最近の日本のスポーツニュースでは、メジャーリーグでの日本人選手の活躍が大きく取り上げられているが、日本人サッカー選手もイギリスで活躍してもらいたい。日本とイギリス双方にとってよい影響をもたらすことになるだろう。
We all know about the effect
of Japanese baseball stars making
it big in the Major leagues, you can't escape their success. It's the top
news item in all sports
bulletins these days.
Ichiro and his friends have
taken the American game by
storm, not just because they are good sportsmen but because they are stylish
gentlemen who know how to win (but also how to lose gracefully).
Japan has also been exporting its top soccer players lately. Of course,
Hidetoshi Nakata has
long been
charming the Italians, but Junichi Inamoto has just joined Arsenal,
one of Britain's oldest and toughest clubs,
and Akinori Nishizawa has joined the Bolton
Wanderers. I wonder if they can have the same effect on the yobbish
culture of British football
that the baseball stars have had in the States?
That is probably not the reason the British clubs have
signed up the Japanese players. West
Ham's manager, who failed to secure a Japanese player, was not that
disappointed. He said that by just bidding
for Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, West Ham had sold 200,000 soccer shirts in Japan.
Fast
bucks, or
in this case pounds, and not interest in the players is the motive
for many British clubs to sign Japanese players. Japanese football fans are some
of the most devoted
in the world, especially in their capacity to buy soccer souvenirs.
If Japanese players join foreign clubs it also means lucrative
TV broadcasting contracts
in Japan because fans want to keep
up with their favorite footballers.
But the Japanese players could make this an opportunity to show the British
how soccer can be a game for all the family like it is in Japan, not
dominated by thuggery
or racist
taunts from the stands. If enough Japanese fans follow their heroes to their
new clubs they are likely to make a big impression on the local supporters.
During the 1998 World Cup in France, Japanese spectators
stunned
their hosts by taking their rubbish
home with them. In Britain, spectators are more likely to hurl
it on to the pitch.
But there's another opportunity for the Japanese players, too. While the
culture surrounding British soccer is a national
disgrace, what happens on the field is often first-class soccer. Japanese
players can learn a lot from playing with these top teams.
Japanese soccer needs a
shot in the arm right now and the success of players overseas may help. It
could also raise excitement about the forthcoming
World Cup. Even if the ticketing troubles mean real soccer fans won't get into
the matches, I hope that many people will get into the spirit of the tournament
and watch it on TV.
Soccer is a great game, plagued
though it is by violence and commercialism.
It builds team spirit, a competitive
edge and it's a very good way of keeping
fit. These
are reasons to enjoy soccer that
the game's country
of origin seems
to have long forgotten. Perhaps, just as it has done with baseball, Japan
can remind the world what
soccer is
meant to be about.