We sat down with the creator behind "Sorare Japan" - a Patreon service dedicated to informing the community of all the goings on in Japan's football leagues.
This is the first in a new series of articles focusing on the good work the community of Sorare users do to help other managers get the best from their experience on the game.
What's your background as far as football goes? Are you involved in the industry or just somebody who loves to dig deeper into the Japanese game?
Football has always been my passion since I was old enough to kick a ball (or try to!). I travelled the world a lot for my work and on arrival, or even before, I'd find a team to watch and a team to play for. On arrival in Japan for what was a short contract over 30 years ago (!) I did the usual and, as I stayed longer and longer, J.League was being formed and I've followed it, written about it and managed to get "inside it" since the beginning in 1993. So, yes, you could say I'm "in the industry" and all those young players I knew in 1993 and onwards are now managers, coaches, scouts, agents, team owners even... it's been a long and exciting ride so far. And I have some great contacts!
Last season saw Yokohama F Marinos run out winners, and Vissel Kobe surprise everyone for the opposite reason! What would your predictions be for the season ahead?
Might well be the opposite this year. F.Marinos manager, Kevin Muscat, inherited the finished article from Ange Postecoglou and I feel they won the league in the end, despite Muscat's management! He did seem to learn that a settled team works near the end, which helped them hold on to the title. If he learned a lesson, they may challenge again. As for Vissel... injuries, managerial changes, and some severe waves of illness (read Covid, but J.League never confirm anything in that vein) knocked them down early on but they were coming good as the season ended. Watch out for Sanfrecce Hiroshima continuing in their upward vein as their manager keeps up the good work, while you can never rule out Kawasaki Frontale, can you!? Urawa Reds and Gamba Osaka would be my dark horses. Kashima Antlers a surprise struggler, perhaps.
Japan seems to have very little by way of news and transfers online anywhere - especially for English speakers / readers. Did you notice this yourself when you decided to create your newsletter service?
Indeed, the lack of clarity, or even over-secretive nature of teams here means there is little or no up-to-date injury news available in Japan. Press don't ask the questions because they know managers won't answer. Mutual understanding or the press being scared of embarrassment if they ask the "wrong" question means rare official injury news. No pre-match press conferences (coupled with the lack of injury news and no one actually pushing for news) is the complete opposite of some leagues around the world. I began by helping out a few people who knew me from social media and told me they needed news for this new thing, "Sorare"! Then I was encouraged to create the Sorare Japan subscription service. It's certainly saved many a DNP (which was the original idea) but I'm also proud to say I'm often told that some inside info, as well as advice here and there, has helped many managers reap rewards, too. Getting players and team staff to talk is a careful process of not asking too much and keeping them all friendly!
We've seen a lot of talent leave Japan for Europe in the past few seasons - which 3 players would you tip to be the next players to make that move?
I was about to say Yusuke Matsuo of Urawa Reds has been a big favourite of mine, but he actually skipped off a few days ago! Gamba (fromer Bellmare) 'keeper Kosei Tani is a player who must get a chance, though hopefully he gets a year at Gamba as starter (in 2024, not quite this season with Masaaki Higashiguchi still in fine form) before he moves on.
Koya Yuruki at Vissel Kobe is another player I love, and is interesting teams overseas already, too, and could be on the move later this season or next.
These guys are already established but with the success of Celtic's foray into Japan, and various other players, as well as Japan's victories over Spain and germany in the World Cup, any good young Japanese player will be looked at and offered a contract at any team that can afford them - and they're not expensive, usually! Certainly compared to European prices! Sanfrecce FW Mitsuta, Reysol FW Hosoya, Cerezo FW Kato all have teams watching them and there are many more. if a European, or overseas team in general is not watching Japanese players they need to reorganise their scouting systems!
Name 5 players you think could have a break out season this year.
Depends what you call break out! Absolutely new to the league players? Players who've settled in but not really shone yet? I'll go for players who will start a lot and score well... two players who were injured a lot and will surely return with a bang - Ryotaro Araki at Kashima Antlers, Yuki Yamamoto at Gamba suffered last season but if they can stay fit, will be stars in 2023. Yoshio Koizumi at Urawa Reds may also benefit from the team losing Junker and Matsuo and get more time in attacking MF or even as a second striker. Ryuji Izumi returned to Nagoya Grampus from Kashima Antlers and could benefit from Yuki Soma moving away to fill in there. I have a sneaky feeling about him! Watch out for Shota Kwasaki and Shunpei Fukuoka at Kyoto Sanga. The team may struggle so they may not seem to be "breaking out" but they will do enough for moves to bigger clubs sooner, rather than later. Shonan Bellmare GK Song Bum-keun should be able to take over seamlessly from Kosei Tani and well worth looking at, investing in, I think.
Sorare announced recently that their deadline for setting teams will change - this could have an effect on Asia as a competition - do you see it having an effect on the Japanese division very much given there are quite a lot of Friday fixtures through the season? At the moment I am more worried that the J.League licence will not be renewed. Knowing J.League as well as I do, asking for more (too much) after a little success is their way of doing things. They may push Sorare too much and lose out on all the interest that Sorare has created for this league. I've not really looked at it too much as there's nothing that can be done, but having Friday night games in midweek will supposedly split the galleries of the smaller manager and that's not a good thing. I'm not sure if that's worse than double gameweeks - the loss of utility / less games for players to be used in. Either or both are basically Asia getting the shaft, though, it seems, as European games would not be affected at all, so why change it? To give European managers a few extra hours to get more info from press conferences, etc.? We get nothing of that in Asia anyway, be happy you get something! It's not going to change, though, is it? So hopefully someone, somewhere (The Americas?) benefited.
J League looks like they may be stalling on signing a deal for this season with Sorare - although Nicolas has assured users on twitter they are confident of licensing and covering the league still. Does this concern you at all?
I am sure Sorare are doing all they can while J.League try to hold them to ransom and get more out of Sorare. I'm not sure J.League can demand more, though. They already restrict their allowance of showing games around the world too much, in the hope they can sell rights more, or for more, and then fail. They could do so much more to spread the word around the world but usually end up failing to take opportunities. I hope they do not force Sorare to tell J.League where to stick it!
What can people who sign up to your newsletter expect to get from signing up?
Hopefully the research on injuries, illness and inside info will at least hold back the DNPs. And those who sign up for the basic (Limited) service (5 Euros per month on Patreon) get those files to help in that way before every gameweek. There is also a Discord server for Sorare Japan subscribers. There is also a Rare subscription (10 Euros per month) that gets the files, Discord server and also DM access for advice on galleries, or team entries if needed. There is even a Super rare service (25 Euros per month) where we can become best friends and really help a manager reap some rewards or gain ETH in trades!
Where can people sign up?
The Patreon link https://www.patreon.com/SorareJapan?fan_landing=true has all details and choices, the pinned tweet on Twitter @SorareJapan gives plenty of details, or just DM on Twitter, Discord or mail SorareJapan@gmail.com. If Patreon is not an option, or another way of payment is preferred, contact Sorare Japan directly for a better annual deal in ETH, via Paypal or even UK bank transfer). Open to anything!
️⚽️ Sign up for Sorare using this link and you'll get a free card once you have won your first 5 auctions: https://sorare.pxf.io/Stish