Journalist Cai Zonglin reported: "Wu Lei's progress in Spain is obvious, if we have 20 to 30 players in Europe, what else do I have to worry about?" When evaluating Wu Lei, Li Tie, who had been in the Premier League, said that as a person who came over, he knew very well what kind of promotion Liu Yang could bring to a player.
Li Tie said that this kind of phenomenon of players in Europe forming a national team, our neighbor Japan and South Korea is exactly like this, the Japanese team in the top 40 competition is like a bamboo, early in advance of the qualification, can have such a performance, it is precisely because of the insistence on "going out", Japan now basically has two sets of national team lineup composed of players in Europe.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="5" > [the whole European lineup is daily].</h1>
Recently, according to Japanese media statistics, the number of Japanese players currently playing in Europe has reached 451, and the total number is close to Nigeria, which has long exported players to the European arena.
After all, there are a large number of players who play in germany's sixth or amateur leagues, they come from the campus and echelon youth training system of Japanese football, but the cruel elimination system of professional football makes them unable to get a contract for J-League teams in adulthood, and playing abroad has become the only way for them to continue their football careers, such as Uganda in Africa and the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean.
However, it is an indisputable fact that the number of Japanese players in Europe is increasing.
Not long ago, the Japanese Football Association announced the final list of 18 players in the Olympic Games, with a total of 9 players in Europe selected, which also broke the record of 6 players in Europe at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
At the 2012 London Olympics, Japan, with six european players, reached the semi-finals, and although he lost to South Korea without a medal, he still set the best result in team history. In this Olympic Games, japan' national Olympic Games, which are the host and blessed by nine European players, are shouldering the difficult task of competing for medals.
Building a strong national Olympic team has been the top priority of the Japanese Football Association since the successful tokyo Olympic bid, so after the 2018 World Cup in Russia, they chose Mori Hoichi, who was the national Olympic coach at the time, as the manager of the national team, and the Task given to him by the Japanese Football Association was: Olympic medals and qatar World Cup quarterfinals. As the backbone of the previous generation, such as Keisuke Honda, Shinji Kagawa and Makoto Hasebe, Mori hoichi will choose the next generation core.
After receiving the task, Moriho began to actively select suitable players for the two teams, thanks to the growing strength of Japanese football, even if the Japanese national team continues to have personnel in and out, its performance is still maintained at a relatively stable level, the most significant of which is in 2019, which has played the most games.
In 2019, the Japanese team first finished runners-up at the Asian Cup at the beginning of the year, and then used a completely different set of lineups to train players in the Copa America, and at the end of that year, Morihoichi played in the East Asian Cup with a local lineup in the J League, in addition, they also played 6 international friendly matches and 4 round of 40 matches, a total of 23 games throughout the year, and the players who were selected for the national team, as many as 70 people.
After more than a year of observation, after figuring out the distance between Japan and the world, Moriho knew that if he wanted to win the top eight seats in the World Cup, he still had to rely on foreign players, so in the context of the epidemic in 2020, the Japanese Football Association defied all difficulties and organized 4 warm-up matches in Europe, while the national team list used the "All-Europe" international team for the first time, two international match days, a total of 26 players in Europe.
In 2021, Moriho has largely defined the future axis of the Japanese team, with Takumi Minamino leading the front court, with Endo Hang, who has a firm foothold in Stuttgart in the Bundesliga, and Ken Hiroshi Fuan, a young centre-back of Bologna in serie A, at the back.
On May 28, MoriBoichi once again sacrificed the "All-European Class", defeated Myanmar by 10 goals in the Round of 40, japan advanced to the Round of 12 with the top spot in the group two rounds in advance, the stage goal was successfully completed, the last two rounds of the Round of 40, Mori Hoichi summoned 10 J League players to investigate, and the national Olympic members such as the talented teenagers Kubo Kenei and Anlu Don and three overage internationals such as Maya Yoshida returned to the National Olympic Games for the final sprint run-in.
It can be seen that in the past three years, due to the distraction of the Olympic Games, Mori Baoichi has not really determined the main lineup of the Japanese national team, but when it comes to the round of 12 matches, it should be possible to see the full picture of the "all-European class" Japanese team.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="31" > [the "all-European class" was not built in one day].</h1>
However, the "all-European class" was not built in a day, in fact, Japan's wave of staying in the ocean did not break out until 2010.
At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Honda Keisuke, who started his european career in the Netherlands, carried the banner of Japanese football, 2 goals and 1 assist in the group stage, helping the Japanese team to reach the World Cup knockout round for the first time overseas, in the 1/8 match, they only lost to Paraguay in the penalty shootout.
At that time, Japan's "European travel group" was limited to a few leading figures, including Hidetoshi Nakata, Naoya Takahara, Shunsuke Nakamura, at that time, there were very few Japanese players who could get the favor of European football, but the Japanese team that saw only 4 players in Europe, defeated Cameroon with Eto'o in the World Cup, Denmark with Thomason, and the Netherlands, who lost the World Cup runner-up in a small way, european clubs saw the strength of Japanese players, and the door opened to the Japanese.
After the World Cup in South Africa, striker Shinji Okazaki, defender Yuto Nagatomo, Tatsuto Uchida and others have successively received contracts from European teams to start a career in foreign countries, and since then, Bundesliga giants Such as Dortmund have also come to the J League to dig for young players, and Klopp is Shinji Kagawa. The "golden generation" of Japanese football has lived up to expectations and has successively shined in the European arena, with Keisuke Honda leading CSKA Moscow to the Champions League knockout rounds, Nagatomo Yu standing firm in the starting position of Serie A giants Inter Milan, and Shinji Kagawa winning the half-distance Bundesliga MVP.
When playing international football has a dazzling performance, it proves that Japanese players can stand on European football, more and more European teams are targeting Japanese football, and the Japanese national team has officially entered the era of "Honda Kagawa". At the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Zaccheroni's Japanese national team had 12 players in Europe, accounting for more than 50% of the total; by the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Japan had a total of 15 players in the 23-man roster, and only one J-League player in the starting lineup was Chang Ziyuan.
Nowadays, the Japanese media attention to the European players, has been close to 50, the overall number of up, these players in Europe is no longer like their predecessors, every move in Europe has attracted much attention, only when there is eye-catching performance, can be recognized, and this can also see the fierce competition of the current Japanese national team.
From opening up overseas markets to being recognized, to sending powerful players to stay in the West in large quantities, this road of Japanese football has taken nearly 10 years.