Arsenal have announced that Takuma Asano will spend the 2016-17 season on loan with Stuttgart.
The 21 year old signed for the Gunners in July for a fee in the region of £5m, but because he lacks the necessary international caps he doesn’t qualify for a visa to play in England.
A year on loan should allow him to meet that requirement, assuming he continues to feature for the national team.
Stuttgart currently play in the German second division, so it’s perhaps not as high profile a loan spell as we might have liked, but playing regular football and getting accustomed to European football will be part of the process.
Asano played for Japan at the Olympics this summer, and will be hoping his season in Germany will be enough for him to begin his North London adventure next season.
Good luck to him, and it’ll be interesting to see how he gets on there.
We all wish him well. I hope that move will progress him to the first team next season.
Should help him develop a bit further. Looks like a decent player having seen him play at the Olympics. Even though Stuttgart got relegated they are still a decent team with decent players. Lets all hope he scores some goals and gets his work permit for next season. COYG.
When i went to see them last season their strikers were really poor so he should be an upgrade and get plenty of minutes
Hope he makes it with us.. Looks decent.
Am confused as to how he can qualify to play in Germany but not in UK. It’s not post-Brexit yet; I thought work visas were currently harmonised?
What do I know?
He is himself not from the EU, so those rules wouldn’t apply to him in any case (i.e. the individual nation’s rules would come into play).
Have to admit your knowledge of visa rules is actually almost depressingly poor…
Requirements for work visas for non-EU nationals has never been harmonized across the EU. I only wish it had been earlier because Farage would have probably had a heart attack.
There you go; that’s what 13 years in Brussels has given me.
Goodluck Asano
“I’m sorry he did not cost 55million…”
I hope I am wrong but I rate he’ll be another Miyaichi/Chu Young. Japanese players don’t have a habit of working out in the EPL.
That’s a great sample of two, including one who’s Korean.
Baahahahahaaaaa
Yeah there are so many who have tried… Kagawa has been pretty ok for Dortmund and could have been for united too if given a proper role in the team.
I think you’re forgetting a certain Junichi Inamoto. He definitely wasn’t just bought for marketing purposes…
Okazaki just won the league title, not bad for a Japanese player
There are some who call me…Tim
Very good loan move for him! Hope he develops well.
One league cup appearance next season. Leg break during a champion’s league warm up. Loan move to Greece when he recovers. Bought by Bolton a year after that. Obscurity for a few years. Becomes a scout for Arsenal, based out in Japan.
10 goals at Stuttgart from 20 starts Next season at Arsenal: makes his first start in December when Giroud and Perez both injured. Scores a hattrick with every goal assisted by a Joel Campbell. Goes on to score twice in the CL playoffs against Barcelona where Arsenal go out by goal difference. After scoring 15 goals in 15 appearances is bought by PSG for 75 million €. Dyes his hair blonde and returns from off season with a 10% increase body weight. After a flop season with only 2 goals is bought by Fenebache for 7 million to partner Wayne… Read more »
In my version, I have us winning the Champions League
Being 21 means he’s probably not seen the world cup 98 commercial where Henry teams with Nakata and Totti and they win.
Will be interesting as the Bundesliga is a competitive league.
Good luck to him. They seem to like Japanese players in the Bundesliga. There’s an abundance of them there. He should feel relatively settled and it’s a strong league to test him out in.
I’m more surprised Stuttgart got relegated. Always had them as a decent mid table German club. Shows how little attention I pay.
Tbh I’m excited to watch him develop. I like his style of strikers, in the Suarez/Aguero mould.
But then, I was and still am a fan of Ryo Miyachi.
I was and still am a big fan of cones…
Still incredibly young and won’t be fully developed till 23yrs. Ditto Calum. Suspect this could be a big loan spell for Chambers. Fact is we need the porspect of younger players coming through. That does not necessarly mean they will be over recent seasons Wenger has been much more successful heralding in younger talent where he had issues with the Denilson generation. Partially this is due to the painful efforts to rebuild the squad with experience starting with the instrumental and crucial introduction of Arteta and Per. Since then, we have seen (despite some naysayers) Coquelin, Iwobi, Bellerin come through.… Read more »
Also Stuttgart recently signed another Japanese player, Hajime Hosogai, who’s been a bit of a journeyman around the Bundesliga having played for Leverkusen, Augsburg and Hertha Berlin. Will surely help the Asano settle in a bit.