A few years ago, someone on this website predicted Hiroshi Kiyotake and Hirko Sakai are ready for Europe and will likely play there in the the future. Can you please share your knowledge with me. Which players in the Japnese league are European quality and are likely to play in europe? I heard Takuya Iwanami will sign for PSV? Anyone else likely to play in europe or ready for Europe?
loads of players are ready for Europe. So questions are different 1. Which league? 2. Which club? 3. Would it really be good for them? I can start naming them like there is no tomorrow but like I said it all depends on the above question. Am I naming players for Latvian league? Belgian? German Bundesliga? Premier League? Am I naming them for Blackpool or for Chelsea? If you catch my drift... So I would rephrase the question. Which J-League players are ready for top 5 leagues in Europe? Who could make it into big clubs... 1. Takashi Usami is technically still a player of Gamba Osaka on loan to Hoffenheim so him for starters... 2. Takahiro Ogihara from Cerezo Osaka is already linked with number of clubs in Europe and I think he could do well there 3. Hotaru Yamaguchi, his partner in Cerezo Osaka midfield is also on that list 4. In attack Cerezo Osaka atm has a player which could imo become a superstar even in Europe in Yoichiro Kakitani 5. Albirex Niigata has a central defender who is young yet shows so much maturity that I would want to see him in the national team. Daisuke Suzuki 6. Omiya Ardija has Keigo Higashi who I personally don't find to my liking but he could easily make it in some weaker Eredivisie side and make his way up 7. In Vissel Kobe, Keijiro Ogawa is also linked with some big European clubs already. Just rumors or not, the kid has the potential 8. Kashima Antlers has our own Saku's favorite Yuya Osako in attack. Can hold the ball well, technically good atm just lacks that killer instinct. Who knows someday perhaps in Europe... 9. Kashima Antlers also has a guy Yasuhito Endo has named as his successor in Gaku Shibasaki. For me one of the best midfielders in J-League and at so young age... 10. FC Tokyo has a goalkeeper which still has some way to go but if someone puts a trust in him he could make it. Shuchi Gonda 11. Yokohama F. Marinos has some talented footballers as well Manabu Saito 12. or Yuji Ono of Yokohama F. Marinos 13. Loads are in love with Kensuke Nagai after the Olympics. Nagoya Grampus man is lightning fast and a true worker/fighter on the pitch... 14. Kashiwa Reysol has the likes of Junya Tanaka 15. In Jubilo Iwata for me one of the best players in the league. Hiroki Yamada the captain of the team 16. In Jubilo's attack was for me one of the most interesting forwards in J-League Hidetaka Kanazono 17. Shimizu S-Pulse has loads of young boys...some day Hideki Ishige can make it...still too young though 18. While Ishige matures Genki Omae is imo more than ready... 19. Tashiyuki Takagi from Shimizu S-Pulse is a great player as well 20. In Urawa Reds I really like Yosuke Kashiwagi 21. And I love Genki Haraguchi... 22. Who knows in what shap once named a future prodigy Naoki Yamada will return 23. I like a guy named Kohei Shimizu in Sanfrecce Hiroshima I mean I have named loads already and I could probably named them to about 50 or more...Some of those guys above I think have the potential to reach the very top of this game
q1)which teams are interested in Hotaru Yamaguchi. I searched and couldnt find q2) kakitani is AMAZING !!
q3) Ogawa is linked with Udinese in Parma, how likely is it do you think those teams will take him? q4) which other players are linked with european teams?
comment) shibasaki seems ok not sure if he is EU quality comment) from this video Saito seems to find it difficult to score goals comment) ono is good, reminds me of Tadanari Lee. I think Ono is ready for europe comment) Tanaka is good, is ready for Europe
comment) Hiroki Yamada has to play in europe. I think his ready. q5) are any european teams interested in him?
q7) Takagi is good Are there any european teams interested in him? q8) any european teams interested in Genki Haraguchi and Naoki Yamada??
Pretty interesting thread. It will be nice to see which of these talented player will reach Kagawa level or lower. But.. Try to cut some names and continue the discussion with only the names that have concrete possibility to be real protagonists of a possible future season in Europe or this will be a too dispersive topic.
As of right now (2012), I would say these guys can play in the Spanish, Italian, German, and Dutch leagues (and all leagues which are less competitive than them leagues): 1. Yoichiro Kakitani (age 22) 2. Yuji Ono (20) 3. Junya Tanaka (25) 4. Keijiro Ogawa (20) 5. Hiroki Yamada (23) 6. Toshiyuki Takagi (21) 7. Genki Haraguchi (21) and possibly: 8. Naoki Yamada (22) Update: 9. Takuma Abe (24) I would say only these ones can make it in the English Premier League: 1. Yoichiro Kakitani (age 22) 2. Toshiyuki Takagi (21) 3. Junya Tanaka (25) See videos.
None of those three is even close to EPL quality (Kakitani..... maybe some day. The other two... ). Dont trust highlight videos, which only show the few plays that look flashy. Players who put on flashy moves are often useless, because for every successful video-reel-worthy play, they have ten times when they end up looking foolish. You will find far greater consistency and talent from some of the guys you didnt even select (Shibasaki, Suzuki, Yutaka Yoshida, Yasushi Endo...) who are all ten times more consistent than the above three. Highlight reels are ridiculously misleading Heck, even Aki Nishizawa was able to put together a highlight reel that "somebody" thought was EPL quality. Just look how that worked out . . . .
Junya Tanaka this year hasn't exactly been good. Also, it's hard to answer the topic. There a are lots of players who could play well in Europe but it depends to where. Every league is different and so is every player of course Saito could play dribble anywhere
Not only that, but every player reacts in a different way to the challenge of living in a new culture, and the pressure of being asked to step up a level. Until they actually go, it is almost impossible to predict what will happen. There are a few players who you sense will have the inner strength and adaptability to make it anywhere. I think everyone expected that from Kagawa, and most people felt that way about Usami and Uchida. But there were many people who questioned whether Honda could adapt (myself included, to be honest). As it turned out, the pressure of a new environment actually made him better, and more complete. That was true of Matsui as well. Then there are others who seem to have every physical and technical skill it takes to succeed but simply arent strong enough emotionally or mentally. Look what happened to Hirayama, who scored twice on his Eredivisie debut, and seemed to be on his way to stardom, but now has fallen off the planet completely. Then there are players with skill and adaptability but they end up in the wrong team at the wrong time, and their career gets derailed (like Morimoto or even worse, Inoha), or who try to make the move before they are ready, and come back confused and with a big loss of confidence (Sho Ito, Umesaki, Makino...). The truth is that there are at least 100 players in the J.League who "could" be a success in Europe. But I suspect that if you gave all 100 the chance, the 50 who did succeed would not be the ones everyone expected to succeed (and vice versa), just because there are so many factors in "success" that dont depend on just technical skills and quality.
Some names that haven't been mentioned : Hideto Takahashi, Yohei Otake (FC Tokyo) , Mu Kanazaki, Jungo Fujimoto (Nagoya Grampus), Yasushi Endo (Kashima Antlers). Quality players, some of them are NT material.
He doesn't perform for the NT but he's a good player. This thread is more stupid than coming up with teams Honda may or may not be good with. As Matsu said, there's a ton of japanese players that have the ability to succeed somewhere in europe.
Obviously we are interested in footballers who can play in a near future in one of the top European leagues like EPL, Bundesliga, SerieA and maybe la Liga.
Anyway, i thought about something the other day: Ligue 1 could be a good jump for our player, but after Matusi nobody had a chance around those parts.
Actually Bundesliga clubs are searching for the next Kagawa since 2010 than the best place is Germany. Imo Eredivisie can be the right starting point before tougher leagues like it was for Honda.
Hi , I am pretty new on here and not sure how to start new thread ,the reason for contact is ,I am thinking of sending my son to a high school called Seiritsu in Tokyo ,has it got a good reputation as a football high school? Any advise would be welcome Thanks
I gave a quick look to the school's Wikipedia article, it looks like they take sports pretty seriously, and while they haven't played in the nationwide boys' High School championship for a few years (last appearance was in 2005), they have been competitive elsewhere (Koshien and the girls' team). Also, Jubilo Iwata's Satoshi Yamaguchi and VVV Venlo's Yuki Otsu went to school here. I'm only basing this on stats though, someone from Japan should be able to give you more information than me. (assuming there is people living in Tokyo on this board... I don't really know). EDIT: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/成立学園高等学校 this is the article, btw.