Sae Itoshi

* Manga
* Anime

**Sae Itoshi** (糸 (いと) 師 (し)  冴 (さえ) , *Itoshi Sae*?) is a prodigy football player, who is known as the best player in Japan. Sae is also a member of the New Generation World XI, as well as the Re Al youth team. He is the older brother of Rin Itoshi.

Sae's main goal before the start of the series was to become the best striker in the world, and in turn, the best player in the world, but after leaving Japan and experiencing the professional league in Spain, he changed his dream to becoming the best midfielder in the world after he realized how truly weak Japanese football is.

At the start of the series, he is in Japan only to renew his passport but after happening to hear about the Blue Lock he decides to stay. He later joins the Japan U-20 to face off against the Blue Lock Eleven in the Japan U-20 match. After the Japan U-20 match concluded his current status and whereabouts are unknown.

## Appearance

Sae is an average-sized but lean built young man with reddish brown hair and slim teal eyes that are framed by an array of long underlashes just like his brother, Rin. During the National Representative match he wears the Japan U-20 White #10 jersey with a black shirt underneath the jersey and some black gloves.

Young SaeReal Madrid Youth TracksuitJapan U-20 UniformBlue Lock Player Icon
## Personality

Since a young age, Sae has been cold, blunt, and very serious. He has only ever cared about becoming the best striker in the world and has only had time for things that get him closer to his goal. Sae can also be arrogant and condescending looking down on others even if they are older than him and have more organizational authority. He is egotistical in his football play but has shown to be able to restrain himself and play his position, not trying to outshine others unnecessarily.

Sae has a lot of pride as a football player, looking down on Japanese football and all who participate in it. Sae states he much rather die or play in Europe with a bunch of college students than play in the J-League or play on the Japan National Team. He is very confident in his skills and wholeheartedly believes that nobody in Japan is worthy of his skills as a teammate. He dislikes the fact that he was born in Japan, saying things like he was simply born in the wrong country.

Sae seems to easily command respect in a room from most people due to his reputation and skill even with his bad attitude and candid way of speaking and is able to handle and entice rowdy and tough people into listening to him or doing things his way. Though Sae is a difficult person, he is not impossible to work with, especially if he is getting something out of it. He, out of pure interest, decides to stay in Japan on a whim after hearing about the Blue Lock Project and even joins the Japan U-20 for the match against the Blue Lock Eleven. But when his interest is satisfied he has no problem abandoning those he deems unworthy of his time.

Even though Sae exhibits arrogance, he does not mind staying in his role, as midfielder and key passer. During the Japan National Representative match, Sae gave the Japan U-20 forwards every opportunity to score and only after repeated failures does he decide to score himself. After the game between Japan U-20 and Blue Lock Eleven, Sae is not above admitting when he is wrong as he tells Rin that he was wrong about Japan; they are capable of creating good strikers and that their football can still change.

## Abilities

### Archetype

* **Playmaker**: A player who controls the flow of the team's offensive play, and is often involved in passing moves which lead to goals, through their vision, technique, ball control, creativity, and passing ability.
Sae has been described as having a cold and calculating play style. He creates constant ideal plays for his team using his passing and dribbling, essentially controlling the offense and fills in any gaps the defense may have by going to the most critical point using his vision. With every play he makes, Sae aims to crush his opponent quickly and efficiently, destroying them "beautifully".

### Skills

* **Professional Football Technique**: Sae is regarded as a genius player in the professional world of football. He plays football in Europe and is considered to be on the level of a pro but has not gone fully pro only because of the age requirements in Spain, at the start of the series. He is regarded as the best player in Japan and can easily fill a stadium with his name alone due to his immense reputation. Even high level players like Rin Itoshi and Ryusei Shido are a league below him. His skills are some of the most impressive amongst U-20 players in the world, placing him in the New Generation World XI.

* **Perfect Kick Technique**: Sae has the ability to control the intensity, angle, speed, and accuracy of his kicks to an extreme level at any given point in time. Not only is he able to consistently perform complex passes using his superior footwork and technique but added with his level of skill he is able to perfectly manipulate the ball to the point his passes are easy to receive but hard to intercept or block.
	+ **Long Driven Pass**: A long pass, usually 40-50 meters long, that gives the ball enough height and power to avoid interception.
	+ **Lob Pass**: Also known as a *Chip*, is a shot in which the ball is kicked from underneath with accuracy but with less than maximum force, to launch it high into the air in order to pass it over the heads of opponents.
	+ **Line Drive Shot**: Sae is able to score with a powerful drive shot, taken from the byline and aimed at the other side of the goal. This is a shot that defies the expectations of anyone in the box anticipating a pass and can catch the goalkeeper off-guard.
	+ **Trivela (Pass)**: A technique wherein which one puts spin on the ball using the outside of their foot. Sae is able to make a pinpoint pass using the outside of his left foot in an instantaneous motion with his reflex. Sae is also able to use this pass with his weaker right foot, to still make a pinpoint pass.
	+ **Ultra-Fast Pass**: From a set piece, Sae is able to make an incredibly fast pass that borders on being a shot. By using his reflex, he takes all conditions into account in order to pass to a place that the opponent cannot reach, as if threading a needle.

* **Counter-dribbling**: Sae's dribbling is "passive" in comparison with the more proactive dribbling of Bachira and Yukimiya. Rather than actively moving past defenders, Sae will observe the defender's rhythm and motions before flowing past them in a counter. Sae's dribbling is the best shown so far, being able to effortlessly blow past the likes of Isagi and Bachira within one fluid movement. He is also shown to be able to overcome his brother Rin with relative ease, nutmegging him in each of their engagements. Rin noted that the tempo of each of his touches when he dribbles is incredibly fast, bolstered by his experience in Europe. Sae will often prioritize passing to progress the ball up the field, but when he wishes to play seriously, he changes his style to breaking through by himself with his dribbling, drastically increasing his options. When Sae gets serious, his dribbling is good enough to overcome the Blue Lock Eleven's entire formation without any assistance.
	+ **Hyperspeed Scissors**: Sae performs a scissor feint at incredible speed, making it hard to follow.
	+ **Double Touch**: Sae knocks the ball from one foot to the other before using the second foot to knock the ball past his opponent and break past. He performed this move at an incredibly fast tempo, leaving Rin little time to react.
	+ **Marseille Turn**: Sae stops the ball with the outside of his foot, shielding the ball from his opponent, before performing a roulette to turn past them.
	+ **Nutmeg**: Sae dribbles the ball through the legs of a defender effectively getting past their defense with little effort.
		- **Cross Elastico Nutmeg**: Sae performs an elastico but by crossing the ball behind his dominant leg before knocking it between his opponent's legs using his non-dominant foot. He first performed this move on his brother Rin when he returned from Spain, but has also performed this move on Rin during the Japan National Representative Match.
		- **Elastico Nutmeg**: Sae performs a regular elastico to nutmeg a defender and go past them. He did this to Isagi when breaking through the midfield during the Japan National Representative Match.
		- **Rabona Nutmeg**: A technique where a player kicks the ball, with their kicking leg crossed behind their standing leg. Sae can use this technique to play the ball between an opponent's legs, before passing them, as he demonstrated against Yukimiya.
	+ **Shoulder Block**: By using his shoulder to block off his opponent, Sae reverses his center of gravity to avoid their tackle.

* **Reflex**: With his incredible reflexes, Sae is able to take into account all the conditions of the field and make decisive plays to get the ball down the field and in the hands of the forwards in the best way possible. Sae will determine who has the most "heat" towards the goal and play the ball to them, meaning he has no bias towards particular strikers. This incredible reflex makes Sae hard to read and stop, as he makes split-second judgements to constantly move the ball and change positions. It is this reflex which enables Sae to operate on the same wavelength as Shido and exploit his abilities to their full potential.

* **Metavision**: With his pristine and trained vision, Sae is able to constantly collect data on every player, every play they make, and their positions on the field and after analyzing that data is able to react to their movements instantly and without even being noticed arriving at the most critical point of their plays effectively shutting their attack down or bypassing their defense with ease.

## Quotes

* (To Hirotoshi Buratsuta and Yasumori Hoichi) *Who's this fatso and bobcut duo?... Well that speeds things up. Hey, you old geezers. I checked the videos of all those Japan U-20 players or whatever... they're all shit. Especially the forwards. They're a big stinking pile of insect turd.*
* (To Hirotoshi Buratsuta and Yasumori Hoichi) *I agreed to join the team because I heard I'd get to play against the Blue Lock guys, but if this is the kind of School Team-Level Trash you're gonna throw me in I'm backing out.*
* (To Hirotoshi Buratsuta and Yasumori Hoichi) *Then there's a forward in Blue Lock who I want to play with.*
* (To Rin Itoshi) *So long as you're still hung up on being my brother you'll never be able to surpass me.*
* (To Rin Itoshi) *Hey, Rin... Turns out, the world is huge. There're players way better than me out there I've changed my dream, instead of becoming the best striker. I will become the best midfielder in the world.*
* (To Blue Lock) *I will increase the game level. Only the idiots who can follow me.....get to see the scenery that comes next.*
* (To Rin Itoshi) *Turns out I was wrong. I thought that Japan was incapable of ever giving birth to decent forwards. He even managed to summon his instincts. The one who will be able to change football in this country... is Yoichi Isagi.*

## Etymology

* His given name, **Sae** (冴 (さえ) , *****Sae*****?), means "skillfulness."
* His surname, **Itoshi** (糸 (いと) 師 (し) , *****Itoshi*****?), means "thread master."
* His name can thus be interpreted as "skillful thread master."

## Trivia

* Majority of this information is from the official Egoist Bible.
	+ He originally returned to Japan to renew his passport.
	+ He dislikes Japanese football and all who participate in it.
	+ He turned 18 after the Second Selection.
	+ His favorite TV show is "*Chibi Maruko-chan*". He says it reminds him of home.
	+ He thinks his weakness is that he doesn't know anything besides football.
	+ His disliked food is French fries.
	+ He sleeps for 8 hours a day (7 hours + 1 hour nap).
	+ He has a butt fetish (he believes an athlete's skill can be determined by looking at it).
	+ When asked what he would do with 100 million yen, he replied that he "*wasn't interested in such a small amount of money*".
	+ His morning routine consists of: opening the window to let in fresh air, taking a deep breath, morning yoga, meditation, drinking salted kombucha, and starting his day.
	+ He spends his holidays looking at the sea.
	+ His favorite animal is seagull.
	+ His favorite season is the end of summer.
	+ His favorite movie is Taxi Driver.
	+ If it were his last day on Earth, he would make the world's best pass to the world's best striker.
* Sae ranked 12th in the first popularity poll with 336 votes.

## References

*Blue Lock* Manga: Chapter 110.
2. ↑ Character profile from *Egoist Bible*
3. ↑ Character profile from *Egoist Bible*
4. ↑ Character profile from *Egoist Bible*
*Blue Lock* Manga: Chapter 107.
*Blue Lock* Manga: Chapter 123.
*Blue Lock* Manga: Chapter 124.
*Blue Lock* Manga: Chapter 139.
*Blue Lock* Manga: Chapter 148.