Takefusa Kubo

is a Japanese football player. He plays for the Japan national team.

Fame
Originally from the training organization of the world famous football club FC Barcelona. At that time, he was called “Japanese Messi” and “Left handed Iniesta” because his play style is similar to Lionel Messi and Andrés Iniesta. His number one feature is ball control skill. Due to his great dribbling these nicknames are well-deserved.

Career before becoming a professional
He began to play soccer at 3 years old. In August 2009, he saw an advertisement saying that Barcelona Camp would be held in Japan and you could play against Barcelona if you could become an MVP there. In April 2010, he participated in a tournament held in Belgium as a Barcelona school selection and was selected as a tournament MVP. After that, he belonged to the subordinate organization of Kawasaki Frontale. In August 2011, he passed the trial match of FC Barcelona’s subordinate organization Cantera and went to Spain. He played soccer in Spain until 2015, but an accident happened and he returned to Japan. And then he joined FC Tokyo’s subordinate organization. In May 2017, he made his debut at a top team. And he became the first J-League player born in the 21th century.

Career after becoming a professional 
In November 2017, it was announced that he had signed a professional contract with FC Tokyo. He made his first team debut in the match on November 26, and became the third youngest player in J.League history. However, he gradually lost the opportunity to participate in the match and transferred to Yokohama F. Marinos for a limited time in order to improve the quality of his performance. He had played there for 5 months. He returned to FC Tokyo in 2019 and played for half of a year. Then in June 2019 he moved to Real Madrid's B team. His technique was highly evaluated and he was promoted to the top team. In the Spanish newspaper Maruka, he was selected as the first place in the evaluation ranking. In August 2019, he transferred to Mallorca for a limited time. In August 2020, it was announced that he transferred to Villarreal for a limited time. And recently it was announced that he would leave Villarreal.

National team
In May 2017, at the age of 15, Kubo was selected the Japan U-20 national team for 2017 U-20 World Cup. In October 2017, he also played for the Japan U-17 national team for 2017 U-17 World Cup. On June 9, 2019, he debuted for the Japan national team against El Salvador. He also participated 2019 Copa América.

Statistics

|-
|2017||rowspan="2"|FC Tokyo||rowspan="2"|J1 League||2||0||0||0||2||0||colspan="2"|-||4||0
|-
|2018||4||0||0||0||6||1||colspan="2"|-||10||1
|-
|2016||rowspan="3"|FC Tokyo U-23||rowspan="3"|J3 League||3||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||3||0
|-
|2017||21||2||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||21||2
|-
|2018||10||3||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||10||3
|-
|2018||Yokohama F. Marinos||J1 League||5||1||1||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||6||1
|-
|2019||FC Tokyo||J1 League||13||4||0||0||3||1||colspan="2"|-||16||5

|-
|2019/20||Mallorca||La Liga||35||4||1||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||36||4
|-
|2020/21||Villarreal||La Liga||13||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||5||1||19||1
|-
|2020/21||Getafe||La Liga||||||||||||||||||||
58||10||1||0||11||2||colspan="2"|-||70||12
48||4||2||0||colspan="2"|-||5||1||55||5
106||14||3||0||11||2||5||1||125||17
|}

|-
|2019||7||0
|-
|2020||4||0
|-
!Total||11||0
|}

References

Other websites
 

2001 births
Living people
Footballers from Kanagawa Prefecture
Japan international footballers
J1 League players
J3 League players
FC Tokyo players
FC Tokyo U-23 players
Yokohama F. Marinos players
Association football forwards
Association football midfielders
Kawasaki Frontale players