Eighteen months ago, despite three and a half impressive seasons with Red Bull Salzburg in which he scored 31 goals in 95 games for the perennial Austrian champions, Takumi Minamino wasn’t included in the extended 27-man squad for the FIFA World Cup in Russia.
By the end of this year, the 2013 J.League Rookie of the Year, who last month signed for Liverpool, could be the country’s biggest star.
Japanese footballers have had incredible success in Europe in the past, winning titles and banging in goals, but what the country hasn’t had is a player become a superstar in what people claim is the best league in the world.
Shinji Kagawa, who was at Cerezo Osaka when Minamino was in the Cerezo youth teams, looked like he would break through to achieve that when he moved to Manchester United in 2012. But his spell in Manchester was a frustrating one, often playing a bit-part role before moving back to Germany.
Shinji Okazaki won the Premier League with Leicester, and while he was integral to that side, he was never one of the league’s elite players. The same can be said of Maya Yoshida.
Arguably Japan’s best ever player, Hidetoshi Nakata, joined mid-table Bolton in 2005/06, but his spell at the mid-table side was too brief and was with one of the least “sexy” teams in England.
Liverpool, one of the most revered institutions in world football, is different.
If Minamino can work his way into becoming a first-team regular at Anfield, and with Jürgen Klopp one of his biggest admirers he has every chance to do just that, then the 25-year-old could yet become the country’s biggest and best footballing export.
It might seem like a meteoric rise, but it’s been anything but for the Osaka-born Minamino. Rather, it’s been a slow burn over the last decade.
In 2010, aged just 15, he was the leading scorer at the AFC U16 Championships with five goals, and followed it up by playing a starring role with four goals at the 2014 AFC U19 Championships. His was already a star on the rise, but aside from those goals at youth level, it was one goal in 2013 that really put his name on the radar.
We’ve become accustomed now to the annual parade of European clubs visiting Asia for what are largely irrelevant and meaningless friendlies against local clubs. The powerhouse European clubs will say the right things and act the right way (or maybe sometimes they won’t), but there is a sense that the players from these mega clubs simply cannot wait to leave.
For players of the local clubs, however, these matches offer a chance to test themselves against the world’s best and, if they perform, put themselves in the shop window. Play well against Real Madrid, for example, and scouts are going to take notice.
Manchester United’s trip to Japan to play Cerezo Osaka in July 2013 is scarcely a memorable one. Even the most ardent United fan would struggle to remember it, but the match was memorable for one particular moment and one particular goal.
A then 18-year-old Minamino, who had only broken into the senior team at the J.League club a few months earlier, picked up the ball on the edge of the area and fired home a thunderbolt into the top corner to put Cerezo 2-1 up in a match that would end 2-2. The finish, and confidence, almost arrogance of his celebration, belied his years.
The match might have been staged as a homecoming for United’s Kagawa, but it was Minamino’s goal that stole the spotlight.
If he wasn’t already on the radar of European clubs for his exploits at youth international level, then that goal most certainly would have piqued their attention. Eighteen months later, a move was sealed to Red Bull Salzburg.
It was a smart move. Sure, he could’ve gone to a bigger club or league, especially at a time when every second Japanese player seemed to be moving to the Bundesliga. But it was a move to a league and club that would be a good introduction to European football for the 20-year-old.
By playing in Austria, with the greatest of respect to the Austrian league, it allowed him the chance to acclimatise to football in Europe off-Broadway. There was no pressure or expectation, as there had been with Japanese players in the past, such as with Takashi Usami, once rated as one of Japan’s most exciting talents, who moved to Bayern Munich in 2011 but struggled to make an impact.
For those who have coached Minamino, his success is not a surprise, as Ranko Popovic, who coached him at Cerezo Osaka in 2014, explained to The Asian Game.
“When I coached Takumi he was 18 years old,” he said. “First of all (he) was a fantastic boy who was ready and open to learn and accept everything. He was like many young players, he was interested in everything that would make his performance better.
“He was always so confident, many players in Japan don’t have that (confidence), especially young players.
“It’s very different to be a young player in Europe than a young player in Japan. I think European players are more mature at the same age as Japanese players, but the character of Takumi was different.
“You can see in him, he knows what he wants to do and what he wants from his life and career. He wants to have success.”
Having achieved success in Austria, with five straight league titles, and after a number of impressive performances in this season’s UEFA Champions League, including against Liverpool, a January move was always on the cards, and Salzburg weren’t about to stand in his way.
“The big clubs have been watching him and, if I was them, I’d have no hesitation to sign him. Takumi is ready to make the next step in January,” Red Bull Salzburg sporting director Christoph Freund said.
That next step was to one of the biggest clubs in world football.
“It has been a dream, my dream to become a Liverpool player. And I’m so excited that the moment has come true,” Minamino told the Liverpool website.
“To play in the Premier League was one of my targets. I think this is the top-class league in the world; I was thinking if my career as a footballer progressed smoothly, someday I would be able to play in the Premier League.
“But I never thought I would be able to play in this team and I’m really happy about it. I’m looking forward to it.”
For Popovic, the move to the six-time UEFA Champions League winners is the right move at the right time.
“I think it’s a good move for him, this was the right moment,” the 52-year-old Serbian said.
“Last year I was in Austria and I had the possibility to enjoy his games because I had the opportunity to see him every week, and I think Takumi is now a really mature player.
“I think he can do a little bit more because he has the space to grow and be better. Like everyone knows, Klopp is a coach that likes this type of player and this is a good opportunity and he will take this and he will perform good.”
Klopp indeed knows exactly what type of player he has signed.
“I told him that we really signed Takumi Minamino from Salzburg, the guy who played against us like crazy, who was self-confident like crazy. Just be that and everything else is fine,” he said.
Based on Klopp’s comments after his debut in the FA Cup against Everton last week, Minamino will fit in just fine at Liverpool.
Embed from Getty Images“Super, outstanding. Exactly the player we wanted, exactly the player we wished for,” Klopp said of his performance.
“Your first game in a team you don’t know, if it’s a settled team it’s already difficult – this team we threw more or less on the pitch with two sessions together. And then showing this kind of game understanding, football skills are exceptional, attitude is outstanding, led the chasing pack so often in different situations, which I loved.”
What Klopp may not love so much will be his frequent long-haul flights back to Japan, and other exotic locations in Asia, as he looks to steer the Samurai Blue to their seventh straight FIFA World Cup appearance.
He may not have been in Japan’s plans 18 months ago, but right now he is arguably their best and most important player. Since Hajime Moriyasu took over after the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Minamino has found the back of the net 11 times, including in last year’s AFC Asian Cup final.
Crucially, he’s scored in every one of Japan’s four World Cup qualifiers so far, with five goals in four games. With a host of attacking talent for Moriyasu to choose from, Minamino looms as the central figure around which Japan will build their attack.
He may have been off-Broadway in his career up until now, but for both club and country, Minamino is now very much centre stage, which you suspect is exactly where he wants to be.
Photo: Liverpool FC
