Takefusa Kubo

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

## Fame

He started with 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 joined the  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. 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. He 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  a year. Then in June 2019 he moved to Real Madrid's B team. He was promoted to the top team. In the Spanish newspaper Maruka, he was in the first place in the  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.

### Club

|rowspan="2"|Club|rowspan="2"|Season|colspan="3"|League|colspan="2"|National cup|colspan="2"|League cup|colspan="2"|Continental|colspan="2"|Total|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan="4"|FC Tokyo U-23|2016|J3 League|3|0|—|—|—|3|0||||
|2017|J3 League|21|2|—|—|—|21|2||||||
|2018|J3 League|10|3|—|—|—|10|3||||||
|rowspan="4"|FC Tokyo|2017|J1 League|2|0|0|0|2|0|—|4|0||
|2018|J1 League|4|0|0|0|6|1|—|10|1||||
|2019|J1 League|13|4|0|0|3|1|—|16|5||||
|Yokohama F. Marinos (loan)|2018|J1 League|5|1|1|0|0|0|—|6|1|||
|Real Madrid|2019–20|La Liga|0|0|0|0|—|—|0|0||||
|Mallorca (loan)|2019–20|La Liga|35|4|1|0|—|—|36|4||||
|Villarreal (loan)|2020–21|La Liga|13|0|1|0|—|5|1|19|1|||
|Getafe (loan)|2020–21|La Liga|18|1|0|0|—|0|0|18|1|||
|Mallorca (loan)|2021–22|La Liga|28|1|3|1|—|—|31|2||||
|rowspan="3"|Real Sociedad|2022–23|La Liga|35|9|2|0|—|7|0|44|9||
|2023–24|La Liga|9|5|0|0|—|3|0|12|5||||

### International

|National team|Year|Apps|Goals||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan="5"|Japan|2019|7|0|
|2020|4|0|||
|2021|2|0|||
|2022|9|1|||
|2023|5|1|||

- _Scores and results list Japan's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Kubo goal._

|scope="col"|No.|scope="col"|Date|scope="col"|Venue|scope="col"|Opponent|scope="col"|Score|scope="col"|Result|scope="col"|Competition|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|10 June 2022|Noevir Stadium Kobe, Kobe, Japan||3–1|4–1|2022 Kirin Cup||||||||
|2|15 June 2023|Toyota Stadium, Toyota, Japan||3–0|6–0|2023 Kirin Challenge Cup||||||||

## Honours

**Individual**
- La Liga Player of the Month: September 2023
- UEFA La Liga Revelation Team of the Year: 2019–20
- Japan Pro-Footballers Association awards: Best XI (2022)
- Real Sociedad Player of the Season: 2022–23

## Infobox (football biography)

- **name**: Takefusa Kubo
- **image**: Takefusa Kubo 2019.png
- **image size**: 200
- **caption**: Kubo in 2019
- **fullname**: Takefusa Kubo
- **birth place**: Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Kanagawa, Japan
- **position**: Midfielder
- **currentclub**: Real Sociedad
- **clubnumber**: 14
- **youthyears1**: 2008–2009
- **youthclubs1**: FC Persimmon
- **youthyears2**: 2008–2010
- **youthclubs2**: Tokyo Verdy
- **youthyears3**: 2010–2011
- **youthclubs3**: Kawasaki Frontale
- **youthyears4**: 2011–2015
- **youthclubs4**: FC Barcelona, Barcelona
- **youthyears5**: 2015–2016
- **youthclubs5**: FC Tokyo
- **years1**: 2016–2018
- **clubs1**: FC Tokyo U-23
- **caps1**: 34
- **goals1**: 5
- **years2**: 2016–2019
- **clubs2**: FC Tokyo
- **caps2**: 19
- **goals2**: 4
- **years3**: 2018
- **clubs3**: → Yokohama F. Marinos (loan)
- **caps3**: 5
- **goals3**: 1
- **years4**: 2019–2022
- **clubs4**: Real Madrid CF, Real Madrid
- **caps4**: 0
- **goals4**: 0
- **years5**: 2019–2020
- **clubs5**: → RCD Mallorca, Mallorca (loan)
- **caps5**: 35
- **goals5**: 4
- **years6**: 2020–2021
- **clubs6**: → Villarreal CF, Villarreal (loan)
- **caps6**: 13
- **goals6**: 0
- **years7**: 2021
- **clubs7**: → Getafe CF, Getafe (loan)
- **caps7**: 18
- **goals7**: 1
- **years8**: 2021–2022
- **clubs8**: → RCD Mallorca, Mallorca (loan)
- **caps8**: 28
- **goals8**: 1
- **years9**: 2022–
- **clubs9**: Real Sociedad
- **caps9**: 42
- **goals9**: 14
- **nationalyears1**: 2015–2016
- **nationalteam1**: Japan national under-16 football team, Japan U16
- **nationalcaps1**: 17
- **nationalgoals1**: 11
- **nationalyears2**: 2016–2017
- **nationalteam2**: Japan national under-17 football team, Japan U17
- **nationalcaps2**: 11
- **nationalgoals2**: 4
- **nationalyears3**: 2016–2018
- **nationalteam3**: Japan national under-20 football team, Japan U20
- **nationalcaps3**: 15
- **nationalgoals3**: 3
- **nationalyears4**: 2018
- **nationalteam4**: Japan national under-23 football team, Japan U21
- **nationalcaps4**: 2
- **nationalgoals4**: 0
- **nationalyears5**: 2019–2021
- **nationalteam5**: Japan national under-23 football team, Japan U23
- **nationalcaps5**: 16
- **nationalgoals5**: 7
- **nationalyears6**: 2019–
- **nationalteam6**: Japan national football team, Japan
- **nationalcaps6**: 28
- **nationalgoals6**: 2
- **club-update**: 16:53, 21 October 2023 (UTC)
- **nationalteam-update**: 17 October 2023