Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Lokomotiv keeping tabs on Japanese striker

With Lokomotiv eager to strengthen the attacking department, we must expect that a host of strikers will be linked with Lokomotiv over the upcoming months; and actually following Dzyuba, the next striker to be linked with a move to Moscow is Shinji Okazaki, a Japanese international striker.

Shinji Okazaki, who is able to play as a central forward or second striker, currently plays Shimizu S-Pulse of Japan. The striker, who participated in the last World Cup, is just 24 years old and despite such age he already racked up 34 appearances and scored 18 times for Japan. The Takarazuka born-striker has been improving considerably in recent months and it is thought that Lokomotiv may expect a stern challenge from various European clubs for the signature of the 1.74m striker.

Shinji, who had a good World Cup already declared that he is ready to move to Europe. He conceeded that although his preferred destiations are Italy and Germany, he would jump on the chance to gain some European experience by turning out for Lokomotiv.

Given that the Japanese league is not one which I follow, I can't judge the player, however I must conceede that his goal/appearance ratio is not bad at all. Actually some of goals can be viewed by clicking HERE. Moreover an interesting fact about the player is that the 15 goals he scored in 2009 enabled him to be named by IFFHS as The World Top Goal Scorer 2009.

Sounds a good player to me! Moreover, following the exploits of Shinji Kagawa, Makoto Hasebe and Keisuke Honda for Borussia Dortmund, Worlfsburg and CSKA Moscow respectively, I must say that the prospect of having a Japanese in our ranks sounds nothing but interesting!

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