2020/24 Maya Yoshida @ U.C. Sampdoria (ITA)

Ranieri thought that Tonelli hipster dude was a better choice than veteran Yoshida despite Maya performed well against Ronaldo some weeks ago.
Anyway pretty good 2nd half for him, no mistakes in none of the Juventus goals and he even clear by head a dangerous ball.
I hope now Ranieri understood who is the first choice as a CB and why Sampdoria choose to buy him 8 months ago.

 

Really solid performance in the derby.

 

His spoken Italian is so good that the automatic translation of the automatic subtitle is perfectly readable. The Italian comments on youtube seem to be mostly positive as well.

 

Oh, we need some fantasy, so make it happen.

 

First Japanese goal for Sampdoria, since Yanagisawa didn't score in his stint in Genoa.

 

Yoshida was Sampdoria mvp in the match against Juventus.
He did an amazing job vs CR7 and Italian commentators praised him during and after the match.

Now we have 2 solid CBS for JNT that greatly improved in Italy, I hope this will open more chance to see Japanese defenders in Serie A and, why not, a gk too.

 

Maybe Aoh Tanaka (DM), Shunki Higashi(LB) and the likes of Koki Machida and Ayumu Seko (CBs), etc. should consider Serie A if they are moving over to Europe imo.
Serie A plays at a generally slower pace and tempo as compared to EPL and depends more on teamwork over individual flair. Now more players are playing in the likes of Serie A, La Liga and Ligue 1 as compared to primarily Bundesliga 6-8 years ago.

 

It's tough. There are not so many teams with enough patience to let them develop. I still believe Serie A is a better destination for Japanese players only compared to the EPL.

 

True but i believe as long as these players are hardworking enough to try their best to fit in, it should be of no issues. Of course, i don't think any of them can straight away go to Serie A from the J league directly. Maybe a year or 2 in Belgium or Eredivisie, etc. like Tomiyasu, etc. would be advisable, especially for likes of Seko and Higashi, etc.
They are slightly younger compared to the others and can afford to spend maybe 2 seasons or so in the lower leagues before making a move to Serie A and Ligue 1, etc.

 

Best interview ever.
This is the first time I heard a japanese player in Italy talk about how japanese players and especially defenders are undervalued in Serie A only cuz of their nationality.
The fact that he talk firmly and quietly about it, elevates him to an upper level, just as he had said: "You thought that idiocy, I showed you that you were wrong".
He seems an intelligent dude, I've never seen him from this point of view.
Kudos to you Maya, keep hard working in Genova for you and the whole japanese football movement.

 

Yes that was not good news.

 

Fiorentina is fighting in the relegation brawl every season, this can be a step down or on the contrary Gattuso will make them hit the european cups and this will be an improvement.
Anyway whatever Yoshida will choose I hope it will convince other clubs to bet on japanese defenders in the near future.

 

Acording do italian media, Yoshida could go to Cagliari in a switch move with Giovanni Simeone (Diego Simeone's son): https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sampnews24.com/sampdoria-calciomercato-futuro-yoshida/amp/

 

That is a step down..

 

But japanese managers also do that to japanese players, they think players of African descent are better than the japanese, just look at Musashi Suzuki being called to the JNT even though Yuma Suzuki had a much better season than him, or Zion Suzuki being called to the Olympic team, while Wakahara and Go Hatano weren't, even though they are better GKs, and so many other examples in youth representatives. If Taichi Hara and Kanya Fujimoto were of African descent, they would probably have already been called to the Olympic team.

In order to end this prejudice, the japanese players will have to prove they can be great players. In baseball, they have conquered respect, so it's possible to do that in football as well.

 

I don't see Gio Simeone, a former Genoa player, switching to Sampdoria so easily.

 

This makes very little sense. Musashi was last called up in the fall while he was in better form than Yuma at the time; this situation reversed itself, but now Musashi is out of the national team picture while most observers believe that Yuma has been excluded on account of him lashing out at Moriyasu on Twitter. With respect to Zion, he is the 4th GK in the Olympic pool at this moment as an 18 year old with the biggest future potential in the pool (this is a consensus view, not Moriyasu's) who has also impressed after beating out Nishikawa at club level. At any rate I have not seen anyone seriously suggest Hatano as a top candidate for the Olympics based on his performances this year, and he also was knocked out of the Tokyo lineup for a spell due to a disciplinary issue. Are you also going to posit that calling up Ado Onaiwu is a case of cultural genocide and a grave threat to the sacred racial purity of the nation?

 

No lol - racial purity that's an absurd. Stereotyping is overwhelming common in humans, we evolved that way, so it's natural that japanese players have to face that in football, and to overcome this, they will have to improve even further. Fortunately, the japanese players have a good mentality, compared to let's say the South Koreans: While the South Koreans usually go to weaker leagues like the Chinese and the leagues of the arab countries, the japanese players tend to prefer remaining in Europe to learn the maximum they can. Yoshida is such a case, when he was at Southampton, he refused a big money Saudi Arabian offer, instead he went to Italy and has since learned a lot in the tactical point of view. Going to Cagliari is not a bad move IMO, but if goes to other league, such as La Liga, it would be even better cause he could learn a new football culture/style.

 

Are you stupid... lol