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On the cobbled street that ends at the door of the Ajinomotom Stadium, all the restaurants have the blue and red flags of FC Tokyo hanging on their facades. "We also sing
You'll never walk alone,
" says
Takao Hashimoto
, a restaurant owner "with the best vegetable and shrimp tempura in town." He is also a member of a football club with a lot of name, but which has never won the J1 League, the football league in Japan. "We have won some cup, but in the league always very bad. At least we have one of the largest stadiums in the country, with 50,000 spectators," the fan consoles himself.
The Ajinomotom is in Chofu, an area that has the rank of a city, even though it is only 15 kilometers west of the capital.
"Kubo played here. He is the best we have ever had. And he made his debut at 15 and left at 18. But we really enjoy his quality and now we do it by seeing him in the national team," says Takao.
Takefusa Kubo
was the star of FC Tokyo when Real Madrid signed him in the summer of 2019. He said goodbye to the Japanese team with all the honors of a megastar.
Not a
veteran
Zidane
enjoyed such a ceremony at the Bernabéu on the day of his farewell.
His teammates threw him into the air and the fans cheered him with hundreds of banners with messages of good luck.
It was his return to Spain after the bad experience during his time at La Masia, which ended after FIFA sanction Barcelona, accused of violating the international transfer policy for footballers under 18 years of age.
That June 2019, even the captain of FC Tokyo gave the young promise a bouquet of flowers as a thank you for the services provided.
"For the first time, a Japanese footballer has a real chance of one day achieving a Ballon d'Or," read a headline in the
Asahi
newspaper that day
.
FULL BARS
Kubo landed in Japan in mid-July to lead the host team in their Games.
He started by scoring two goals in the first two qualifying matches.
But the winger achieved something much more difficult than guiding his team to the semifinals: he has managed to hook a hobby that did not want to know anything about the Olympic event.
Without being able to go to the stadiums and with fear of contagion, the general apathy of the Japanese towards their most important event has been constant these days.
Except when his team played.
The only television broadcasts to fill Tokyo bars were broadcasting Kubo's dribbles and filigree live.
"We have had players who have gone far, such as
Keisuke Honda
(CSKA Moscow, Milan) or
Shinji Kagawa
(Borussia Dortmund, Manchester United), but no one has ever excited us as much as Kubo. He is special, he has magic and Real Madrid signed him , the best club in the world, "says a man who picks up the phone at the FC Tokyo office.
In Japan, the beautiful sport is baseball.
But, little by little, soccer has been attracting more attention from the public, as the league attracted figures of some renown.
Despite their seniority, rushing the last years of their career, they were able to sell many shirts.
Former German international
Lukas Podolski
was the first to arrive after signing for Vissel Kobe in 2017.
Later,
Andrés Iniesta
and
David Villa
appeared for the same club
.
The group of Spaniards with the European Championship and the World Cup was closed by
Fernando Torres
, in the ranks of Sagan Tosu.
But Japanese football needed a national diamond to seduce the youngest, someone different who would make any match of the national team attractive.
Then a 1.73-year-old boy who grew up in the Asao-ku neighborhood of Kawasaki city appeared.
NEW GENERATION
Since Kubo returned to Spain in 2019, the local media have followed his every move in his assignments in Mallorca, Villarreal and Getafe.
Every time a Spanish newspaper interviewed him, in Japan they translated it and published it on dozens of websites.
"Now you see many children on the street with the national team jerseys with Kubo number 7. Before, the little ones did not have much interest in football. Kubo is the great hope to lead a new generation of young people who compete well at the big tournaments, "explains
Wataru Matsunaga
, a journalist for
Hochi Sports
, a Tokyo sports daily.
Next to the Ajinomotom Stadium, Takao's restaurant will host Japan-Spain, the second semi-final match of these Games.
The problem is that it begins at 8:00 p.m. local time, just when the state of emergency in force in the capital requires the closure of bars and restaurants, in addition to prohibiting the sale of alcohol throughout the day.
But Takao will keep it open.
He knows it will be filled with customers who have only one interest in the Games: watching
Takefusa Kubo
play
.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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