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The original was posted on /r/soccer by /u/Roller95 on 2025-11-22 09:36:25+00:00.
Feyenoord – NEC is also the match between strikers Ayase Ueda and Koki Ogawa on Sunday afternoon. Why are these Japanese footballers (also) so successful in the Netherlands? And, just as interesting: Which of the two goal scorers will emerge as the king of De Kuip? “It’s going to be incredibly exciting.”
Wilco van Schaik, general manager of NEC, still feels the sense of wonder when he recalls that summer evening in 2023. To please his newcomers Kodai Sano and Koki Ogawa, he had taken them to the Four Days Marches festivities in Nijmegen.
Not necessarily with the intention of them enjoying the traditional beer-filled bars. No, much more to give the naturally introverted Japanese footballers a sense of home. To make them feel comfortable in the city.
Shortly after arriving, one of them, Ogawa, led the way in the conga line, belting out the pub tune “De Engelbewaarder.” “You knew right away that this guy wanted to make something of himself here,” Van Schaik says now. “His willingness to adapt was truly evident.”
Besides being a match between two of the most attractive teams in the Netherlands, Feyenoord-NEC will also feature the Japanese side on Sunday. The Rotterdam side has two players: striker Ayase Ueda and defender Tsuyoshi Watanabe.
Dick Schreuder’s squad includes three players: attackers Kento Shiogai and Koki Ogawa, and midfielder Kodai Sano. It’s fitting, as is the trend. Ajax, Sparta, and AZ also have players from the Land of the Rising Sun in Ko Itakura, Shunsuke Mito, and Seiya Maikuma, respectively. And almost all of them have captured the imagination of their supporters.
How is it that Japanese footballers seem to adopt Dutch customs here, some ten thousand kilometers from home, just as easily as, say, Thijmen Blokzijl from Groningen or Kees Smit from Heiloo? “It’s as if Kodai, Koki, and Kento have lived in Nijmegen their whole lives; they adapt so easily,” says Van Schaik. “In fact, in terms of mentality, they are role models for many of their teammates. They truly understand the art of team thinking.”
According to Hai Berden, it has to do with the Japanese work ethic: disciplined, obedient, and driven. And the Limburg native should know. As a businessman, he visited the Asian country countless times. Thanks to the contacts he built there, in 2008, as chairman of VVV, he was even able to bring the future revelation Keisuke Honda to the Netherlands.
Although the unknown Tatsuya Mochizuki briefly played in the Netherlands in 1982 (for Haarlem and Telstar), Shinji Ono could be considered one of the first Japanese footballers to pave the way for fellow countrymen with international ambitions in Europe. He won the UEFA Cup with Feyenoord in 2002.
To illustrate: Around a hundred Japanese footballers are currently active in Europe, eight of whom play in the Eredivisie. “The Japanese players are generally very skilled, consistently have excellent physical qualities, and listen to their coaches’ orders,” says Berden. “And in doing so, they visibly contribute something to our football.”
Not just in terms of playing technique. Especially in terms of PR. Just think: Never in the club’s history was VVV so popular abroad as in the two seasons Honda played there (2008-2010). And the current first division club still benefits from the status of the former “David Beckham of De Koel.”
There are Dutch TV viewers who sometimes miss a VVV-FC Eindhoven match. It’s a different story for members of the VVV fan club in Japan. As soon as the Venlo team kicks off on Friday evening, dozens of them huddle on the tenth floor of a Tokyo skyscraper.
Instead of Honda, they now just support Joep Kluskens or Bjorn van Zijl, the current Limburg stars. It’s striking evidence of the commercial value Japanese footballers embody, even after they’ve left a club. “People in Japan continue to support such a club,” says Japanese journalist Toru Nakata. “VVV is more popular in Japan than Ajax. That says something.”
At De Goffert, they can certainly speak to that. Since last summer, the Japanese platform U-next has been broadcasting all NEC matches, in addition to matches from Feyenoord, Ajax, PSV, and AZ. And that’s paying off. If only because the channel has a reach of around five million subscribers.
The Nijmegen club saw its number of followers on X and Instagram grow significantly after signing Shiogai, Ogawa and Sano. In addition, the club’s fan shop regularly receives orders from the other side of the world, Japanese tourists are visiting Nijmegen more often and the business club was recently full of a hundred Japanese people from a large logistics company.
“We’re consciously responding to that by, for example, subtitling our NEC TV episodes in Japanese,” says Van Schaik. “But it’s special, the thought of people walking around Tokyo in an NEC shirt. And that increased interest in our club from Japan will be something that other clubs, like Feyenoord, will recognize. Something’s happening; you can’t ignore that.”
For that reason alone, Sunday afternoon is a hotly anticipated day, when the two teams meet in Rotterdam. Who will reign supreme at De Kuip? Ayase Ueda or Koki Ogawa, his main rival in the Japanese national team? “It’s going to be incredibly exciting,” admits Van Schaik, referring to both goal scorers. “And you can bet they’ll be on the edge of their seats in Japan, too.”