The youth of several generations is coming to an end.
On January 4, Shueisha, a Japanese general publishing house, announced that the manga "Soccer Player", which has been serialized for 43 years, will officially end in early April.
"Soccer Player" has been serialized for 43 years since 1981, and the cumulative circulation of the entire series of comics has exceeded 90 million copies, including the sequel. This manga has also been adapted into TV and theatrical versions of the anime many times, and it has been widely followed.
"Soccer Player" not only promoted the development of Japanese football, but also made many people around the world fall in love with football, profoundly influenced the readers of the post-70s, post-80s, and post-90s, and inspired generations of Japanese players, while world football superstars including Iniesta, Aguero, Torres, and Mbappe were also influenced by "Soccer Junior".
Manga came out in Japanese football "Winter Era".
In the past 43 years, it has led to the great development of Japan's football population
In 1981, Yoichi Takahashi began serializing "Soccer Player" in "Weekly Shonen Jump", and the story began with the transfer of Soccer boy Tsubasa Okura to the sixth grade of Nange Elementary School. In the 80s of the last century, Japanese football was still at a low ebb, and it was not ranked in Asia. On December 26, 1980, the Japanese team lost 0-1 to the Chinese team in the World Preliminary Tournament and completely missed the qualification for the 1982 World Cup in Spain, which made Japanese football in its domestic attention and influence fall to the bottom.
At this time, a newcomer cartoonist who had just debuted was thinking hard about the subject matter he was going to create, and in order to win the favor of the magazine, he finally gave up the popular but seriously involuted sports themes such as baseball and tennis, and chose the unpopular football as a breakthrough. In the end, 22-year-old Yoichi Takahashi submitted his debut short manga "Captain Tsubasa" to Japan's largest manga magazine at the time, "Weekly Shonen Jump", which received unexpected praise and gave Takahashi the motivation to serialize the theme as a long-form manga, and "Soccer Player" came out.
We are all familiar with the subsequent story, Okura Tsubasa, Hinata Kojiro, Wakabayashi Genzo, Ishizaki Ryo, Cape Taro, Tachibana Brothers and other comic characters are popular all over the world, "Football Player" directly promoted the development of Japanese football, countless children because of the inspiration of this comic, and chose to join the football club in school, which led to the increasing popularity of Japanese campus football, and the high school football league has become a phenomenal event in the Japanese sports world, thus driving the development of the Japanese football population.
According to FIFA statistics, Japan, with a total population of 125 million, has a football population of an astonishing 5 million, and when Yoichi Takahashi began serializing "Football Player" in 1981, the Japanese Football Association surveyed the primary school football population of only 110,000, and the latest data shows that the number of registered school football teams in Japan is as high as 26,000.
Today's Japanese football has reached the World Cup 7 times in a row and won the Asian Cup 4 times, and the current Japanese internationals such as Kaoru Mikasa, Itakura Tsuku, Takumi Minamino, Takuma Asano, Hisashi Hisashi, Ritsu Doyasu, Yoki Ito, Hang Endo, Junya Ito, and Daichi Kamada have all made a name for themselves in European football. Since June last year, the Japanese team has repeatedly created amazing scores - 6-0 El Salvador, 4-1 Peru, 4-1 Germany, 4-2 Turkey, 4-1 Canada, 2-0 Tunisia, 5-0 Myanmar, 5-0 Syria, 5-0 Thailand, and has won 9 consecutive victories in the warm-up matches and the World Preliminary Tournament, and won every game by a big score. Now, many people think that the goal of winning the World Cup in 2050 is not empty words.
Countless football superstars have been influenced by it
Andres Iniesta and others even went to Japan to play football because of this
While we can't attribute the rise and success of Japanese football entirely to Soccer Junior, many of the generations of Japanese internationals have acknowledged Soccer Junior's inspiration for their dedication to the sport. In international football, there are also many world-class superstars who are deeply influenced by "Football Player".
Spanish star Andres Iniesta is a die-hard fan of "Soccer Player", and during his time at Barcelona, he collected a lot of the same jersey from "Soccer Junior" and wore them for photos many times. In Spain, the Great Air Wing is translated as "Oliver Atom", hence the nickname "Atom".
In 2018, Iniesta joined J-League side Vissel Kobe, and a large part of the reason was his love for "Soccer Player". After he arrived in Japan, Yoichi Takahashi also gave him two cartoons drawn by himself.
Argentine star Sergio Aguero is called "Ah Kun" by Chinese fans, also because the word "KUN" is printed on the back of his jersey, which is also the "translated name" of Dakong Wing in South America. Spanish star Torres was able to watch the "Soccer Player" anime all day as a child, and from the beginning of his football he aspired to be an attacker like Tsubasa Osora before joining the J-League for Sagan Tosu and meeting Yoichi Takahashi.
Chilean star Sanchez has collected an entire set of "Soccer Player" comics for his collection, while German star Podolski has custom-made Kojiro Hinata's shin guards and sneakers. The Spanish "door god" Casillas personally admitted that Wakabayashi Genzo was his idol. Zidane, Piero, Mbappe, Neymar and others were also influenced by "Football Player" to varying degrees in their youth.
In 2014, the manga virtual character Tsubasa Osora was also appointed as the "Asian Promotion Ambassador of the Japanese J-League", and in the same year, Barcelona launched the same style of the manga Tsubasa Ogura, which was well received by the majority of fans.
Announcing the end of the manga in April, which has inspired generations of players and countless children in world football, Takahashi said: "For the last few years, I've been thinking about how far the story can be depicted in the future. In the end, I felt that instead of drawing all the way to the limit of my physical strength, it would be better to finish the story of "Soccer Player" directly. ”
"Now, I have the idea of the general ending of 'Soccer Player' in my head. The Olympic chapter "Rising Sun", which is currently being serialized in Soccer Player Magazine, and the subsequent series will be included, but it is calculated that it may take more than 40 years to comic all of these ideas. ”
"I don't think it's realistic, but I think it's possible to focus on leaving a 'story' in the form of a synopsis or so on. ”
"I haven't had any serious illnesses in the past, and I'm still in good health. But now that I'm over 60 years old, I'm still in a bad condition with presbyopia and dizziness compared to when I was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump and Weekly Young Jump. ”
There are always legendary stories in classic works, and "Soccer Player", which has been serialized for 43 years, is coming to an end, but it has already made many children who love football realize their dreams, and it has witnessed the rise of Japanese football from weak to strong. Although the youth of the post-70s, post-80s, and post-90s generations is over, the passion and enthusiasm brought to them by this classic will never be forgotten.
Netizen: Ye Qingjie, the memories of a generation
The news that "Football Player" is about to end has also aroused heated discussions among netizens:
(Yangcheng Evening News • Yangcheng Pai Comprehensive Surging News, Red Star News, Netizen Comments, etc.)
Editor: Liang Zeming
Source: Yangcheng Evening News • Yangcheng faction