Wich players are the upcoming stars of Japanese soccer ? I only know Sota Hirayama of Heracles, but some of you watch J-League so please write them down. Name, age, club.
Robert Cullen - Jubilo Iwata - 20 years - FW Cullen was a Member of U-20 WC in Netherlands last year and he is the J. league rookie of the year 2005. He'll becoming big i think
The one that really jumps out at me right now is Makoto Hasebe 21 Urawa Reds MF.....if you saw the game yesterday, you'd understand. Zico called him up for the US friendly Daigo Kobayashi of Tokyo Verdy is one to watch too.......23 next year plays midfield......had 3 goals and 11 assists. If he gets a chance to perform in the ACL and leads Verdy back into J1, he could get some National team mention for 2010. Takayuki Morimoto of TV 69 is also a riser, though he got lost in the shuffle this year.....started playing J1 at 15.......he turns 18 next May. It's too early to call him a flop but a couple more years like last year and he'll be floating around the Consadole Sapporos and Mito Hollyhocks for the rest of his career. He's a forward. I see him getting 8 or 9 goals next year in the lower level.
HASEBE IS HOT!!!!!!!!!!, well apart from his cute looks he is talented really, a great footballer, he played well in the Vodafone tournament 2005 in the summer i think...was it him who took snipped the ball off C Ronaldo
Thanks for the names. Morimoto is really interesting considering his young age, i saw him in the Toulon tournament 2 years ago, great.
Koki Mizuno - JEF United Chiba - 20 years - MF He was also a Member of U-20 WC. He is very talented in MF and maybe one of future superstars in japanese football.
I like a pair of Cullen and Maeda. I watched Maeda's goal against Bayern Munich live and liked it very much!!! Hopefully, Hasebe will impress us all in the Emperor's Cup final tomorrow...
Yeah, Bayern, Manchester, Real Madrid and Fiorentina came in and played some matches at the end of July and start of August. Bayern's comments after the game were less than generous about the J-league if I remember correctly. Sort of arrogant. Let me track them down I can't find any news stories on them so I'm going to retract my statement about Bayern until I find some proof.
Yeah, Fiorintina and Bolton were the only clubs that showed some sort of respect to the Japanese public/players/clubs. I remember Fiorentina paid there respects at the Hiroshima Peace Park Man U and Real Madrid should be ashamed of themselves. Not so sure what Bayern said though. Infact Barcalona aswell were great in showing respect to the Japanese
Yuya Osako, 18 years old - FW - Kashima Antlers - Set a all Japan high school tournament scoring record with 10 goals in 2009 - 182cm, 70kg - Coach Okada wanted him at the U-20 NT training camp, if he were not busy at the high school tournament. He maybe no Morimoto but has the potential to make things happen in the J. League, and who knows after that?