Hiroshi Kiyotake will be the latest Japanese up-and-coming youngster to leave Cerezo Osaka and move to Germany after various media outlets “revealed” the badly-kept secret that the U-23 star will move to the Bundesliga’s FC Nuremburg in the European summer transfer window. In a nutshell, the deal had been on the cards for months but both parties were waiting for confirmation that the team would still be in Germany’s top division for next season. Nuremburg were also reported to have shown interest in Takashi Inui and Takashi Usami, both of who are still on their radar – what a trio that would be for the German team!
Kiyotake’s agent, Yoshinori Nishimata of JSP, revealed to me last week that the deal was 99.9% done and the full details would be released as soon as possible. It appears that Cerezo Osaka will be getting a fee somewhere a little closer to a “real” value – compared to the paltry fee that Borussia Dortmund paid the club for Shinji Kagawa – around 1 million Euros is the quote making the rounds. The player himself smiled quietly to himself, and kept his lips sealed when I quizzed him about it on Sunday…. wait and see! Or more of a case of I can’t talk about it, YET!
In an interview for Issue 2 of JSoccer Magazine last autumn, Kiyotake spoke about a move to Europe, and did not deny that he had his heart set on a move abroad sooner rather than later, but said that he couldn’t really discuss it in detail at that time! I noted that he should at least wait until after the Olympics – I actually meant to wait to make the DECISION, not the actual move but, hey, I did my best!
In the last year teams as disparate as Manchester City, Leicester City, Rangers, Feyenoord, and most of Germany have been keeping tabs on the player as he made the successful graduation from the Olympic youngsters to the full national team and Nuremburg faced interest from other clubs, but, with the JSP – Thomas Kroth (executive director of the agency PRO Profil) connections, it was only ever going to be the Bundesliga for Kiyotake!
Personally I would have hoped that Kiyotake would wait until the end of the 2012 season, rack up a few National team appearances, and have more of a choice of club to move to (in England’s Premier League, for example, a player needs to have played in 75% of the last two years’ national team games) in 2013 but he and his agents have taken this step before the player has had the chance to qualify for that Premier League visa! I expect Manchester City will keep tabs on “Kiyo” and, in a few years Nuremburg will be cashing in, while the agents count their percentages, too!
As for Cerezo Osaka, they replaced Shinji Kagawa. They did without Takashi Inui. They moved on from Akihiro Ienaga. Saying sayonara to Hiroshi Kiyotake is just business as usual for the J.League’s most inconsistent club – perhaps I can give a hint as to why they’re having trouble putting together that winning feeling that they seek season after season!