Why has the J-League's No. 41 shirt proliferated? Analysis of the source of the popularity of special numbers

In recent years, the number of players wearing the "41" shirt has increased dramatically in the J-League. Currently, more than half of the 57 clubs in J1, J2 and J3 have players wearing the number 41 shirt. 41 was just a no-brainer long ago, so why did it catch on in the J-League?

The mystery of the number encountered while looking through the list of players

One of the pre-match funs of the J-League. That's buying a player directory that covers all the players in j1 j2 j3. "What about that player? What about this player? Such a player transfer is coming? "You can confirm things like this through this directory, which is an essential artifact for understanding the league and the movements of players.

Probably in April, I looked at the player list and saw that there were more players wearing the No. 41 shirt this season than I thought. Here's a look at the No. 41 jersey, including transfers at the start of the season and after.

■ J1: Nine clubs have players in the number 41 shirt

Urawa Red Diamonds: Midfielder Takashi Sekine

Kashiwa Sun God: Goalkeeper Yamato Kaneda

Kawasaki Striker: Midfielder Akihiro

Yokohama Mariners: Forward Kensa sugimoto (joined on loan from Urawa Red Diamonds in July)

Shimizu Heartbeat: Goalkeeper Nakajima Yuki

Kobe Victory Ship: Forward Yutaro Oda

Mitsuki Hiroshima: Midfielder Yoichi Naganuma

Fukuoka Hornets: Goalkeeper Takumi Nagaseki

Oita Sanshin: Defender Ryosuke Kogen

※ Kashima Antlers: Midfielder Ryoshi Shirasaki → transferred to Tosu Sandstone on loan to wear the No. 13 shirt

※Tokyo FC: Goalkeeper Oshi Nozawa → transferred to Iwate Morioka Xianzuru to wear the No. 41 shirt

※Tosu Sandstone: Midfielder Daiki Matsuoka → transferred to Shimizu to wear the No. 33 jersey

■ J2: 15 clubs have players in the number 41 shirt

Yamagata Yamagami: Midfield Nakahara Kei

Mito Marshmallow: Goalkeeper Nakayama opens the sail

Tochigi SC: Kohei Matsumoto

Gunba Kusatsu Onsen: Nakanobu Nakayama Yuto

Omiya Squirrel: Midfielder Masashi Nakano

Tokyo Greenery: Goalkeeper Hisami Sato

Machida Zevia: Midfielder Takuya Yasui (transferred from Kobe in June)

Kofu Wind Forest: Midfielder Motoki Hasegawa

Niigata Swan: Goalkeeper Kazuki Fujita

Kanazawa Savigen: Defender Reihito Yamashita

Joy Iwata: Defender Tomoyo Kato

Kyoto Undead Bird: Defender Kosuke Shirai

Okayama Pheasant: Defender Yuhei Tokumoto

Refa Yamaguchi: Defender Hiroto Kuwabara (joined on loan from Fukuoka in August)

Ehime FC: Midfielder Kentaro Moriya

■ J3: Seven clubs have players in number 41 shirts

Yado Yunrori: Midfielder Ryuse Nose

Iwate Morioka Senduru: Goalkeeper Daishi Nozawa (joined on loan from Tokyo FC in August)

Fukushima United: Midfielder Yuhira Uehata

Fujieda MYFC: Midfielder Takumi Kiyomoto

FC Gifu: Midfielder Yoshihama Ryohei

Kumamoto Crimson: Midfielder Taniyama

Kagoshima United: Midfielder Miyake Heimdou

Of the 57 clubs in the J-League, 9 are in J1, 15 in J2 and 7 in J3 – 31 in total. This means that more than half of the clubs in the J-League have players in the number 41 shirt.

Why are so many players wearing the size 41 shirt?

Let's take a look at where players in the No. 41 shirt play in all league divisions.

J1: 2 forwards, 3 midfielders, 1 defender, 3 goalkeepers

J2: 0 forwards, 7 midfielders, 5 defenders and 3 goalkeepers

J3: 0 forwards, 6 midfielders, 0 defenders, 1 goalkeeper

Total: 2 forwards, 16 midfielders, 6 defenders and 7 goalkeepers

We will find that the players who choose to wear the no. 41 jersey are the most midfielders, and in addition, the second most goalkeeper position, such as the goalkeeper of Tokyo Green, will wear the "1", "21", "31", "41" shirt, and the Fukuoka Hornets also have players wearing the "21", "31", "41" jersey. In clubs with more than 4 goalkeepers, there are more players wearing the "41" shirt.

We also compared the data from the start of the 2018, 2019 and 2020 seasons (joined midway through the season, the U-23 team's figures are not reflected below) to see how the "41" has grown over the past few years.

■ 2018 season

J1: Hokkaido Sapporo Gonzado, Kawasaki Striker, Shonan Lihai, Iwata Joy, Nagoya Whales, Gamba Osaka, Sakura Osaka = 7 clubs

J2: Rafa Yamaguchi FC, Sanshin Oita = 2 clubs

J3: Fukushima United FC = 1 club

A total of 10 clubs

■ 2019 season

J1: Hokkaido Sapporo Gonzato, Kashima Antlers, Kawasaki Striker, Yokohama Mariners, Iwata Joy, Osaka Gamba, Tosu Sandstone, Oita Sanshin = 8 clubs

J2: Niigata Swan, Tochigi SC, Omiya Squirrel, Kofu Kazebayashi, Kyoto Undead Bird, Nagasaki Success Maru = 6 clubs

J3: Yakuto Unrory, YSCC Yokohama, Tottori Fly = 3 clubs

A total of 17 clubs

■ 2020 season

J1: Kashima Antlers, Urawa Red Diamonds, Tokyo FC, Kawasaki Striker, Yokohama Mariners, Osaka Sakura, Kobe Victory Ship, Tosu Sandstone, Oita Sanshin = 9 clubs

J2: Niigata Swan, Gunma Kusatsu Onsen, Tokyo Green, Omiya Squirrel, Kyoto Undead Bird, Okayama Pheasant, Yamaguchi Refa FC, Tokushima Whirlpool = 8 clubs

J3: Yatsunobu Yunrori, Iwate Morioka Xianzuru, YSCC Yokohama, Tottori Feixiang, Kagoshima United FC = 5 clubs

A total of 22 clubs

The number of clubs in 2018 → 17 clubs in 2019→ 22 clubs in 2020, and has increased to 31 clubs as of September 2021.

So why are so many jerseys choosing the no.41 shirt?

To find out why, I interviewed players in the number 41 shirt as closely as possible and investigated them with the assistance of the publicity staff and journalists at each club.

I found that they all had their own reasons.

Respective reasons

■ Reverse the number

As we thought, some players have the number "14" in their first choice when they join the team, but it's already occupied, so they choose to turn the number upside down.

FC Gifu's midfielder Ryohei Yoshihama was wearing the no. 14 jersey when he played for MachidaZawa and Yamaguchi Refa, but when he came to FC Gifu, the owner of the No. 14 jersey was Takuya Honda, so he chose to reverse the number. The same is true for midfielder Akira Yamagata, who joined Yamagata Yamagata from Kumamoto Crimson this season, and Takuya Yasui, who joined Machidazawa via from Kobe Victory Ship this summer.

There are also some interesting examples, such as this summer, When Sugimoto leased from Urawa Toei to yokohama Mariners. At first, everyone thought he was an example of a jersey number reversal because he wore the number 14 during his time at Urawa, but this was not the case: in 2012, Sugimoto wore the number 41 when he joined Tokyo Green from Sakura Osaka. At the time, there was an assistant sports director in Tokyo called Soaki Daya, who now works as a sailor in Yokohama.

"Maybe that's fate, I really like 41 so much, it feels like I'm back in time," Says Sugimoto.

■ A pun

Niigata Swan goalkeeper Kazuki Fujita wrote the reason on the club's official website: "Because it is the first number to get, it contains the meaning of becoming the first place from the fourth place." ”

In addition, Yasuhiko Kaoma, a J-League player who is known to earn 120 yen a year, has now turned into a martial artist. Yasuhiko started in 2017 in the Kanto 1st Division (Aisley Tokyo FC), including Mito Marshmallow, who played for Mito In 2018 and Yokohama YSCC in 2019 and 2020, and his jersey number is 41.

Speaking of the reasons for choosing 41, Yasuhiko said that 41 has the meaning of "for one" in it. For him, "for one" means "changing the world of sport", so the choice of number 41 was for this consideration. He was 40 years old when he became a J-League player, and the first black player to play in major leagues, Jackie Robinson, was No. 42, so I wanted to use No. 41 to stage my own "The Rookie" pitcher.

Note: The Mind Pitcher's story outlines Jim Morris' love of baseball since childhood. But because of the obstruction of his father, a naval officer, and living in a small town in Texas, which is only fond of American football, Jim had to give up his dreams, and he was well-behaved, married, had children, and worked as a teacher of natural sciences in the town's middle school.

But Jim organized a baseball team at the school and worked as a coach. At the age of 35, he made a bet with the students of the baseball team that jim would have to play in that year's major league draft as long as they could make it to the Interstate Cup.

In the end, at the age of 35, Jim was named the oldest "rookie pitcher" in the major leagues in three decades.

■ There is no special reason

Urawa Red Diamonds midfielder Takada Sekine, who returned to the club from Germany in June 2019, said: "There is no special reason to choose the No. 41 shirt". Before moving overseas, Sekine wore the no. 24, which was the debut number of his predecessor, Haraguchi, but when he returned to Urawa Red Diamonds, Yasushi Kiki had already worn this number, so he chose the vacant no. 41, which he still wears.

So far, we have introduced several players who have worn the No. 41 shirt for different reasons, and in the course of the interview, we finally found the player who should be said to be the source - Akihiro, the midfielder of Kawasaki Forward.

Number 41's popularity was intended to be "respectful"

For Masashi Ono, a midfielder of the Omiya Squirrels, this is exactly what "respect for the parents Akihiro". From 2014 to 2016, while his parent Akihiro Omiya was playing, Ono became a student at Meiji University after training with the Omiya Squirrel Youth Team. He has not played with his parent Akihiro, but he has great respect for his parent Akihiro, so when he joins Omiya Squirrel, he is ready to take over the number. "Number 41 is a significant number for Omiya squirrels." Fans and supporters have great expectations of Ono.

The same thing happened to midfielder Yasuko Miyoshi, who played for Antwerp, Belgium, and played for the U24 Japanese national team at the Tokyo Olympics. When he went on loan from Kawasaki Striker to Gonzaga Sapporo, Hokkaido, he chose the no. 41 shirt of his parent Akihiro on the grounds that he was "looking forward to being a player with a left foot".

In addition, although the previously mentioned Yamagata Yamagami midfielder Nakahara Kei is a number reversal faction, he also looks forward to Akihiro, the parent of the same left-footed player, like Yasuko Miyoshi.

Playing for FC Ehime, Kentaro Moriya, who played in Kawasaki for six seasons from the midfielder Kentaro Moriya who wore the no. 41 jersey this season to 2018, although he also belonged to the faction that respected his parents Akihiro, he also wrote on his blog that the respect for the "No. 14" worn by Nakamura Kentsune, who retired last season, was also included.

In the past 4 years, from 10 clubs to 31 clubs, the number of "41" shirts has increased by more than 3 times. What is the reason why Zhao Bo, the parent of the source, wore this number?

At the end of July 2012, after a six-month loan from Mallorca in Spain to Hyundai in Ulsan, South Korea, Akihiro returned to Gamba Osaka. This season, the No. 14 has been worn by Akira Kurata. Zhao Bo, a parent who didn't pay much attention to the jersey number, didn't think too much about it, but turned it upside down, starting from the 41st.

When he officially transferred to Omiya Squirrel in 2014, because he joined before the new system, "14" was already nakamura Hokuto's number, so the parent Akihiro chose "41". After that, he continued to wear the same number after moving to Kawasaki Striker in 2017.

From the beginning, zhaobo himself developed an intuitive fit for "41". He is the kind of player who will consider whether the lifestyle before and after practice, practice, and usual diet are suitable for him. It can be said that the "41" also made him feel right and suitable.

The article was translated by the author himself, please do not reprint without permission, thank you.