All football fans know that international players always add a certain mix to the game. While many other continents enjoy the prestige of raising sought-after players. The country that is synonymous with anime and sushi, tends to be forgotten. As 2020 stole Japan’s spotlight, we decided to give some of its football players a chance to shine on this football stage. Here are some of Japan’s most south-after players who are giving Europe teams a bit more sake fire in the belly of the game.
Takumi Minamino
Takumi Minamino is an attacking midfielder for Premier League club Liverpool who joined Liverpool on the first day of 2020 after five seasons of success in Austria with Red Bull Salzburg.
He was also part of Japan’s runners-up team at 2019’s AFC Asian Cup. The 25-year-old Japanese star is a right-footed professional player who currently has great rankings that marks his competency in the world of soccer.
Takumi Minamino made his debut with Liverpool’s 1-0 win against Everton in the FA cup on January 5, 2020, and made his Premier League debut against Wolverhampton Wanderers on January 23, 2020. One of his best performances in 2020 is when he came as a substitute, replacing Neco Williams in the 2020 FA community shield on August 29 against Arsenal where he scored his first-ever equalizer goal for Liverpool at the 73rd minute and earned a match rating of 7.2 for his exceptional performance.
In total, Minamino made 14 appearances during his first season as a Red and claimed a Premier League winner’s medal. His skill and recognition have seen many a punter clamour to find sportsbooks on betting comparison sites like www.bet.xyz to see if they can place a bet or two on this talent.
Takefusa Kubo
Takefusa Kubo is a Japanese professional football player who plays as a winger for Real Madrid. He is a highly talented player with the ability to dribble with the ball with ease. While on the ground, he poses a real threat to the opposition.
Takefusa Kubo is a 19-year-old Japanese star who started his career with a local club in Kawasaki and has been involved with Japan national teams from the age of 15. He also made his place in the Japan U-20 national team for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Playing for FC Barcelona and FC Tokyo, he became the youngest player to score in the Junior League at the age of 15.
In 2019, Kubo signed with Spanish club Real Madrid on a five-year deal. He joined RCD Mallorca in the same year. He holds the record for being the youngest Japanese football player to play for the top four European leagues.
His first goal was against Villarreal in a 3–1 victory in November 2019 and the second goal was in a drawn game against Real Betis in Feb 2020, and third was against SD Eibar. Since then, he is playing to his best abilities. This rising star of Japan is also now a part of UEFA LA LIGA team.
Hiroki Abe
The Japanese professional left winger who plays for Spanish club FC Barcelona B is a 21-year-old footballer. He joined Barcelona on a four-year contract in summer 2019. He was made part of Barcelona with the reported transfer fees of 1.1 million euros.
Before that, he played for Kashima Antlers where he made 79 appearances in two and a half seasons and scored 10 goals along with providing seven assists. He was part of the Super Cup Champion and Asian Champions League winning team with Kashima Antlers. The young right-footed Japanese star was honoured as the best young player in the J-League in 2018.
Hiroki Abe scored his first goal against UE Cornella in November 2019 for Barcelona B that ended in a 3-3 drawn game. Later he scored his first brace for Barcelona B that the team won by a score of 3-1 against CF La Nucía on December 15 2019.
Hiroki Abe is very talented and who plays as the left-winger but can play on the right, behind the striker, and in a centre forward position. He has scored goals from all these positions for Barcelona.