Japan to Germany is a step up made glamourous in the last year by Shinji Kagawa, whose impact for Bundesliga winners Borussia Dortmund was enormous despite his absence in the second half of the season. The Cerezo Osaka playmaker joined BVB ahead of the 2010/11 season and was an integral part of their emphatic winter championship, scoring seven goals in 18 matches before suffering a fractured metatarsal in action for Japan at the Asian Cup in January.
Atsuto Uchida, Shinji Okazaki and Makoto Hasebe are all playing in the German top flight and will be joined next season by a prodigious talent from Cerezo’s city rivals, Gamba Osaka. Takashi Usami, Gamba’s youngest ever player and goalscorer, will be playing under Jupp Heynckes for German giants Bayern Munich next season on a year-long loan, at the end of which Bayern will decide whether to take up the option to sign him for a fee that would frankly be dirt cheap. And the question on lips in Bavaria and Osaka prefecture alike is a simple one: Can Takashi Usami make a mark on the Bundesliga?
Highly-rated Usami came through the youth ranks at Nagaokakyo SC, his hometown club in Kyoto, and Gamba, before signing professional terms with the Ashi ahead of the 2009 J-League season. He made his senior debut in an AFC Champions League group match against Korea’s FC Seoul in May 2009 (a matter of days after his 17th birthday) and took a little over an hour to add youngest Gamba goalscorer to the youngest Gamba player record he took from Junichi Inamoto at kick off. Springing a poor offside trap, Usami raced onto a through ball, controlled it and slotted it confidently past the Seoul goalkeeper and he’s barely looked back since.
His 2009 appearances in the J-League were few and far between but in 2010 he became a regular fixture and was named the top flight’s best young player, reportedly attracting interest from Louis van Gaal before the latter’s departure from the Allianz Arena.
It’s easy to see why Bayern’s interest in the youngster has endured despite van Gaal’s messy exit from the club. Although he tends to be played as an attacking midfielder and particularly out wide on the left, and questions have been raised about his ability to perform in every game (par for the course at 19, one could argue), he’s got all the attributes to make a very high quality support striker and ability to burn. He has wonderful close control and lovely balance, making him a fluid dribbler at speed as he skates over the grass when on the ball. He possesses a crisp and powerful shot with both feet and scores spectacular goals, but also has a deceptive and handy knack for creating chances inside the area, including occasionally with his head. He can pass, too - not too shabby.
His numbers reflect the fact that he doesn’t achieve all this on a regular enough basis yet, and he’ll have to do so if he’s got any hope of carving out a reputation for himself in Germany. To date, he’s still only scored nine times in the league for Gamba (in 37 appearances), although his record for the Samurai Blue under-17 and under-19 sides is much better, thanks in part to a very impressive hat-trick against Vietnam in the AFC Under-19 Championships last October.
Usami’s signing for a team looking to bounce back from a severe case of bruised pride. Bayern Munich are the all-engulfing behemoth of German football and the club management and supporters don’t take any kind of failure lightly. Bouncing back is the only option, and to that end Heynckes will be charged with returning the Bundesliga trophy to Munich this season. They finished third last season, three points behind Bayer Leverkusen and fully ten points shy of BVB as Jürgen Klopp’s side took the division by storm. In truth a stronger Bayern might have caught Dortmund, who did falter on a few occasions during the second half of the season. Make no mistake, 2011/12 will be a big season in the minds of Uli Hoeness and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
Where does Usami fit into all that? On the face of it it’s not clear that he does, at least in the short term. Although we don’t yet know the entirety of Bayern’s summer transfer dealings, FC Bayern Report (in a great post that puts a few thought-provoking question marks over the deal) reels off a neat list of players with whom Usami will in theory be competing for playing time. Toni Kroos, Thomas Müller, Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben form a formidable barrier to Usami’s immediate prospects at Bayern and will likely severely limit his opportunities to impress and clinch a permanent in the first team. One can only assume that he’ll be judged elsewhere, whether that be around first team training or with Bayern II, which (as FCBR notes) would seem a poor decision for all parties.
To make a snap judgement, Usami is clearly a very exciting prospect with a penchant for the eye-catching and a delightful deftness of touch that makes seeing highlights of him in full flow a real joy. However, it’s difficult to see him getting enough time on the field to have the same kind of effect on Bundesliga that Kagawa enjoyed in his superb first few months in Germany. Breaking through in one season at Bayern is a massive demand to make of a teenager and he’s yet to demonstrate enough consistent quality to put him on Kagawa’s level, even if the moments are arguably even better.
With that in mind, perhaps he might develop faster at a lower-ranked club that would be able to give him more frequent first team experience. On the other hand, if Bayern’s approach here is long term and the loan and option are mere formalities, they could have a genuine bargain on their hands. Time will tell, and we can only hope he sees enough of the pitch next season for us to enjoy a few Usami specials on the big stage.
Tags: Bayern Munich, Gamba Osaka, Japan, Jupp Heynckes, Takashi Usami
Toni Kroos, Thomas Müller, Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben form a formidable barrier, however, competing for 3 spots in a 4231, what likelihood that 3 of those four will fill 90 minutes of matches this season. Perhaps pinch hitting [if] when one of those are unavailable will be the way to bed in in his first season, and perhaps he forms a succession plan if any of those become disgruntled and seek a move away from Bayern.