Ida Bagus Dwi Ambara, soon to be better known in Japan as Kento Toyoda was born in Bali, Indonesia and is currently playing for Yokogawa Musashino FC in the Japan Football League (JFL), Japan’s 3rd tier after J1 and J2.

Kento, who was born on May 3rd, 1994 (175 cm/72 kg for those all-important stats that the Japanese love to mention so often!) is the second son of Ida Bagus Putu Dirga – his Indonesian father – and Yuko Toyoda, his Japanese mother.

Kento’s footballing talent has been obvious since his childhood and, in order to improve on this, he played with Canggu Football Academy, Bali Bintang Football Academy, and Udiyana Sanur Football Academy, before he was eventually selected to play for the U15 & U18 teams of Perseden Denpasar, a professional football club based in Bali.

In early 2012, Kento decided to leave Bali and went for a trial with Musashino FC after being told by one of his colleagues about the opportunity. He passed the first stage of the selection process, where he was up against another 50 players. In the second stage, in which 20 players took part, Kento impressed enough and the club offered him a contract.

Besides his footballing talent during the trial with Yokogawa Musashino, Kento recognized that his ability to speak Japanese surely helped his efforts to succeed with the Tokyo-based football club.

“I am grateful to be able to speak Japanese,” said the midfielder in Bali’s local newspaper some time ago.

After several months of training with Yokogawa, Kento has noted that the training intensity and level in Japan is much higher and more disciplined than in Indonesia but, unfortunately, Kento is currently undergoing rehabilitation, after knee surgery in Tokyo, due to an injury suffered during that training with Yokogawa.

For more on Kento Toyoda and other Indonesian Talent (in Bahasa Indonesian!) check out http://indonesiantalent.blogspot.jp/

Follow the man himself on Twitter @kent_09 !

Get 500 yen to JSoccer Magazine Towers any way you can (Paypal, cash, stamps, Post office, bank, pony express) and you can get the PDF of Issue 5 now!
Shimisu S-Pulse (inc. interviews with Alex Brosque and Afshin Ghotbi), Tomoaki Makino, Yuki Otsu, Maya Yoshida, Shinji Kagawa, Hiroshi Kiyotake and the Nadeshiko Olympic team – in red – POSTER pages, why Omiya Ardija are where they are, summer transfer round-up, exclusive pictures from Tsuneyasi Miyamoto’s Testimonial, Kyoto Sanga, Machida Zelvia, J1/J2/JFL promotion and relegation explained, all the web sites you need to follow Japanese Football in English, a look at Tom Byer, the Mascots of J2, and an interview (and pics – old and new) with J.League legend Alcindo is not ALL you’ll get, but it’s a good start!

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Exclusive cover with Alex Brosque celebrating a goal for Shimizu S-Pulse – inside a feature on the team, including interviews with Alex and S-Pulse coach Afshin Ghotbi.

Double-page full colour poster of Nadeshiko Japan’s silver medal winning team at London 2012.

Exclusive pictures from Tsuneyasu Miyamoto’s Testimonial – Nakata, Inamoto, Sidiclei, Alex and more!

J.League Legend – an interview with – and great pics of – Alcindo!

Summer transfer round-up by @MarioUrawa including poster pages of Shinji Kagawa (celebrating his first goal for Manchester United)and Hiroshi Kiyotake (saying goodbye to Cerezo Osaka and hello to Nuremberg).

Omiya Ardija – it’s their own fault they’re fighting against relegation – @AgentOrange2009 tells us why.

Machida Zelvia – Welcome to J2 by @J2_Kanto_Bites

Kyoto Sanga by @joebroadfoot

A look at the shirt(s) by @CND_MARINO

Poster page – Tomoaki Makino

Interview and feature on Tom Byer with HUGE thanks to @mcintinhos

J2 Mascots by @GunnerTNB and more.

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Joe Broadfoot aka BrawnSandwich of TheLooseCannon.co.uk and much more sat down next to me at Kyoto v. Yokoaham and we talked about all sorts of stuff from Kazu to Shinji Kagawa’s alleged porn star girlfriend and all points in between!