Shinji Okazaki is one of the most famous players of Japanese origin to date. He performs in Europe and has already managed to achieve impressive success, although no one expected this - both from himself and from the club with which he won the trophy. How did the Japanese striker end up in the English Leicester and become part of the team that made the sensation? Now you will find out the details of Shinji Okazaki's career.
How it all started
Shinji Okazaki is a football player who was far from immediately spotted in Europe, as is the case with many talented athletes from other continents. At 18, the Japanese signed his first professional contract with the Shimizu club, and immediately began to settle down there, make his way to the base and gain the trust of the coach. In total, Okazaki spent 121 matches for the Japanese club, in which he scored 42 goals - not the most impressive result, but it is also worth noting that he did not immediately become the center forward - he is still periodically used on the attack flanks. But even such performances attracted the attention of clubs from Europe, and Shinji Okazaki's dream came true - he was invited by the German club Stuttgart. Shinji's contract at that time came to an end. For this reason, Stuttgart did not have to pay a cent for it.
Relocation to Europe
Shinji Okazaki is a football player who lacked stars from the sky in his youth, so moving to Stuttgart at 23 was a big step for him. And there the attacker was immediately able to play, and at a fairly good level. For two and a half seasons (in Japan, the season ends in winter, unlike Europe, so Shinji switched in January), he played in 63 matches, scoring ten goals. By this he attracted the attention of another German club, Mainz, which agreed to pay one and a half million euros for the Japanese. Even then, numerous fans began to collect his photo - Shinji Okazaki became a rather famous person in Germany, so his transfer to Mainz did not surprise anyone.
Success at Mainz
Unlike Stuttgart, where Okazaki was a winger in most cases, Mainz immediately started using the Japanese in his best position as the center forward. And in just two years that he spent in this club, during sixty-five matches Shinji scored 28 goals. Thus, he became the most productive Japanese in the history of the Bundesliga - and this was the end of his adventure with the German championship. The fact is that despite a decent age (Okazaki at that time was 29 years old), the English striker became interested in the English “Leicester”, an average club that didn’t really aspire to anything. But he was able to pay as much as ten million euros for Okazaki - an amount that Mainz could not refuse. As a result, in the summer of 2015, Shinji Okazaki, whose biography was not so impressive and did not promise much success, ended up in England, where he was to perform a miracle with the new club.
Leicester Championship
To date, Okazaki has spent only one season at Leicester, but he has been a strong base player there, even though he has not played in his best position again. In the center of the attack at Leicester, Jamie Vardi, who suddenly shot, played , and Okazaki acted on the flank, so in 36 matches he scored just 6 goals. But most importantly, it was in the year when Shinji moved to Leicester that the club managed to accomplish the incredible: despite all the forecasts, despite a large number of large and powerful opponents, such as Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal "And so on, the small club won the championship race. So Okazaki suddenly became the champion of England, and turned out to be the second Japanese in the history of football, who was able to get a similar title.
Team appearances
In the Japanese team, for which Okazaki has been playing since 2008, the football player is one of the leaders. To date, with 49 goals scored, he is the top scorer among current players, and is in third place in the history of the team in terms of the number of goals scored. Shinji continues his career in the national team, and although he is already 30 years old, he still has a chance to rise higher. Perhaps luck will smile at him, and he will be able to become the top scorer of the Japanese team in history? Ahead are the qualifying games for the 2018 World Cup, as well as the championship itself, to which Okazaki can still go - he will be only 32 years old.