btw it flew under the radar but Jubilo Iwata have signed Riki Kitawaki, the japanese guy with a venezualian mother. He was playing for Paraguay's Tacuary.
http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/soccer/japan/news/20120425-OHT1T00293.htm Hiroki Sakai has 8 offers, mainly from Bundesliga. Only BVB and H96 are mentioned here.
http://www.nikkansports.com/soccer/news/p-sc-tp1-20120426-940306.html H.Sakai starting to negotiate with Hannover. Probably declining Dortmund.
I don't know why you're against him moving to Hannover. The squad is good, this year they reached 1/4 of EL and before they were 4th in 2010-2011. Better going to Hannover and playing than going in Dortmund and not playing.
now THAT wouldn't be exciting anyway, same for me. I just want him to play, yes I would have loved to see him at Dortmund because with the CL+Cup+League he would have got playtime, but I'm sure he has his good reasons.
On a serious note, I think Hannover is one of maybe 3, 4 clubs in Germany who have a healthy policy relying on young and coming players mostly, not stars *in combination with* a competent coach, whose work has already been bearing fruits and is establishing the club at above midtable-level, plus their fanbase is not too demanding. Re: why doesn't he go to some other country? It's interesting that there are 9 Japanese in Germany out of whom 5, 6 are producing consistent performances (which is a good rate comparing even to Brazilian footballers), and still the only players seemingly talked about at clubs of other major European leagues are Kagawa and Honda, and not players who are still to be 'discovered' by Europe. Tells me a lot about their scouting (or maybe the requirement of their 'scouted' players to have crowd-pleasing names).
http://web.gekisaka.jp/?u=/index.fcgi?twm=v&menu=fl&guid=ON&key=Xxp0myW8&twi=98951 Vissel Youth's Takuya Iwanami (U17 NT centerback) received an offer from PSV.
If Iwanami can be patient, he's an inury/suspension away from playing for the Vissel first team. I think I've seen his name a few times on the bench, pretty impressive for a centre back still going to high school.
http://www.spox.com/de/sport/fussba...-bader-bereits-vorvertrag-unterschrieben.html Kiyotake already signed a provisionary contract according to Nürnberg's SD.
Seriously ... Not just France ... But that's just boring. Next what Frankfurt, Berlin ? Do we have a guy in Karsluhe ? Quick we need a japanese there. Hannover makes the same effect as Sienna, Nancy or Birmingham City : nothing. But good for him. Iwanami will be tested by PSV let's see how it works, if he gets a contract there and play with the first team nobody will regret it.
Instead of blaming the players why aren't you putting the blame on the clubs? It seems like the Germans clubs are the only ones who are actually pursuing J-League players seriously. We've heard about "interest" from non-German clubs, but we haven't seen any activity. It's always the German clubs who are the ones to act and not the Italian, Spanish, etc clubs. The fact is that the Germans have gotten over the prejudice for Japanese players and have embraced the wild idea that "hey, Japanese players might actually be good". Unfortunately there is still this silly belief in other countries that Japanese players aren't good or are for "marketing" purposes. Whenever a Japanese player is linked with a non-German club, you see the typical response from their fans. "Oh he's not very good, but they probably want him for marketing purposes" or "He's Asian so he can't compete in this league". Until this prejudice is eliminated from other countries, Germany will be the premier destination for all Japanese players.
oh guys ... It was just a rant, kinda like why is this raining today. I'm well aware of it. Still hoped Sakai would end up elsewhere and I like the guy too much to be excited by a transfer to Hannover even though it's a good club as sc-f said.
I think that an advantage of going to the Eredivise is that their clubs are much more inclined to play young players. Of course, Iwanami would not be in the first team if he was to sign a contract, but I think that in terms of youth development, the Eredivise may be the best league in Europe to go to.
http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/soccer/jleague/news/20120427-OHT1T00230.htm Iwanami will be going to PSV at the beginning of May and trial for a week. Then they'll decide whether or not to sign him.
I hope Nishino comes back, the league needs someone like him, but not sure of Vissel is the right destination. One of the hardest teams to predict every week.
Ueda looks to be joining Frontale. Can't believe that they resorted to using Inamoto at CB last match.
They really didn't have to, the formation was so weird with the old Ito as a side back and Yusuke Tanaka as a volante ... wtf. It felt like Kazama never watched Frontale before ... Anyway that's a good place for his development, they're loaded with CB (Jeci, Morishita, Igawa, Ito) but nobody has been convicing enough so far.