[READ THE FIRST POST] The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

Which team you play in serie d? Is it a tough league or are you a class of your own there? Do you get paid in there?

 

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

I probably get the video ready on next week, latest at the week after that, depending on how much stuff the editor has going on. There will be highlights of at least one game and some other stuff, what do you think i should but for an add? Shooting skills? heading skills? Technique?

 

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

I'll do my best

 

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

janka like i said i play for a team here in genoa, im by no means in a class of my own here but im the type of player that works hard and gets the job done. with my work rate i believe i will be sucessful one day in football. as for teh money here in italy it really depends. i have a friend who played serie d for a couple of years and just now was bought by a team in serie b. hes an 86 and last year savona in serie d offered him 90,000 euro for the season. thats a lot for a fourth division team. also can someone tell me about teh salaries in japan. j1 j2 and is there like a 3rd division?

 

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

what team??

 

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

There are 5 levels of Japanese soccer that actively seek talent. Only the top 2 levels have the chance to offer a reasonable salary. The starting salary for club top team members is 1600 dollars per month. This goes up with skill shown or time played.

 

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

How about in J1? what is the "basic" salary in the mid-table team?

 

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

The "basic" salary in ANY club starts at that amount. That amount should be expected for any player starting out as an applicant as opposed to a recruit.

 

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

Okay, thanks.. is it possible that the team pays you something, like the rent or how does it work?

 

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

Some teams, Mito included, provide dormitory rooms for interested players. Some also provide a connection to a place to do part time work. That'd be it.

Again, I want to make it VERY clear, unless you are wanted to play on a team by the club MORE than you want to play for them, you WILL have a fairly poor lifestyle in Japan. If actually playing in matches and seen as an asset, you could move up, but you should realistically expect to be paid significantly less than almost any foreigner in Japan... which is the same amount as any entry level employee at any Japanese company.

 

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

Okay, thanks for your info. Let's see how thing goes on

 

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

Hello all!
First, Goru_no_ura, thank you for pointing me in the right direction! I have reviewed the entire thread and I am left with few questions: The info was very detailed, thanks all.

Will you please let me know, if you get a moment, when the next open tryout dates/locations would be? I reviewed the information from this link (http://www.j-leaguers.net/english/tryouts.html) posted earlier in the thread but I did not find any specifics. I'd appreciate any info if you come across it. At some point in time my grandpa and I will be traveling to Japan to return the ashes of my grandma but I don't know when that is. But If I could get some club information for when I go maybe I could do something a little more personal with them (if they had some knowledge of my arrival)?

Though I am American, could being part Japanese (25%) serve as any significance towards my selection in a tryout? I am confident my skills could be at a JL2 or JL1 level but I'm mostly just curious to your opinions on that.

In regards to salary, it is understandable. Besides, living in Japan would be very rewarding and to be paid minimum salary with room/board would be enough if all it required were playing soccer. Increasing pay would be something I see that would come with time/performance as previously stated in other thread replies. However, I am not in it just for the money, I'm in it to play professional soccer in a beautiful land where the impact is appreciated and positive.

Finally, I will work to get some good footage on to a DVD(NTSC). If I do so, would you mind taking a look at it?

Thanks for your time and feedback in advance.

 

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

There are a lot of carts before the horses here. It's better to go in steps.

First, the open tryouts are only for people with playing experience in Japanese clubs, not even university players. Individual clubs with tryouts will select maybe one person every five years on average. And anyone here with club access will at the very best be able to pass it on to someone in charge, and it would take someone absolutely spectacular to deal with the effort a club would have to put in to bring in someone outside the system.

Making this very clear, that one of the following 3 conditions must apply to you before you can attain any kind of position playing professional soccer in Japan:

1) You have professional representation who actively pursue established contacts with Japanese clubs
2) You play with a club abroad that is actively scouted by Japanese clubs or otherwise are internationally famous
3) You already play in Japan for a non-pro club (or perhaps high school or university) and are the standout player in a successful season, or are selected in that league's top 11

If none of these 3 apply to you, you cannot expect the slimmest chance of playing on a pro Japanese club. Your Japanese heritage or language level, your attitude and drive, and even your actual skill mean nothing.

The idea of just hitting an open tryout and landing a club or making a DVD to get in is just not realistic. It's like someone KNOWING that he the ability to do heart surgery from reading a medical book and watching a TLC documentary. Could he somehow do a great job, and save a life? Sure! Would anyone trust him and PAY him to perform the surgery over an experienced doctor who went to medical school and has followed the standard path? Nope!

Please don't give up on your dream, but please understand that it takes a LOT MORE WORK than what you are likely willing to go through. Don't look through any back doors; work to get yourself some real representation instead of random guys on a message board.

 

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

Vendo thefastlane,
Thank you for the swift reply and the in depth insight! I don't know that I can afford any representation but I'm going to look in to it as I now see it is and integral step in the process. I'm going to take it slow because I want to see what these upcoming MLS tryouts will yield.

I don't plan on giving up. I'm going to work and earn what my Kashima Antlers jersey says on it: Football Dream.

Thanks again.

 

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

Being part Japanese is meaningless. If you were a citizen, then it would have an impact but if you are not (and indeed, not even from an AFC country) then you have to get in line with the likes of Juninho, Marquinhos and Edmilson.

If you have never played professionally before than you have ZERO chance of playing in the J.League. Get that through your head. ZERO. Sorry to be harsh but you need to hear it. You WILL NOT get any offers. Even former pros from "unfashionable" countries cant get a J.League team to look at them unless they are :

1) from a club that has scouting ties to the team, or
2) former NT or youth NT members.

That applies even to J2 clubs but is ESPECIALLY true in the J1. I personally helped a scout from Australia approach several J.League clubs a few years ago and they refused to even accept the DVDs we were holding out to them and begging them to accept. And these were videos of guys who had 3-5 years of pro experience under their belts. Repeatedly and insistently we were told "If he isnt a former NT or youth NT player then we are NOT interested"
. . . and this for former pros who had a licensed agent representing them.

Get this through your head, kid. THERE IS NO SHORTCUT!

If you want to play in the J.League, first you need to join an MLS club. Then you need to win a starting spot. Then you need to get 2-3 seasons of first team action under your belt. And THEN . . . . . only THEN . . . your agent might be able to convince a bottom-end J2 club to take a look at you (but only at your expense in flying to Japan and trying out). If you fail to make the first team in MLS, then thats the end of the road. You arent good enough to play in Japan and you just have to accept it.

Ive been fielding this question for over ten years and in all that time (dealing with dozens if not hundreds of kids far more experienced and talented than you), not ONE of those individuals has ever even managed to make the bottom end of Mito Hollyhock's bench. Essentially, if you want to play in Japan, you need to be good enough to play in Europe. Thats the way it is. You can refuse to listen and call me a troll, if thats what you want, but Im telling you this for your own good. Stop wasting your time, and turn your energy towards finding a team in the US.

 

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

Couldnt be worse than Botti

But every year a few people will start threads with ridiculous and unrealistic dreams of jumping on a plane and being signed by a j league club before lunch.

As the above posters say, if you're not good enough to be already playing in your own country or have representation then forget about it.

These dreamers naivety is bordering on lunacy

 

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

Arte Takasaki would have been a stronger example and hurt less

 

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

Thanks all!

 

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

I just got to thinking; would it be an idea to expand on this subject and discuss what might be required to play in the lower tiers of Japanese football?

Because these teams are semi-professional at best and therefore you wouldn't get paid a lot (or, in many cases, at all), so you would be needing a proper job to pay the bills. The visa issue also comes into play as far as I'm aware, since sports is under the "Entertainment" category, so those coming over as teachers and engineers... well, I'm fairly sure they wouldn't be able to participate (unless it was a team under their company, i.e. the Honda and TDK teams). If you can get one of those non-specific visas (long-term residency, spouse, et cetera), then it doesn't really matter.

Do the governing bodies put any restrictions on non-citizens playing for any non-professional tiers? I've never seen anything about it, but I'm interested to know.


PS: What I've posted clearly isn't gospel and shouldn't be regarded as such. Happy to be corrected in any instance.

 

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

If you are playing non-professionally for a non-professional team, then what you are doing is not your profession. (I know . . . the logical brilliance of that statement is pretty amazing isnt it. )

Your visa status only governs what you can do professionally. It has no bearing on what you do in your spare time. So I dont see what it has to do with playing for a non-professional team.

 

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

Well, Matsu, the point of the proposed discussion lies not in the visa field.

The point is, while the requirements to play in J. League are really high, the level of football in JFL or regional leagues is much lower so if a person is obsessed to "play in Japan" he probably can do it on the bottom tier. But how hard could it be to a foreigner of an uncertain skill to join the "non-league" team and to make it even to the JFL?

Obviously we leave alone the J. League members like Gainare where requirements are rather of J2 level and corporate teams where you have to be an employee of Honda or Sagawa Express, but what about clubs like Arte Takasaki or MIO Biwako or Yokogawa Musashino? And, of course, various regional clubs are fine, too.

 

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

artml's on the money.

Obviously, but does the same fit into the semi-professional category of sports? It is, essentially, a part-time job.

 

Re: The "I want to tryout for a Japanese Team" Thread

Thanks.
Its a good thing that youre so much better at reading BassOr's mind and figuring out what he wants to discuss than I am. Silly me, I was sitting there thinking that when he devoted a whole paragraph to discussing what visa a person comes to Japan on, he was actually interested in discussing visa issues. Thanks for setting me straight.　

God forbit that I make the same mistake again, so I just want to verify something. When you say ...

. . . does that mean you are asking how hard it is to join a team that is on the "bottom tier"? I certainly dont want to discuss anything other than the "proposed discussion", so I thought Id clarify that first.

The "bottom tier", incidentally, refers to the lowest level Prefectural league, in which case the requirements are relatively modest. It varies from place to place but usually the requirements are that you have a team name, at least eleven players, and can afford to buy uniforms for all of your players so that referees can distinguish you from opposing teams.

Basically the point Im trying to make is that if you want to play football in Japan and dont care about getting paid, all it takes is a bit of effort on your part, to either find a group in your area that wants you, or to form your own team if thats what you prefer. Again, each prefecture has its own rules, but at any level below JFL, the rules on number of foreign players are usually so weak as to be almost meaningless, and I even know of teams that are made entirely of foreigners. If all you want to do is play football, quit wasting your time on a message board, go out to the nearest park, and ask around.

This thread, though, was not created by people who are looking for that sort of amateur activity, but rather, people who think theyre good enough to get paid for playing. Those people need to turn their focus to playing in their own country and stop dreaming about Japan. People who just want to play for fun dont need a thread on BigSoccer to help them out. If they just take the time to ask around their neighborhood Im sure theyll find a team.