Kento #Shiogai is a Wolf! 🐺🇯🇵The 20-year-old striker joins #VfLWolfsburg from NEC Nijmegen on a contract running through 2️⃣0️⃣3️⃣0️⃣. He will wear the No. 7️⃣ jersey. ✍️Read more ➡️ https://t.co/QhbIxKCVRa pic.twitter.com/OU7zuVG2zV— VfL Wolfsburg EN/US 🇬🇧 🇺🇸 (@VfLWolfsburg_EN) January 20, 2026 10 million fee
For me to early but nonetheless I am very excited. He is the best / most effective "joker" of Europe at the moment. That's a word when you ask me. Let's see how he will settle in.
Yeah but he played good. 2-3 very nice moments when he dribble out 1-2 players, win the ball back and made some great runs which would be a easy tap in of the teammate would pass to him + that he has a good chance close to the end but keeper saves it, the angle with right, hard to score. But lively debut.
Not a very impressive performance, but generally still ok overall. Subbed off in 64th minutes, Dortmund subsequently scored in 87th Minute. Seems like his teammates are Not passing to him alot.
New team and a bad one also ^^, with a bad form. He was not hat good yesterday but he was playing out of position, don't think the is a No. 10. I am still convinced he should have stayed in Nijmegen. But let's see.
Bundesliga is a stronger league than Dutch League in my opinion. He wanted to take risks because he wanted to have a stronger chances to play in the upcoming WC. Honestly even Shuto Machino is a bench option in his club now. Keisuke Goto and him are complementary, as theh both excelled in different areas.
Or course Bundesliga ist higher but he was such on fire in a crazy in form club. Stay and go into the Champions League with Nijmegen, score around 15 goals and go to the WC as a super joker. Next season you can go to the Bundesliga. But of course I understand his thought. But Wolfsburg is risky. Wouldn't be surprised if he scored only 1-2 goals till WC.
I like Shiogai's ambition though. Him, Goto and Kosugi are 3 young players who are moving their careers quickly. Which is what is required for Japan to produce top talent.
Think so too but he played in the left wing today. I don't like to experiment with players on others positions, from game to game even worse, in a new club, in a new league. Let him play as a striker where he was supposed to play at Nijmegen.
I feel like managers sometimes do things like this when they want a player to play but they don't fully trust them in their intended position. For example Yoshida in his early days at Southampton played right back instead of centre back. It's early days and perhaps the manager isn't sure about trusting Shiogai as a striker yet as this is a crucial position compared to left wing.
Yeah that's one reason of course but I don't like the idea to buy players when you don't need them or trust them. It's not that Shiogai plays bad but you clearly see that they and he also don't have a real idea how to play him + the team is not full of confidence the last years. They have ambitions but no clear plan. And winger is from player type to player type a totally different position. Many players can't fill that position goodly. Don't think that is a good move and will cost him the WC at the end. Hope I am wrong. But imagine him at Nijmegen and score around 20 goals at the end of the season and then JNT have a Goto and Ueda who fight for the starting spot and a Shogai as a super joker. That would be deadly.
Yeah think so too. He is very good at that. Has also another huge good chance to make it 3 - 1 but the keeper saved it and at the end Wolfsburg managed at somehow to lose from 2-1 close before the game ends, 2-3.
He surprisingly has good pace, his goal was when he accelerated and then scored it from a not-easy angle. He has poacher instincts too. Goto and him can play together imo. Goto as the target man and him as the second-striker.
Yeah it was a very nice build up play from Wolfsburg and Shiogai, would be so cool if he managed to make the 3-1 only a few minutes later to finish the game but nonetheless a good game and good start to settle in at Wolfsburg.