Turbo-charged Takefusa Kubo igniting Japan's drive towards Olympic football glory

A little over 24 hours before Naomi Osaka lit the Olympic cauldron to officially open the most silent of modern Games, Takefusa Kubo ignited the fuse on his own high-powered rocket - a fierce, angled shot that pointed Japan towards the knockout stages of the men’s football event.

The 20-year-old winger, nurtured as a potential star for the best part of a decade, has pushed Japan to the verge of the knockout phase, thanks to authoritative goals in victories over South Africa and Mexico. And if he shares every participant’s disappointment their Games achievements are not able to be applauded on site by big crowds, he knows the television audience is engaged at home and especially curious over in Spain, his other home.

Kubo plays for Real Madrid. Or, to put it more accurately, he belongs to Real Madrid. It remains an open question where he will be unleashing those rockets from his left foot, or his nimble but sturdy runs past defenders when the new club season begins.

Kubo has spent much of his young life with these Olympics on his horizon and a career with one of the major Spanish clubs in his long-term plans. It may have been to his direct advantage that the Games were postponed for a year. Twelve months ago, when the gravity of the coronavirus pandemic prevented Tokyo from hosting the event at its designated time, he was only 19 and fatigued, having come through a sapping first season in a top European league.

It ended in the relegation of the club, Real Mallorca, he was on loan at. A year on, he has acquired a greater body of experience, playing in European club competition for the Europa League winners, Villarreal, and building up a more strapping body. Kubo is no giant, at 1,73m, but he is robust, and more muscular across the shoulders than he was in his mid-teens.

Witness the powerful surge and successful wrestle for space Kubo inflicted on Spain’s Martin Zubimendi in the last pre-Olympic friendly. Kubo held off Zubimendi and left the midfielder grounded on the way to cutting back a cross for Ritsu Doan to score. His thumping finish to give Japan their early lead in the 2-1 victory over Mexico on Sunday was also executed while withstanding a strong challenge.

Zubimendi, of Real Sociedad, could soon be a teammate, because la Real are one of the Spanish clubs interested in taking Kubo on loan in the coming season should Madrid, as is likely, make him available. His experiences at Mallorca, where he was a regular starter; at Villarreal - where he was used less - and in the second half of last season at Getafe have established his credentials in a league that has been a central part of his football education.

He was once a prized prodigy at Barcelona, who put Kubo - known as ‘Take’ to his friends, and the ‘Japanese Messi’ to some of his fans - in their celebrated academy at under-11 level. He made impressive progress, but it was curtailed when Barca were found to have infringed Fifa regulations on the recruitment of players from abroad under the age of 18. He and his family moved back to Japan in 2015.

There, he made his senior debut for FC Tokyo in the J-League a full seven months before his 16th birthday. He was a little too young to go with the national team to the 2019 Asian Cup in UAE, where Japan finished second, but he was called up for his country’s senior side four months later, at 17.

Madrid signed him that summer, pleased to have on their roster a starlet Barcelona had unwillingly lost out on, and hopeful of nurturing him through to the first team. The argument being made forcefully by each stellar performance at the Olympics is that Kubo is genuinely ready for that. A difficulty for Madrid is that La Liga restrict the number of non-EU players allowed in a squad to three and there are a trio of Brazilians - Vinicius Junior, Eder Militao and Rodrygo - in new head coach Carlo Ancelotti’s plans. There is also an abundance of wide attackers in the squad, from Eden Hazard to Marco Asensio to Vinicius and Rodrygo.

Kubo is certainly ready to shoulder responsibility. He is the youngest outfielder of all Japan’s Olympians, who need a draw or win against France on Wednesday to guarantee a quarter-final place, yet very much a leader. “If there was one player who needed to score,” he said of his second-half rocket in the opening match, “it would be me.”