"My son is turning 20 this year. He is moving up to high school, he played football, more for his father than himself. He’s since given up. But when he was in elementary school, his teammates would practice in this Kobe neighborhood park. They say this ‘Oniichan’ (older kid) about three years older than them would practice there as well and he’d tell these little kids, “gather around” and start an impromptu football school of sorts. The kid was better than everyone else, skilled. He’d slip through everyone and right when he had the goal, he’d always pass it to one of the younger kids and let them take the shot. The kids really got into football in that park, saying they wanted to become J-League stars. Some years later, when these kids were in Jr. High school, they were watching a J-League game and one of them says “Hey, that’s Oniichan, that’s the guy that was teaching us football at the park”. I couldn’t believe it, that older kid was Shinji Kagawa. My son’s teammates who played with Kagawa in that park, still play football. It’s ‘too bad’ my son never learned from Shinji.” - Former JNT striker Akihito Nagashima
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 16:12:09 +0000
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