It’s fair to say hindsight does not look to fondly on Everton’s decision not to bring Kim Min-Jae to the Premier League, shortly before the South Korea international became a Serie A champion in the sky-blue of Napoli.
“I followed him at Everton (when he was playing in China for Beijing Guoan),” recalls former Toffees scout Carlo Jacomuzzi.
“We had a good opinion of the boy. But it seemed too big a leap for him to move from Asia to Europe.”
Given how quickly Kim Min-Jae settled at Fenerbahce, before blossoming into one of world football’s finest centre-halves at Napoli, a relegation-threatened Everton side would have to admit that, if they could turn back the clock, they’d make a different decision these days.
Kim is not the only player to make the transition from the Far East to the West look rather straightforward. Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate all collected Scottish Premiership winners’ medals last week; Celtic securing their second league title in two years under Ange Postecoglou.
All three arrived to relatively minimal fanfare from the Japanese top-flight. From unknown quantities to household names. It is a testament to their supreme success on Scottish soil that reports now linking Celtic with Albirex Niigata forward Ryotaro Ito – via the Daily Record – are being greeted with a great deal of excitement on the green side of Glasgow.
Could Celtic face a raid on their Premiership-winning stars?
Celtic are no strangers to seeing star players leave, almost on an annual basis. Interest in the masterful Hatate, the jet-heeled Maeda and the talismanic Kyogo – from clubs in one of Europe’s major European leagues – is to be expected.
And could Napoli come calling? The Scudetto winners openly looking at more Far East additions on the back of Kim Min-Jae’s outstanding debut season at the Estadio Diego Armando Maradona?
“I’d like to sign a Japanese player, having already signed a Korean,” Napoli president Aurelio de Laurentiis tells La Repubblica.
“There is a great development of football in the East, and there they are new countries to consider.”
Whisper it, but Japan may be edging towards something akin to a ‘Golden Generation’. In addition to Kyogo, Hatate and Maeda, Kaoru Mitoma has taken the Premier League by storm at Brighton. Ritsu Doan could fire Freiburg into the Champions League. And Takefusa Kubo is living up to the potential that had Andres Iniesta labelling him one of world football’s rising stars.
The success of Celtic, and Napoli for that matter, is proof of the value that can be found in more far-flung markets.
But, as far as the Hoops are concerned, the easy part is signing them. The hard part is keeping them.
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