidou, Fudou and Endou helped Orpheus in fighting againts Team K. At the end of the match, they created Koutei Penguin No. 3 and won. After this, their doubts about Fudou have all gone.

Later he follows Kidou down to the Demon Gate to rescue Otonashi Haruna. To which they are succesful in. Afterwards they battled against The Kingdom and won. And their final match against Little Gigant was tough, but they eventually won. He is later seen to be visiting Raimon in their graduation, and watched their graduation match friendly and happily along with Fudou and all the members of Teikoku.

Plot (GO)
He is now 24 years old. He is seen with Kidou Yuuto in Episode 15, and towards the end of Episode 14. He gives the orders to Teikoku's players. It is stated that his true goal in current Teikoku is to get rid of SEEDs in his team. He is one of the Resistance's members. When Raimon goes to the Resistance's base he warns Yamana Akane that photos aren't allowed. He is the trainer for Teikoku's players.

Inazuma Eleven 2: Kyoui no Shinryakusha
You can recruit Sakuma after you beat Teikoku. He will be near to the Okinawa's lighthouse. To recruit him, you have to have Kidou between your four main players. Sakuma will be at level 18.

Hissatsu

 *  [SH] Death Zone (with Jimon and Doumen)
 *  [SH] Koutei Penguin No. 1 (Shin Teikoku form)
 *  [SH] Koutei Penguin No. 2 (with Kidou and Jimon)
 *  [SH] Koutei Penguin No. 3 (with Kidou and Fudou)
 *  [SH] Twin Boost (with Kidou)
 *  [SH] Space Penguin (IE3 Game)
 *  [SH] Divine Arrow (IE1 Game)
 *  [SH] Magician Box (3DS Game)
 *  [SH] Koutei Penguin 7 (3DS Game)


 *  [OF] Sprint Warp (3DS Game)
 *  [OF] Bunshin Feint (IE1 Game)
 *  [OF] Judge Through (IE2 Game)
 *  [OF] Naraku Otoshi (IE3/Wii Game)
 *  [OF] Reppuu Dash (IE3 Game)
 *  [OF] Killer Fields (Game,White Team form)


 *  [DF] Killer Slide (IE1 Game)
 *  [DF] Dual Storm (IE3 Game/Shin Teikokou form)
 *  [DF] Elephant Press (3DS Game)

Hissatsu Tactics

 *  [HT] Route of Sky (ルート･オブ･スカイ)
 *  [HT] Dual Typhoon (デュアルタイフーン)

Keshin

 * [KH] Doukeshi Phantom (3DS Game)

Quotes

 * "If Fudou and Kageyama really have joined forces again... this could be a plan to lure Kidou towards that man. I can't allow that to happen!" (To Himself)
 * "Someone who surpasses Kidou? Desiring more strength and more power... When we had been overwhelmed with the humiliation of defeat. Kageyama's words lured us in and we joined True Teikoku Academy. And the one who showed us the light when we had fallen into the darkness of soccer... was Kidou! How could you possibly surpass him?!" (To Demonio Strada )
 * "I've been watching Kidou's plays all this time. Therefore I know all of your strategies!" (To Demonio)

Trivia

 * His eyepatch was probably given to him by Kageyama, same as Kidou with his goggles.
 * Sakuma is the only character in Inazuma Eleven that has 2 different eye colors.
 * He seems to be a bit 'colder' in the GO series.
 * Jirou in his name, resembles Koujirou.
 * Arguably Kidou's best friend.
 * Yuuki Kaji, seiyuu of Fudou, in an interview called Sakuma "Kidou's goldfish poop."