Sunday, July 07, 2024
Singapore League Is Turning Japanese
One player who would have been grabbing the headlines were the media more interested in local football and not food stalls charging extra for chilli sauce (gotta love The New Paper!) is Tomoyuki Doi.
With 30 goals in 35 games for Albirex Niigata and Hougang United, the striker tried his luck back in his native Japan and Albania before returning to Singapore at the start of this season where he soon rediscovered his goal-scoring mojo. Seven games in with Geylang International and he has 12 goals including three hat tricks, the latest against Albirex yesterday.
Doi is just one of a large number of young Japanese players at home in Singapore. Albirex Niigata have eight for example. Even Young Lions, notionally a team built to develop young players for the national team, have four on their books. Balestier Khalsa have three as do BG Tampines Rovers. Doi isn't alone at Geylang where he has six team mates from his homeland. Tanjong Pagar United have a couple and Hougang United have just the one. Just DPMM and Lion City Sailors have resisted the urge to turn Japanese. For now.
Doi makes the headlines but others are worthy of mention to. Young Lions are mid table, well 6th, in part thanks to the goals of 24-year-old striker Itsuki Enomoto. The prowess of Kodai Tanaka in front of goal and the guile of Riku Fukashiro have been instrumental in Balestier Khalsa's good start to the season
And these players are not here to make up the numbers. Four of the top five scorers as I write are Japanese. Four of the top 10 assist providers too!
How many of these players could earn a crust in the JLeague is a different story of course. Doi had little impact in his short stint in J2.
Now that I'm reaching the end of this piece I'm not sure what conclusions we can draw. That Japan produces good, well rounded professional footballers? Fair point. That there are too many foreigners in Singapore to the detriment of local talent? Another fair point. But good payers, especially prolific goal scorers, should be cherished no matter where they come from and if players like Doi and Enamoto put extra bums on seats then all good, right?
I guess at the end of the day, as fans we can just sit back and enjoy the talent we have in front of us and not think too deeply on the whys and the wherefores - leave that to the administrators, officials and coaches.
