"On my side, almost an entire Japanese player is ready to return to the European clubs." Four months ago, Wu Lei, who completed the world preliminary round of 12 in Asia against Japan in the first leg, expressed this feeling at the airport returning to Spain. Now, when Wu Lei is about to go to the away game with the national team to challenge the Japanese team again, a group of Japan internationals who are now performing amazingly in Europe are also on their way back to China.
In recent years, with the japanese football stay in the ocean storm has become more and more intense. According to statistics, at the beginning of the season, 451 people have played in Europe, of which 250 players play in german leagues at all levels. Today, the foreign players not only make up half of the Japanese national team, but also become more hot with the advancement of the European League - these Japanese internationals are now in Europe, in addition to the core players playing thoroughly, there are many brilliant newcomers who are eager to try.
[Core players: the more you play, the more hi, the five major leagues continue to shine]
Today's Japanese team is star-studded, and if you talk about the real offensive and defensive core of the team, it is Endo Hang, who plays for Stuttgart in the Bundesliga. Like the 38-year-old Bundesliga legend Makoto Hasebe, Endo Hang has not only gradually grown into a top back since joining Stuttgart with his super will quality and technical characteristics, but also wore the captain's armband of European teams as an Asian player. As early as last season, Endo, who was evaluated as "Japan's Messi-level player", was named the MVP of a Japanese player in Europe.
This season, although Stuttgart's overall performance has declined significantly (serious injuries are the main reason), Endo's wonderful performance continues. As an absolute confrontation monster, In addition to contributing 1 goal and 2 assists, The more important performance is to complete 257 successful confrontations, ranking second in the Bundesliga. In addition, Endo Hang also averaged 2.25 steals, 1.05 interceptions and 1.4 clearances per game, which is definitely an insurmountable barrier for the Japanese team.
In addition to Endo, the Japanese team is now more noteworthy player Takumi Minamino. Since Red Bull Salzburg moved to Premier League giants Liverpool, Takushi Minamino was briefly loaned to Southampton last season, which gave him the opportunity to adapt to the Premier League and returned to Liverpool last summer, thus becoming an important rotation player under Reds coach Klopp this season.
Understandably, Takumi Minamino's talented Liverpool are still struggling to play the main role, but the 12 million-dollar attacker has always been diligent and earnest to play his role. Since the beginning of the season, Takumi Minamino has played 18 games (six starts) for the Reds on all fronts, contributing six goals and one assist. In particular, takumi Minamino, who celebrated his 27th birthday against Brentford a week ago, scored quickly after coming off the bench in the second half to complete the 10th goal of the Reds' career.
The Japanese national team not only has a super attacking player from Liverpool, but also another young talent who is valued by La Liga giants Real Madrid. This season, the 20-year-old Kubo Kenei has once again been loaned to Mallorca to train, and has grown into a key player in the team's frontcourt, scoring 2 goals and 2 assists so far in the season, and even playing a full moon curved knife in this month's Copa del Rey game to eliminate Espanyol - before the Sino-Japanese matchup in Spain.
In addition to these "top-notch" brilliant performances, in fact, many of Japan's main frame players have gradually improved in the European arena this season, and even played very well. For example, Don Anlu, who has been on loan in the Bundesliga, has gradually risen to the main force after returning to The Eredivisie giants Eindhoven this season, and has contributed 5 goals so far; Jun Ito, who plays for Thejaya powerhouse Genk, has also contributed 5 goals and 11 assists, a proper team attacking core; Haraguchi, who once played the Bayern defense, returned to the Bundesliga this season, and became an important force in Berlin United's Champions League with his skillful skills...
By the way, do you remember the Japanese defender Kenyo Fuan who said before the China-Japan showdown last round that he said, "Play this game with the pride of an Arsenal player.". At the time, Kenyo Fuan, who made such remarks, had also been ridiculed for Arsenal's poor start to the season, but now the best defender in Asia has not only helped Arsenal get close to returning to the most familiar rankings with his main performance, but also rose to 25 million euros and has become the second most valuable player in Asia after Son Heung-min.
The good thing for the national football team is that Kenyang Fuan, who was originally selected for the roster, eventually withdrew due to injury, which made the Japanese team's defense line suddenly fall a notch. In addition, another defensive captain Maya Yoshida (Sampdoria), the most expensive attacker Kamada Daichi (Frankfurt), conquering the Soviet Super League arena Furuhashi Hiroshi (Celtic) and other players have also been unable to participate in the list due to injury, which shows that the Japanese team can be described as constantly "giving in" to the national football team this time.
【Many new stars: gradually getting better, constantly bringing unexpected surprises】
Although many important players have suffered injuries, the strong army of foreigners has made the Japanese national team certainly not lack reserves. Therefore, compared with the first leg of the two teams, the Japanese national team's squad initially had as many as 8 personnel adjustments: Daniel Schmidt, Takumi Minamino, Maeda Dairan, Takuma Asano, Itakura, Bi Tanaka, Akira Taniguchi and Hiroki Sakai. Among them, many new blood are new stars from the European arena of Japan.
First of all, after Maya Yoshida and Kenhiro Fuan hung up the "free card", Itakura, who was rated as the best defender in the first half of the Bundesliga by the authoritative media "Kicker" this season, is about to take over the burden of defense. Domestic fans may not know that as early as 2019, the 22-year-old Itakura Washiguchi was recruited by Premier League giants Manchester City, after two seasons of training in Groningen on loan in the Dutch League (last season and legendary star Robben as a teammate), this season came to the newly relegated Schalke 04, quickly became the team's defensive line of the sea needle, and even contributed 2 goals.
It is not difficult to imagine that he can stand firm in the German arena, which emphasizes physical confrontation, and has been selected for the best team many times, and it is clear that Itakura, who is 186cm tall, has a unique point. In addition, as a defender, Itakura Shigeru also has the foot technology and super ball dealer unique to Japanese players, and head coach Gramozis praised: "He is very calm on the field, the way he handles the ball is great, and the communication ability is also strong." Now as Schalke approaches the upgrade zone, it is possible that Itakura, who is expected to be bought out, will be on the bundesliga.
Compared with Itakura, who has only made one national team appearance, Takuma Asano, another selected attacker, Takuma Asano, is probably more familiar to domestic fans. In fact, as early as 2016, Takuma Asano transferred from Sanfrecce Hiroshima to Premier League giants Arsenal, and then went on loan to Stuttgart, after training in the Bundesliga and Bundesliga, the effect was not ideal, and then after renting to Hanover, it was still mediocre, until the summer of 2019 joined the Seychelles giants Belgrade Guerrilla.
Last season, Takuma Asano finally had the highlight of his career, contributing 18 goals and eight assists in 33 games in the Cypriot Premier League (no. 2 in the Top Scorers list of the Cypriot Premier League) and joining Bundesliga promotion Mabochum last summer. After two years of returning to the Bundesliga, Takuma Asano's improvement is obvious to all, and now
The team has moved up to 11th in the league. Not only that, Takuma Asano also ran the fastest speed in the team at 35.14km/h this season, which made his position in the national team continue to improve.
In addition, the most interesting Japanese football news in this winter window period is that the Scottish giants Celtic signed three Japanese players in one go - thanks to Furuhashi's proud performance this season for the Japanese players to completely justify the name, coupled with the current head coach Post Kogru has previously coached the J-League Yokohama Mariners, which allowed the Celtics to sign Maeda Dairan (Yokohama Mariners), Flag Bearers Keiyo (Kawasaki Forward) and Yosuke Izukuchi (Gamba Osaka) at the end of last month.
Envy, right? That's not all! In last weekend's 2-0 win over Hibernian, the three Japanese signings teamed up to make their Soviet Premier League debuts. Among them, Maeda Dairan scored his debut goal in Europe in just 210 seconds of the opening game, and the flag bearer Who played as the starting left midfielder was officially selected as the best player of the game. After the match, Maeda was called up for the national team and is expected to become a new choice for the team's attacking line.
In addition to the Celtics' Japanese "foursome", the Bundesliga has long become a concentration of Japanese players staying in the ocean (as many as 15 people). Among them, 197cm tall goalkeeper Daniel Schmidt is now working as a starting goalkeeper for the Japanese team San Turden and is trying to compete for the position of the main goalkeeper of the national team. Of course, we must not forget the German arena with the largest collection of Japanese players, Tanaka Bi, who joined Düsseldorf in the Bundesliga on loan this season, has become an indispensable main player of the team with the "hexagon"...
[Strong player lost: controversial, it may be better to stay in Europe]
To be sure, there are countless New Japanese stars on the rise in Europe this season. In addition to the several internationals mentioned above who have been selected for this list, the Japanese national team still has many young talents who have not been selected. For example, striker Kaoru Sanji, who was signed by Premier League team Brighton last summer, shined with "hat-tricks" and other performances during the loan of The First Division team St. Giros this season, and was called up for the national team for the first time in this round of 12, but unfortunately missed this China-Japan showdown due to injury.
In contrast to Kaoru Mitsuru's defeat due to injury, the other two rising stars in the Bundesliga this season, Yoshiaki Ito, who failed to be called up, are full of confusion and regret. Among them, you may not imagine that Yoshiki Ito, who was named the best newcomer in the Bundesliga this season, was previously just a Japanese J2 League player. Last summer, Stuttgart's sporting director Miringstadt, known as the "Diamond Eye", discovered the jade and brought 22-year-old Ito to the Bundesliga.
Due to the team's injury wave, Ito quickly became the team's starting centre-back under the weight of head coach Matarazzo, and with excellent physical fitness and foot skills " became an indispensable part of the team", and even completed his Bundesliga debut against Mainz. In this regard, considering that Ito Yoshiki's loan fee is only 100,000 euros and the buyout fee is only 400,000 euros, people can't help but feel that the "diamond eye" has found a good and inexpensive gemstone, and even more lamented the great support of the Japanese team for the players to stay in the ocean.
In addition to Yoshiki Ito's rise to prominence in the defensive line, another Japanese player, Masaya Okukawa, also shocked the Bundesliga on the offensive end. In fact, the 25-year-old Ya Okukawa also directly started to stay in the Japanese J2 League, joined austrian giants Salzburg in July 2015, and has since been loaned to satellite club Levlin, as well as Austrian First Division team Mattsburg and Bundesliga team Kiel to continue training. In the 2019-2020 season, Ogawa Ya, who returned to Salzburg, also began to prove himself, scoring goals against Bayern in the Champions League.
At the beginning of last year, Okukawa also stepped onto the Bundesliga on loan, and soon became an important choice for Bielefeld head coach Kramer in the attacking line, and helped the promoted horse to be relegated successfully, and then was officially bought out last summer for a transfer fee of 1 million euros. Entering this season, although Bielefeld was once in the relegation quagmire, OkukawaYa also ushered in a big outbreak, and recently led the team out of the relegation zone after scoring in four consecutive league games...
Players like Yoshiki Ito and Masaya Okukawa did not have the opportunity to make such a big list of Japanese teams, which really made the Japanese national team coach Mori Baoichi encounter a lot of criticism. However, looking at the star-studded list of Japanese teams, Mori's choice may be more conducive to the above new stars staying in Europe to maintain a better club performance – if this is the case, then the strong development of Japanese football today will only make people more respectful.
According to statistics, as many as 17 players in the Japanese team are playing in the European League, with a total of 380 hours of playing time this season, and the total value of the team is nearly 100 million euros. In contrast, the Chinese men's football team currently has only Wu Lei playing in europe's five major leagues, and has only played 476 minutes this season...
As for why the gap between Chinese and Japanese football is getting wider and wider, what is left for us is only a painful and unspeakable topic.