Wolverhampton Wanderers and Southampton both missed chances to bring Japan star Shoya Nakajima to the Premier League.
Real Madrid newbie Takefusa Kubo is not the only potentially top class talent in Japanese football.
But, as fans of Portugal’s Primeira Liga will tell you, Shoya Nakajima has been brimming with potential for a while now. He shone for unfancied Portimonense, producing 10 goals and 13 assists during the 2017/18 campaign, with a number of English clubs seemingly willing to take a rather expensive punt on a 24-year-old playmaker.
Though in the space of just two months, it seems that both Southampton and Wolves threw away golden chances to bring Nakajima to England.
The Mirror (8 November, page 58) reported that Southampton had identified Nakajima as Dusan Tadic’s replacement. Wolves, meanwhile, were apparently close to sealing an £18 million deal for him during the January transfer window (A Bola).
Portimonense’s president Rodiney Sampiao even told Radio Renascenca that Nakajima’s move to Molineux was 80 per cent done.
By the end of January, however, Nakajima was on his way to Qatar instead with Al-Duhail paying a staggering £30 million (Transfermarkt). But, five months later, everyone is talking about the Tokyo-born talent again.
He has seized his chance at the Copa America to show everyone what all the fuss is about. And after a wonderful performance against Ecuador, which included a perfectly weighted lob which clipped the bar on its way in, Wolves and Southampton should be wondering what might have been.
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