Kadowaki Takes Early Lead in Interim League Scoring Race
As has become common in recent seasons, a previously-unknown player from one of Mongolia's East Asian neighbors sits atop the Mongolian top flight's scoring charts. Like his compatriots Tetsuaki Misawa in 2021 and Yuta Mishima in 2022, and South Korean Min Ki-tae last season, Kadowaki looks to make a name for himself as the league's Golden Boot winner as he lead's the league in scoring four matches into the 2026 Interim League season. From university standout to reservist in Singapore, Kadowaki has quickly adapted to his first real shot at first-team football.
The 24-year-old central midfielder's longest tenure has come with the school team at Daito Bunka University where he played and studied from 2020 to 2024. The university's football team competes in the Kanto University Football League. Following graduation, Kadowaki moved abroad to join Singapore FC in the Southeast Asian city-state. SFC competes in the Equatorial Football League, an amateur league that runs independently from the Football Association of Singapore league system.
In 2025, Kadowaki was picked up by Albirex Niigata (now FC Jurong), a satellite club of major Japanese club Albirex Niigata, of the Singapore Premier League. The player made a total of nineteen appearances, scoring five goals for the club's reserve side in the Singapore Premier League 2 that season.
When the spring half of the 2025-2026 SPL season kicked off, Kadowaki was included in the Albirex Niigata's first-team squad, being left on the bench for the club's match against Tanjong Pagar United on 17 January 2026. Over the next fifteen matches, Kadowaki was an unused substitute ten times while being left out of the squad completely a further five. He finally made his first-team debut in the club's final match of the season, coming in as a substitute and playing a single minute in Albirex Niigata's 3-0 victory over Young Lions FC on 16 May 2026.
Not content with playing reserve football, Kadowaki left the club at the end of the season. In September 2026, Khovdyn Khuleguud FC announced that it had signed the player for the upcoming campaign as part of a major overhaul of its roster as it looked to improve on its recent 7th-place finish. The length of the deal was undisclosed, but it is likely to extend through the 2026 interim league season and 2027 MPL season which is set to begin next April.
Kadowaki wasted no time announcing himself to the league as he buried two goals in a 4-0 victory over Khovd Western which saw the Broncos at the top of the league table after the first matchday. Following a bye week on Matchday 2 and 0-6 loss to Central Stallions in its third match, Kadowaki scored a hat-trick today against Erchim FC today to bring his goal total to five in three matches.
Three players are close on Kadowaki's heels with fellow Japanese duo Shuto Komaki and Takaru Terashima and Mongolian M. Batkishig each tallying four goals so far. With each team having between twelve and fourteen matches remaining, players will move ahead and fall behind in the scoring charts many more times as the season progresses. Who will sit at the top of the league scoring table at the end of the season will not be decided soon, but whoever does so will likely have accumulated a massive goal tally by the end.
Name: Soshi Kadowaki
DOB: 13 November 2001
Place of Birth: Iwate, Japan
Height: 1.67 meters (5 ft 5 in)
Position: Central Midfield
Previous Clubs:
Daito Bunka University FC (2020-2024)
Singapore FC (2024-225)
Albirex Niigata SFC II (2025-2026)
Albirex Niigata SFC (2026)
Khovdyn Khuleguud FC (2026-present)
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