At present, Japanese players are widely distributed in various leagues in many european countries (regions), mainly concentrated in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and other places. With the continuous outstanding performances of players such as Kenyo Fuan, Kenei Kubo and Kaoru Mitsuru in the Europa League this season, it proves that Japanese players are a very important consideration for European teams today when choosing foreign aid.
Taking advantage of the opportunity of the Chinese team to challenge the Japanese team away from home in the World Preliminary Round, we may wish to briefly review the history of some of the country's football players staying abroad.
The history of Japanese players staying abroad, especially playing in Europe, can be roughly divided into the following four stages.
The first stage was before the establishment of the J-League in 1993. At that time, there were no professional leagues in football in Japan, and football players were employees of companies. In 1977, Yasuhiko Okuter, who was working for Furukawa Electric (now Chiba Ichihara), became the first person to eat crabs, and he traveled to Germany.
He played for Cologne, Hertha Berlin and Bremen, and spent 9 years in the Bundesliga and Bundesliga, allowing Europeans to get to know Japanese players up close for the first time.
The opportunity for Yasuhiko Okuji to stay in the ocean is interesting. In the summer of 1977, he had been following the Japanese national team to West Germany for training, when the team's coach Ninomiya Hiroshi used his personal connections to ask Cologne, coached by his friend Veswelle, to assist in training.
During this time, Veswelly took a fancy to Yasuhiko Okuter and presented an invitation to Furukawa Electric. The player was hesitant for family reasons and the language barrier.
However, Furukawa Electric's head coach Saburo Kawabuchi was very supportive of him when he heard the news, and the Japanese Football Association also encouraged him to play in West Germany, even if he could not play for the national team for a period of time. In the end, Yasuhiko Okutera made up his mind to join Cologne.
During his time in Germany, Yasuhiko Okuter won the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal doubles in the 1977–1978 season and made his debut in the Champions League. He left a total of 259 appearances in the Bundesliga and Bundesweet, scoring 34 goals. Not only did he become the first Japanese player in Europe, but he also became the first professional player.
The historical significance of Yasuhiko Okutera lies in the successful demonstration of some Japanese players who were committed to playing in Europe at that time, and in the 1980s, two players, Kasuo Ozaki and Hachihiro Kazama, went to Germany to play. In addition, Yasuhiko Okusera built a bridge between Japanese and European football, which contributed to the professionalization of the league in the 1990s to a certain extent.
The second stage is to stay in the ocean after entering the 1990s, represented by Miura Chiryo, with the help of Japanese companies and sponsors. In the 1980s, Miura played alone in Santos, Brazil, where high hopes were high. After the establishment of the J-League, it is even more in the sky.
As a result, he went to Genoa in 1994, where he left a record of 1 goal in 21 games, and the overall performance of the ideal has a large gap, but also made people aware of the gap between Japanese football, Asian football and European football.
Miura Chiryo's time is very different from the period of Yasuhiko Okuji.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, when the latter went global, European football knew almost nothing about Japanese football. In the eyes of Europeans, Japan is an economically developed Asian country, but the attitude towards Japanese football can be described as "disdainful".
Therefore, even if Yasuhiko Okuter has been successful in Cologne and Bremen, he has not been able to arouse enough repercussions and attention in European football. However, in the 1990s, when Miura Chira went out, Japan's influence and economic strength in the world increased to a certain extent, and Europeans paid more and more attention to Japanese players.
In the third stage, after the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, a group of players represented by Hidetoshi Nakata went to Play in Europe. Unlike Miura Chira, because of the World Cup, which is such a big competition stage, many European teams have seen some potential Japanese players, and Nakata and others have the opportunity.
Hidetoshi Nakata first came to Peruga in Serie A to test the waters, and his debut was against Juventus. In the years that followed, his performance was recognized by the Italian arena and he won the Serie A title with Roma.
This unruly personality star has become a business card of Japanese football. "NAKATA" became a trend culture in the Apennines as well as in Europe. It may be relatively niche, but it has groundbreaking significance for Japanese football. Europeans' understanding of Japanese football is gradually changing – Japanese players are no longer "commodities" imposed on the team by sponsors, but can become the main force and contribute to the team.
Before and after Nakata Hidetoshi, including Nawa Hiroshi, Akira Shiroji, Akira Nishizawa, Hiroyama, Kawaguchi Nobuo, and others successively traveled to Europe. Junichi Inamoto joined Premier League giants Arsenal, Shinji Ono became the first Japanese player to lift the "three European Cups" at Feyenoord, and Shunsuke Nakamura also made a deep impression on the Celtics.
The fourth stage is the "Beijing Olympic Generation" represented by Keisuke Honda, Shinji Kagawa, Shinji Okazaki, Andyuki Nagatomo after the 2010 World Cup.
At the World Cup in South Africa, the Japanese team reached the round of 16 for the first time as a "non-host", once again enhancing the image of Japanese players in the eyes of European teams. After more than 10 years of development, coupled with the performance of Japanese players at all levels in international youth competitions in the previous year, it has become more and more common for Japanese players to play in Europe, and their age has become younger and younger, forming a scale and climate.
In 2009, Makoto Hasebe followed Wolfsburg to the Bundesliga title. In 2011 and 2012, Shinji Kagawa joined Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga titles twice.
In 2011, Nachida became a contributor to Schalke's 04 champions league final four. Shinji Kagawa moved to Premier League giants Manchester United in the summer of 2012, winning the Premier League trophy a year later and becoming the first Japanese player to score a hat-trick in the Premier League. In 2015, Shinji Okazaki created the "Blue Fox Miracle" in his first season in the Premier League...
Of course, in addition to the success models, there are also many players who have failed. International players such as Tomoaki Makino, Hotaru Yamaguchi, and Takashi Usa have all gone to the Bundesliga to test the waters, but unfortunately they have not succeeded.
But the short stay in the Ocean has broadened the horizons of the players, allowing them to continue to shine in the Asian arena. This is unmatched by a player who has never gone abroad and has never had close contact with Europe's high-level leagues.
In recent years, many veterans who have returned to the J League, such as Takatoku Sakai, Hiroki Sakai, Yuto Nagatomo and others, have said that European football and Asian (Japanese) football are completely different concepts, which shows how important it is for Asian football to achieve success on the World Cup stage and to be exposed to the most advanced European football.
With the age of Japanese players staying in the west, they are left with more opportunities for trial and error. Kenying Kubo, who was loaned by Real Madrid to play in Mallorca, and Maeda Dairan, who just went to play for the Celtics this winter, have already had a period of staying abroad, after returning to the J League to exercise, and then set off to challenge in Europe.
Unlike South Korean players who are good at playing out of Asia's top stars, Japanese football has adopted a "wide net to catch big fish" model, sending a large number of football talents to Europe to improve their own football level by raising the average level. It is also a key factor in the country's ability to lead in Asian football.
As for the league chosen by the Japanese players to play in Europe, in terms of history and numbers, Germany is obviously the first choice. First of all, modern Japanese football has developed with Germany as its teacher.
Cramer, the manager who led Bayern to the Champions League in the 1970s, served as an adviser to the Japan Football Association in the 1960s and is also known as the "father of Japanese football". On the other hand, football in both countries is very tactically disciplined, which is friendly to Japanese players with strong execution ability on the field.
Outside of Germany, European leagues such as the Dutch League, the First Division, and the Portuguese Super League are also popular places for Japanese players to go.
There is a gap between these league levels and the big five leagues, but they are still a grade higher than Asian competitions, and most of the teams in these leagues themselves play the role of "star processing factories", and after the Japanese players were generally recognized, the teams in these leagues were more than happy to bring in Japanese players at cheap prices and sell them in due course.
In addition, these leagues also have some Japanese-controlled teams, such as the first division team Sant Turdon (controlled by the famous Japanese IT company DMM), which is also an important reason why Japanese players have selected these leagues to settle down.
At present, the model of Japanese players staying in the West is generally to play in the J League for 1 to 3 seasons, and then challenge European competitions and join some minor leagues, as a springboard, hoping to find opportunities to go to the 5 major league teams in the future.
Takumi Minamino and Kenyo Fuan in the Premier League are typical examples. In addition, as The age of The Ryūyo became younger, some players even began to challenge the second Ryo, such as Maeda Dairan and Yosuke Izuguchi, who had just joined the Celtics in the winter.
The following is a rough list of some of the Japanese players who are currently playing in the Europa League, and the performance of this season, appearances and goals are only counted for the league performance, for your reference.
As can be seen from the table below, in the traditional five major European leagues, the Bundesliga is still the largest export of Japanese players, and there are currently 8 people playing in the Bundesliga this season, except for Endo Keita, who can guarantee a good playing time.
Among them, Endo Hang was last season's Bundesliga steal king, was appointed captain of the team before the start of the season, and his teammate Ito Yoshiki this season has emerged and jumped to the main team without being optimistic, but Stuttgart's performance this season has been all the way down, and there is a great risk of relegation.
Okukawa has also performed well this season and is currently the player with the most goals scored in the league in all of Europe, but because of his position on the field, he has always had difficulty getting into the eyes of Japanese coach Hoichi Mori.
The three men who played in the Bundesweet this season have been relatively stable, and they are all main players in their respective teams, especially itakura After joining Schalke last summer, he quickly became a key link in the back line, this time because Maya Yoshida and Ken Yoshian were both injured, and he was basically determined to play the main force against China.
The number of players in Serie A and the Premier League has not been much in these two years, but the performances have been recognized. Veteran Ma Yoshida also joined Sampdoria after losing his position at Southampton, quickly occupied the main position, the performance has been very stable, this season there is still a good play to break through the Juve gate, but unfortunately recently plagued by injuries, did not qualify for this match with China. Kenyang Fu'an made a name for himself in Serie A and joined Arsenal last summer.
At first, he was not optimistic, but after half a season, he was already the absolute main force of the Gunners' right-back, but missed this match with China due to injury. Takumi Minamino has never been able to get too many opportunities in Liverpool, because mane and Salah's ability is too strong to shake, but the players seem to have no willingness to transfer and leave, and he is currently more in the cup, but in Japan is still the first choice for the offensive line.
La Liga is now only one person in Real Madrid loaned to Mallorca, Kubo Kenei, who was absent for a period of time due to injury in the first half of the season, but his form is still guaranteed after his comeback, which is a key part of the team's attacking end. Nishi B also has 2 veterans , Shinji Okazaki and Takeshi Shibasaki. Shinji Okazaki has had few opportunities to play this season, and Shibasaki's attendance is acceptable, but his form in recent years has been worrying, and it is difficult to produce convincing performances in both the national team and the club.
Ligue 1 only has Japan's third goalkeeper Nagashi Kawashima, who is still playing in Europe for family reasons and on the other hand, hoping to play in another World Cup as a player. Ligue 2's Naoru Ueda and Adao have both tended to go high and low this season, especially Adao, who has completely stopped after scoring a few goals in a row last fall, scoring just one goal since October.
The First Division, the Portuguese Super League, and the Dutch League are typical "springboard leagues", and many players will choose to test the waters here for the first stop, and in recent seasons, a talent transmission chain has been formed.
Especially because of the existence of the Japanese team in San Turden, more and more Japanese players have joined this small team to enter the European League stage, and the above-mentioned Fuan Kenyang is the most successful example.
In addition to Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, Matsubara and Tsuyoshi Watanabe, the rest of the players have been able to get a lot of opportunities to play this season, and the most eye-catching performance is undoubtedly Kaoru Mitsuru, a player who is regarded as a talented attacker in Japan, who joined the promotion horse St. Giros last summer, but surprisingly, this promoted horse has led the way in the standings, and Kaoru Mitsuru has gradually become the main player from a rotating player, but unfortunately has been plagued by injuries recently.
A noteworthy player in the Portuguese Premier League is Hidemasa Morita, a midfielder who can attack and defend well and is very solid in Santa Clara. However, he needs to compete for the main position with Shibasaki and Tanaka bi in the Japanese team. After a few years of tossing and turning, Shoya Nakajima, who was a hit in the past few years, returned to the Portimão this season and gradually regained the state of the year, but the current Japanese team seems to have no place for him.
In the Dutch First Division, Don Anlu did well last season on loan in the Bundesliga Billefeld, but the team did not buy him out, and there was no place in Eindhoven this season, but as the season progressed, he returned to the main squad again. Yusei Sugahara and Yuta Nakayama are also the main players of their respective teams.
Among the rest of the minor leagues, the Soviet Super League is the hottest. Former Yokohama Mariners coach Postkogru coached the Celtics, who last year championed the introduction of Hongo Furuhashi, who showed great bravery and became a killer in the Soviet Super League.
As a result, the team introduced three more players in the winter, including Maeda Dairan, Flag Bearer Yoshiyo and Yosuke Izuguchi. The latter three performed very eye-catching in their debuts, with flag bearer Pi Yang winning the best of the game and Maeda Daran scoring his debut goal. With Furuhashi Hiroshi at risk of facing a long-term injury suspension, the deal looks timely.
In addition, the Japanese player is also present in some leagues with less attention, and some players even go to Europe to play after graduating from high school. This is due to the fact that there are a lot of staff in the Japanese football industry in Europe, which can match and create Liuyang conditions for players.
On the other hand, the players themselves may also be able to travel to Europe to play football and accept the European football atmosphere as early as possible. Compared with South Korean players, Japanese players do not have the constraint of military service, and European players naturally like to accept it.