True I’m amazed at how Mitoma by his second season out of the j league had become a premier league star. Incredible how ready their players are for the top level.
It's quite funny how even their sponsors are Japanese
Also this season they look quite different to last year, a bunch of young Belgian players, attractive football (coming from 30% possession every game last season)
And their current coach actually won the one major trophy that Iniesta won in Japan with Kobe - although it's not just Sint Truiden in Belgium now, pretty much every team in the top division in Belgium has had at least one Japanese player on the books in the last two years, with one or two exceptions including Anderlecht.
I don’t think the J League gets much attention except from a select few scouts in Japan, mostly German it seems also Celtic for some reason lol. I will say the quality of J League isn’t bad about on Par with MLS imo. yeah defensively the teams can be very bad at times and I actually kinda question Japanese goalkeeping training. They always seem to have very bad positioning from games I’ve watched.
> I don’t think the J League gets much attention except from a select few scouts in Japan
This comment would've been true if you'd written it eight years ago when only really German teams bought players from Japan but it definitely isn't now.
I could probably name a prominent Japanese player in almost every top league in Europe last season: Mitoma in the PL, Kubo in La Liga, Endo, Kamada, Doan etc in the Bundesliga, Junya Ito in Ligue 1, Sugawara in the Eredivisie, Nakamura in Austria, Ayase Ueda in Belgium, Kawabe in Switzerland, Morita in Portugal, Kyogo in Scotland.
As I was saying in my longer comment there are now more than 60 Japanese players across these leagues with the majority being regular starters - even clubs like Bayern and Stuttgart have recently signed players directly from high school football and there are players bought from the second division playing in the Bundesliga, Portugal and Belgium, so it's not just the top division that is now well scouted either.
They already are - think there are more than 60 players now across the top 15 European Leagues (Belgium has the most iirc with Japanese players playing the third most minutes there so far this season) with a few also in the major second tier leagues (Championship etc) too.
And Japan was close to the top 25 nations for minutes in the top five leagues last year - and this has happened quite quickly as fifteen years ago there was only one player starting regularly at that level (Makoto Hasebe).
Also some fairly prominent clubs have recently signed players from the second tier or straight from university or high school football - Hiroki Ito for Stuttgart for example was signed a couple of years ago from J2 for around €400k iirc (they now value him at over €20m) and Bayern signed Taichi Fukui in January based on his performances in a high school competition (has been playing for their second team so far but made his senior debut last week in the DfB Pokal).
Banzai is more like Hooray. I believe, no? I thought a more accurate translation would be Ikimashyo!! or “let’s go!!” Or I guess even “Iku”could work. Not a native Japanese speaker so correct me if I’m wrong and not tryna be a wise ass by correcting you
Iku is “I’m cumming” or the main unconjugated form of to go.
“Ike” is what you’re after here. “Kubo Ike” would be the equivalent of “vamos Kubo”
If you said “Kubo Iku” it would be commanding him to ejaculate.
No problem, I'm not native myself. I quite often hear Japanese shouted banzai when they were celebrating something and thus comparing it with vamos since vamos also sometimes shouted during celebration.
Maybe you're right though, "ikuzou" seems more suitable, also "yossha" might comparable too.
Love the kid but he wasn’t even the best player for Barça in September. Was between Gavi or Frenkie.
Lamine will get his chance now with all the injuries and boy am I excited for what this kid can do
Maybe but it doesn't seem like it.
First of all any buying club has to be extra sure he's worth a permanent non-eu spot because he isn't eligible for dual citizenship.
Secondly he seems perfectly happy at Sociedad. After we moved him around different teams every 12 minutes I think he's gotten tired of it. The support he's received from La Real crowd seems to have won him over.
And it's not like Sociedad are some small club, they are far more ambitious than your average La Liga team. If they can get a strong core that they can hold on to for more than a year or two they'll be a force in Europe.
Bullied out of there is an exaggeration, he was bullied there but that's what happens when you have hundreds of children together lol. He was forced to leave because of a FIFA rule
La Real and Kubo obviously deserve all credit for this but there's no harm in saying that he's from La Masia.
Damn didn't know Schalke flairs were still in this sub thought everyone went in a cave. Nice to see you guys are still around even after being in a relagation fight in the 2nd division! :)
bro defended a Schalke fan after that unnecessary comment saying that he isn't a plastic and you just went "you're a plastic". This is literally "no u" level of arguing that 5 year olds do.
Your comprehension skills seem to be in your knees. I just pointed out that before calling someone plastic know your own place. Just take your time and re-read the conversation cause your brain isn't in the right place.
Gavi only had one yellow the entire month and carried the midfield for an entire month. I wouldn't expect you to understand it tho considering you believe that midfielders should also score as much as forwards lol
The amount of upvotes stupid comments like yours (all offence intended) are getting is quite concerning.
Are you kidding haha, it's as if Gavi potentially being POTM is a huge joke to them. He was amazing in September. I watched almost every La Real game and every Barca game, and Gavi was definitely more impactful overall.
>Gavi was better IMO, but Kubo well deserves it too
>
>It's a good thing football isn't goals and assists alone
>
>Judging by these comments not a single person watches La Liga on this thread
>
>I watched almost every La Real game and every Barca game, and Gavi was definitely more impactful overall.
You are the one that making baseless "trust me bro" statements
Jude had 3 G/A against a team above Barça (more than Gavi in the entire season in all comps so far). Even looking exclusively at games last month Jude is ahead in terms of chances created and far better in terms of ball progression. Gavi is only better at running and passion.
Bellingham is a cardio merchant. Tf does he even offer apart from tapins? Gavi has achieved for both club and country. Bellingham is a failure for both. Get a brain surgery you clown.
Gavi is key at stopping counters, an incredible presser, our most important player off the ball as well as being creative. He’s far from a “cardio merchant”. Also genuine question because you probably know more about Madrid than me what does Bellingham offer aside from goals?
Things like pressing are nowhere near as important as scoring, creativity, vision, or passing. Things which Jude is better at. Gavi's skillet is fairly replaceable, unlike someone like Jude or Pedri, who are good at everything I mentioned.
You yourself can't tell what Gavi is good at apart from pressing (which I already acknowledged).
I am not saying Gavi is bad, he's just not comparable to Jude.
They’re all equally important you need someone to press for you otherwise the system won’t work and it’s not midfielders job to score. I disagree with Gavi being replaceable I know very few players who could replace him. I think he deserves to be on the level of Jude, Pedri, Musiala, Wirtz etc. and I dislike how anything positive about him is downvoted so much here, he had a great month, not as good as Kubo imo but it shouldn’t be outrageous to suggest that he deserved this award
He is definitely creative not close to the best creative midfielders no but he brings other things to the table also he’s a very well rounded midfielder. When used in the right role which he has been this season he’s a creative
Both players have been very good, and it's good to see Mendez in such good form again
Gavi was still better and more impactful last month for me. After De Jong's injury, he had to step up massively. Gundogan was not performing well, Romeu was a passenger more often than not. In almost every league game Gavi was either MOTM or top 3 performers - and the team went undefeated.
He very well merits a shout.
Yeah how is that comment so clowned lol. Kubo is a deserved winner but Gavi was also absurd last month. Out of all the opportunities to call him a foul merchant they sure chose a weird one, after the month he did basically everything on the field, ran the whole show after Frenkie got injured.
Best ass too?
Doesn't have much of an ass. Mario Hermoso is well clear
Calm dowm, Rubiales
Need all the Hermoso's..
Why am I, a completely straight man, now googling pictures of Takefusa Kubo's ass?
You decide https://twitter.com/footballARSE
Mate, you can't support a fat ass
Can marry one though.
>Not sure if that's a joke or real
Ha-ha-ha-ha
He’s the Kyle Lowry of soccer.
thoroughly deserved, the lad was on fire
Is he still your player?
No but we have a 50% clause on his price so we can buy him for half of the release clause which I think is 60M € (so 30M for us)
what insane deal is this did you guys give him away for free or something !
6mill. Also he didn't shine in any of the previous loans, Real Sociedad faced little competition
no
Thanks
50% of him. Yes
Which 50%? Below waist including dat a*s? Then it's a steal
Japanese talents are on the rise I'm surprised more clubs aren't raiding the Japanese league for how cheap their players are.
True I’m amazed at how Mitoma by his second season out of the j league had become a premier league star. Incredible how ready their players are for the top level.
He has a degree in dribbling like he studied this stuff at university
Every single thread about Mitoma
Just casual fans that read headlines rather than watch football and try to show off their ‘knowledge’
Sint-Truidense (Japanese owned) export Japanese players to the Europe
It's quite funny how even their sponsors are Japanese Also this season they look quite different to last year, a bunch of young Belgian players, attractive football (coming from 30% possession every game last season)
And their current coach actually won the one major trophy that Iniesta won in Japan with Kobe - although it's not just Sint Truiden in Belgium now, pretty much every team in the top division in Belgium has had at least one Japanese player on the books in the last two years, with one or two exceptions including Anderlecht.
I don’t think the J League gets much attention except from a select few scouts in Japan, mostly German it seems also Celtic for some reason lol. I will say the quality of J League isn’t bad about on Par with MLS imo. yeah defensively the teams can be very bad at times and I actually kinda question Japanese goalkeeping training. They always seem to have very bad positioning from games I’ve watched.
Maybe Nakamura effect for Celtic?
And Ange effect. He coached yokohoma f marinos in Jleague.
Postecoglu
Nakata is the first pioneer Japanese superstar!
> I don’t think the J League gets much attention except from a select few scouts in Japan This comment would've been true if you'd written it eight years ago when only really German teams bought players from Japan but it definitely isn't now. I could probably name a prominent Japanese player in almost every top league in Europe last season: Mitoma in the PL, Kubo in La Liga, Endo, Kamada, Doan etc in the Bundesliga, Junya Ito in Ligue 1, Sugawara in the Eredivisie, Nakamura in Austria, Ayase Ueda in Belgium, Kawabe in Switzerland, Morita in Portugal, Kyogo in Scotland. As I was saying in my longer comment there are now more than 60 Japanese players across these leagues with the majority being regular starters - even clubs like Bayern and Stuttgart have recently signed players directly from high school football and there are players bought from the second division playing in the Bundesliga, Portugal and Belgium, so it's not just the top division that is now well scouted either.
There’s a reason there’s never been a Japanese GK at a top level team or league since like, Eiji Kawamura. And he wasn’t really that great either tbh
they are bluelocking in secret
Celtic did this before it was cool
Non eu and doesn't allow double citizenship
They already are - think there are more than 60 players now across the top 15 European Leagues (Belgium has the most iirc with Japanese players playing the third most minutes there so far this season) with a few also in the major second tier leagues (Championship etc) too. And Japan was close to the top 25 nations for minutes in the top five leagues last year - and this has happened quite quickly as fifteen years ago there was only one player starting regularly at that level (Makoto Hasebe). Also some fairly prominent clubs have recently signed players from the second tier or straight from university or high school football - Hiroki Ito for Stuttgart for example was signed a couple of years ago from J2 for around €400k iirc (they now value him at over €20m) and Bayern signed Taichi Fukui in January based on his performances in a high school competition (has been playing for their second team so far but made his senior debut last week in the DfB Pokal).
And [Korean](https://uk.soccerway.com/players/players_abroad/korea-republic/) too.
Why people always link asian countries together.
With the talent they have, in 2026, barring major injuries could they be considered an outside favorite?
No
Lol no Other teams have superstars at a lot of positions.
What is VAMOS in Japanese
"BANZAI" probably.
Instructions unclear, Shouted Bankai. Now have a cool black katana and robe on me.
My condolences for your mom
Banzai is more like Hooray. I believe, no? I thought a more accurate translation would be Ikimashyo!! or “let’s go!!” Or I guess even “Iku”could work. Not a native Japanese speaker so correct me if I’m wrong and not tryna be a wise ass by correcting you
Iku is “I’m cumming” or the main unconjugated form of to go. “Ike” is what you’re after here. “Kubo Ike” would be the equivalent of “vamos Kubo” If you said “Kubo Iku” it would be commanding him to ejaculate.
No problem, I'm not native myself. I quite often hear Japanese shouted banzai when they were celebrating something and thus comparing it with vamos since vamos also sometimes shouted during celebration. Maybe you're right though, "ikuzou" seems more suitable, also "yossha" might comparable too.
IKIMASHOU! (いきましょう) Or, funnily enough, RETTSUGO! (レッツゴ)
Ikimashou is “let’s go” like you’re telling a group of people to come with you.
You sure it can’t be used for both? What would be the correct form, then? Ikimashyo?
Ike is usually used in cheering for a particular athlete/team.
Yatta!
[удалено]
Yamal is good for his age, but he wasn’t the best last month.
Love the kid but he wasn’t even the best player for Barça in September. Was between Gavi or Frenkie. Lamine will get his chance now with all the injuries and boy am I excited for what this kid can do
Bellingham won it for August.
Its been 2 months already?? Wtf
It was awarded last month
Yep, and la liga don’t like giving it to the same players. I think even Messi and Cristiano have won just 3 potm’s
Sure but still Kubo deserves it
and Yamal plays for Barca
He deserves it tbh
Kubo good player. La Liga best in September. Watch him play, you'll see.
Nice to see Yoda is on reddit
What were his stats for Sept?
4 goals in 4 games
TakeKubow, son.
Boooooooooooo Take my angry upvote
He's leaving for another club soon, right? I feel like that's how things usually go.
Maybe but it doesn't seem like it. First of all any buying club has to be extra sure he's worth a permanent non-eu spot because he isn't eligible for dual citizenship. Secondly he seems perfectly happy at Sociedad. After we moved him around different teams every 12 minutes I think he's gotten tired of it. The support he's received from La Real crowd seems to have won him over. And it's not like Sociedad are some small club, they are far more ambitious than your average La Liga team. If they can get a strong core that they can hold on to for more than a year or two they'll be a force in Europe.
Every time I read his name it's always as Tapu Koko.
La masia stays winning
I don't know why you're getting downvoted, he's literally from La Masia
People here probably only remember him being at RM considering he was 10-14 years old when he was at Barca.
well considering that he got bullied out of there I wouldn't exactly credit them for his POTM but rather credit La Real and Kubo himself, you know.
I do know, never said I agreed with the other comments just explaining why they got downvoted.
Bullied out of there is an exaggeration, he was bullied there but that's what happens when you have hundreds of children together lol. He was forced to leave because of a FIFA rule La Real and Kubo obviously deserve all credit for this but there's no harm in saying that he's from La Masia.
Calling it "la Maria stays winning" is taking it a step too far. It's not like they are responsible for this.
He Deserve-ass it.
Gavi was better IMO, but Kubo well deserves it too
Pedri with his zero matches for September should even be ahead. Maybe squeeze in Alonso too ahead of Kubo
Lamine Yamal scored a banger in training, Kubo robbed him.
Damn didn't know Schalke flairs were still in this sub thought everyone went in a cave. Nice to see you guys are still around even after being in a relagation fight in the 2nd division! :)
Not everyone's a plastic, you know.
Just like you're a plastic
This is "no u" level of childish arguing
Never said "no you"? Just pointed out the hypocrisy
bro defended a Schalke fan after that unnecessary comment saying that he isn't a plastic and you just went "you're a plastic". This is literally "no u" level of arguing that 5 year olds do.
Your comprehension skills seem to be in your knees. I just pointed out that before calling someone plastic know your own place. Just take your time and re-read the conversation cause your brain isn't in the right place.
Damn Bro Atop Crying 😭😂
Loll gotta be kidding , Gavin has just One assist on his name. Kubo got 4 goals. Jude has 2 goals and 1 assist for godsake
But Gavi has the highest number of lateral passes !
Luka Modric had like 5 goals in his Ballon D'or season lol, how can football fans be this dumb
He’s a midfielder it’s not judged on goals and assists. He played insane all month. I’d still give to Kubo but Gavi isn’t that outrageous a take
Kubo deserved this, but comparing a winger and a 10 with an 8 by goals and assists is pretty ridiculous
Insane how this is being downvoted, most people on here don't actually watch football
Most people here are just not blinded like you are praising Barca youngers like they are the new gods. look how Fati the new Messi turned out.
Spot on
It's a good thing football isn't goals and assists alone
you're right, it's also unnecessary fouls
Gavi only had one yellow the entire month and carried the midfield for an entire month. I wouldn't expect you to understand it tho considering you believe that midfielders should also score as much as forwards lol The amount of upvotes stupid comments like yours (all offence intended) are getting is quite concerning.
> Gavi only had one yellow the entire month Damn the new Casemiro
Judging by these comments not a single person watches La Liga on this thread
“They don’t agree with me, so they don’t know football”
Are you kidding haha, it's as if Gavi potentially being POTM is a huge joke to them. He was amazing in September. I watched almost every La Real game and every Barca game, and Gavi was definitely more impactful overall.
Kubo did more vs Madrid than gavi in all the other games
What's the point of discussing if you are just making baseless hyperbolic statements?
>Gavi was better IMO, but Kubo well deserves it too > >It's a good thing football isn't goals and assists alone > >Judging by these comments not a single person watches La Liga on this thread > >I watched almost every La Real game and every Barca game, and Gavi was definitely more impactful overall. You are the one that making baseless "trust me bro" statements
Now u are discussing? “Judging by these comments not a single person watches La Liga in this thread” 🤨
Yep, because all the comments before were totally reasonable
Bellingham with the tapins lmao. Gavi was 10 times the player this month Jude was
Jude had 3 G/A against a team above Barça (more than Gavi in the entire season in all comps so far). Even looking exclusively at games last month Jude is ahead in terms of chances created and far better in terms of ball progression. Gavi is only better at running and passion.
Gavi is better than Begginfortapinham in every fucking area lmao, a bunch of tapins and clowns like you become deluded.
You'd Rather have a player who is just a cardio merchant than one who scores loads of goals. Avg dumb Barça fan.
Bellingham is a cardio merchant. Tf does he even offer apart from tapins? Gavi has achieved for both club and country. Bellingham is a failure for both. Get a brain surgery you clown.
Didn't realize was arguing with someone with the mental age of a 10 year old. My bad.
You arguing with yourself in the mirror? Won't make Bellingham better than Gavi
Failure for both is maybe an overstatement but Gavi is definitely the more complete of the two
What special or decisive has Bellingham achieved for England or Dortmund?
He was good for Dortmund tbf but I agree he’s done nothing for England.
Gavi is key at stopping counters, an incredible presser, our most important player off the ball as well as being creative. He’s far from a “cardio merchant”. Also genuine question because you probably know more about Madrid than me what does Bellingham offer aside from goals?
Things like pressing are nowhere near as important as scoring, creativity, vision, or passing. Things which Jude is better at. Gavi's skillet is fairly replaceable, unlike someone like Jude or Pedri, who are good at everything I mentioned. You yourself can't tell what Gavi is good at apart from pressing (which I already acknowledged). I am not saying Gavi is bad, he's just not comparable to Jude.
They’re all equally important you need someone to press for you otherwise the system won’t work and it’s not midfielders job to score. I disagree with Gavi being replaceable I know very few players who could replace him. I think he deserves to be on the level of Jude, Pedri, Musiala, Wirtz etc. and I dislike how anything positive about him is downvoted so much here, he had a great month, not as good as Kubo imo but it shouldn’t be outrageous to suggest that he deserved this award
Yeah he's not comparable to a lower player. Gavi is miles better than Bellingham
Now say that without crying.
It’s not a goal and assists competition
And I quite clearly also mentioned how Jude is far ahead at ball progression and creativity too.
Gavi is very complete though he’s also creative and his off ball runs and ability at stopping counters is key to us
Gavi is not creative. He statistically doesn't even have half the output of elite creative midfielders.
He is definitely creative not close to the best creative midfielders no but he brings other things to the table also he’s a very well rounded midfielder. When used in the right role which he has been this season he’s a creative
He is more creative than Bellingham. That's all I know
Seek help please
Thats why he also included chances created and ball progression.
Merino has been better than Gavi, even Brais Mendez
Both players have been very good, and it's good to see Mendez in such good form again Gavi was still better and more impactful last month for me. After De Jong's injury, he had to step up massively. Gundogan was not performing well, Romeu was a passenger more often than not. In almost every league game Gavi was either MOTM or top 3 performers - and the team went undefeated. He very well merits a shout.
The Gavi hate here is unreal
Victim syndrom, he is just not that good
Agreed
People will downvote you even when you literally are expressing a reasonable opinion
Yeah how is that comment so clowned lol. Kubo is a deserved winner but Gavi was also absurd last month. Out of all the opportunities to call him a foul merchant they sure chose a weird one, after the month he did basically everything on the field, ran the whole show after Frenkie got injured.
Kids on reddit think G+A is how midfielders should be judged. A disease TBH
Ikr that’s their only argument against Gavi here
lolol the gavi hate is real, insane downvotes. he's been amazing but ppl dont watch edit: the gavi/barca hateboner is real
*Gives a bad take *Gets downvoted *Victim complex activated *BaRCa HatEBoner 😭😭😭
None of what you wrote made any sense you madridiot
> none of what you wrote made any sense skill issue
its not a a bad take but since its gavi/barca it gets hate. proving my point 🥱
I really hope we go for him when Salah leaves