2019/24 Shoya Nakajima @ FC Porto (POR)

Porto won the Portuguese league title.

First ever league title for Nakajima. Congratulations.

 

With Nakajima winning the Portugese league title, Japanese players won 9 out of the top 12 league titles in Europe:

England - Germany - Italy - Portugal - Russia - Belgium - Turkey - Austria - Switzerland.

No Japanese so far won the league title in Spain, France, or Ukraine.

Another notable European league that Japanese players didn't won is the Netherlands league.

Japanese players also won league titles in: Scotland - Serbia - Romania - Finland.

 

Yes, but it was not a league title.

Remarkably, Ono's winning the UEFA Cup title is the only time a Japanese player won a European continental championship so far.

It is fascinating how far Japanese football has developed in the last 20-25 years.

They won every continental title at every level; Asian Cup (3 times), Asian Games' gold medals, U-23, U-19, and U-16 championships.
We can add to the list club titles at AFC Champions League, Asian Club Championship, Asian Cup Winners' Cup, and Asian Super Cup.

Internationally, they finished runners-up in FIFA's confederations cup, and in U-20 World Cup, qualified to every World Cup in this period (6 editions), while reaching the R16 in 3 out of these 6 occasions (no other Asian team qualified to the knockout stages more than twice). Japan also reached the Olympic Games semifinals in 2012.

At players' in Europe level, they won league titles in 9 out the top 12 European leagues (no European nations' players done such an accomplishment), including both Germany and England (three times or more each) and once in Italy, in addition to the UEFA Cup.
At one point in the 2019/2020 season Japan had 50 players playing in European top leagues/top countries, an accomplishment no Asian nation has ever achieved, even now Japan has 40+ players in European top leagues/countries.

To think of how far Japanese football has developed in this short period of time is quite dazzling.

No country in the World has reached similar develpoment to Japan's at every level in this short period of time. Well, we might execlude the likes of Croatia, Turkey, and USA for example, but they didn't manage to achieve it at every level, in addition of Croatia being a part of former Yugoslavia, which was already a recognisable nation in European football.

 

Spain's La Liga (top division) will fit him perfectly.

 

According to the translation of the following article, Porto do not want him to stay, but they want to get the amount of money they paid for him back. Which means they will not let him go for free or for a couple of million euros.

https://www.abola.pt/amp/noticias/ver/854500

 

I think Qatari money laundering had a hand on his transfer to Porto, and they can have a hand again to get him out of Porto to save their investment and collateral relations with the Portugese club. Nakajima might join PSG, and then loaned out to another French club (if they think he is not good enough to play at PSG).

If Qataris won't involve and no interested buyer came for Nakajima, then Porto can send him to another club on-loan to increase his market-value and sell him next summer.