Liverpool reportedly interested in signing LASK Linz's "New Takumi Minamino & Kaoru Mitoma", Japan U21s international wonderkid Keito Nakamura..

2023-03-02 18:27

Liverpool reportedly interested in signing LASK Linz




Daily Telegraph journalist Mike McGrath exclusively reported on Wednesday that Liverpool is interested in signing LASK Linz's Japan U21s international attacking midfielder wonderkid Keito Nakamura.


According to the report, Liverpool head coach Jürgen Klopp admired by the trends of many clubs among Europe Big 5 leagues are working on the model of developing young Japanese players who are not far off the level of current world-class players very much. Chief among them, he was particular impressed with the model of Celtic, who in recent years has gained the moniker of J1 League top players go-to hub, as well as Brighton & Hove Albion who was renowned for being the club who took a chance of Kaoru Mitoma who were unheard of two years ago, but now have become a big player who has attracted the the attention of many big European clubs as the main reasons that he think about emulating such formulas.


McGrath said that in order to be in the driving seat before other clubs took notice of his talent, Klopp has agreed to pursue the signature of Nakamura under the recommendation of the club scouts. It is reported that Augsburg, Brighton, Arsenal and Red Bull Salzburg also are also very interested in signing the Japanese wonderkid. Eintracht Frankfurt even submitted a €8 million bid to LASK Linz, but Nakamura rejected having had no intention to move away halfway through a season.


McGrath also added that since Klopp and many the club's assistant coaches had felt that since the Reds allowed multipurpose attacking stalwart Takumi Minamino to leave the club last summer, they did not choose to find a player who was able to match his levels as his replacement, as a result, the club is now caught in a transitional period where they had to heavily rely on Mohammed Salah, Robert Firmino, Diogo Jota, Luis Díaz, Darwin Núñez, Harvey Eliott, Fabio Carvalho, as well as new signing Cody Gakpo for goals, therefore, Liverpool decided to join the transfer battle to compete for Nakamura's signature.




About Keito Nakamura


Like Kaoru Mitoma and Takumi Minamino, who can play in multiple positions such as attacking midfielder, winger or auxiliary center forward, and has the reputation of "New Generation of the aforementioned duo", Nakamura, who was born in Abiko, Chiba on July 28 2000, is 1.8 meters tall and was a member of the school team during his childhood.


With excellent talents during elementary school years, he has caught the attention of J1 League club Kashiwa Reysol. After receiving scholarship from Mitsubishi, he was arranged to join the famous car manufacturing company's affiliated Kanto League side Mitsubishi Yowa's youth academy.


During his middle school years, Nakamura has begun to represent the Japan U17s national team. Later, during the U17s World Cup, he received a lot of attention because of his excellent performances during the FIFA U17s World Cup, but he chose to stay in Japan and sign for J1 League side Gamba Osaka in 2018.


In February of the same year, Nakamura, who was still 17 year-old at the time, completed his Gamba Osaka first-team debut by coming on as a substitute and became one of the club's youngest players in the history.


In July 2019, Nakamura was signed by Twente on-loan, and then ushered in the chance of tasting European football for the first time in his career.


During his one-year spell with the Eredivisie club, Nakamura who was performing really well even shocked many by scoring against both giants, PSV Eindhoven and Ajax in the league.


In the following year and a half, Nakamura was successively loaned-out to Sint-Truiden and Juniors OÖ, but his performances were average. Despite so, he still won the opportunity to join LASK Linz for €800,000 in the summer of 2018.


Since joining LASK Linz, Nakamura has quickly established himself as a key player of the first-team with excellent performances, and even began to become a member of the Japan U21s national team last year.


So far this season, Nakamura has played 22 times for the Austrian Bundesliga side, scoring 13 goals and assisting 6 times.




About Kaoru Mitoma


The 25 year-old Kaoru Mitoma is born on May 20, 1997 in Miyagaki District, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, with a height of 1.78 meters. He studied the Physical Sports during his college years. During his studies, he went to Naples to participate in a tournament and won as champion. After graduating from college, he joined the Kawasaki Frontale and won the J1 League, the Japanese Emperor Cup and the Japanese Super Cup with the club.


Mitoma joined Brighton in August 2021, but after joining, he was loaned-out to its Jupiler Pro League sister club Union SG. After returning to the club last summer, Mitoma quickly established himself as one Brighton's key player in the first team with his wonderful performances, and even became one of the Seagulls' biggest contributors after scoring to help the club upset and shockingly emilinate defending champions Liverpool in the FA Cup.




About Takumi Minamino


As for the 28 year-old Takumi Minamino, after winning multiple Austrian Bundesliga, Austrian Cup, and Austrian Super Cup with Red Bull Salzburg in his early career, he transferred to Liverpool in January 2020.


In his a-year-and-a-half spell with the Reds, Minamino played 55 times for the club across all competitions, scoring 14 goals, assisting 3 times, won 1 Premier League, 1 Carabao Cup and 1 English FA Cup with the club. He was also the biggest contributor who helped Liverpool reached the FA Cup final last season. 


During this time, he also briefly played for Southampton on-loan. He is currently playing for AS Monaco.


So far, Minamino has made 19 appearances in all competitions for the Ligue 1 giants, scoring 1 goal and assisting 4 times.