The fans call him “Keizer Keisuke”, Emperor Keisuke. It’s a fitting nickname for VVV Venlo’s Japanese midfield star. The young Japanese play-maker has been the inspirational for VVV this season and last.
Honda is the driving force in midfield for the current leader in the Dutch Jupiler League. Only 21 years of age, Honda has a mature style of play and he is already capable of dictating the tempo in a match. A pretty impressive achievement for a such a young player, active in a foreign and strange league.
Honda was brought to VVV’s attention by their former manager Sef Vergoossen. Vergoossen had trained Nagoya Grampus Eight in the Japanese J-League for a season, before returning to Holland to take over at PSV. After his return, he tipped off VVV regarding Honda.
VVV brought in Honda during the winter-break and the youngster looked pretty impressive. He managed to play 14 games and scoring one goal (from a trademark free-kick) in the second half of the season and was generally one of VVV’s best players, together with revelation Nordin Amrabat.
When the yellow-blacks from Venlo were relegated at the end of the season, everyone expected Honda to make a transfer to one of the top flight teams. None of the top flight teams were interested, however. There was some interest from J-League clubs, but Honda wanted to stay in Europe.
After playing for Japan in the Olympics, Keisuke has returned and he seems to be leading VVV to the title in the Jupiler League. His inspired passing and trademark free-kicks are exceptional this season.
Keisuke Honda takes on NEC's Peter Wisgerhof.
This warrants one important question. Why are Dutch scouts blind to Keisuke's skills? After having seen some of the foreign drab signed this summer, I’m still wondering why clubs splash out cash on players that have never played in our domestic league before, especially when you know there’s a cheap and talented alternative available from within the own leagues.
8 comments Last one added 6 months ago — Leave a Comment
Shyam Parthasarathi 9 months ago
I certainly will.. great article Guido.
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Guido 9 months ago
Thank you Shyam.
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Yoosof Farah 9 months ago
good article guido. i sure will remember his name :)
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Guido 9 months ago
Thanks Yoosof.
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Pat Mc 8 months ago
I only just found this, but it's a great article.
You'd think another club might take a chance on Honda after PSV' success with excellent Korean players.
However Honda is following the tried-and-tested method of breaking into successfully Europe for Asians: sign on with a relegation-battle side that is forced to field their best players, make a name for yourself there. Then secure a move to a side with UEFA Cup or CL aspirations.
Let's just hope Celtic doesn't swoop in for the kill. Eredivisie is much higher quality (and better suited for Japans' style) than the thuggish SPL in my opinion. VVV should be right back in the mix next year.
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Guido 8 months ago
They're on an impressive winning streak so far, so I expect them to secure the title this season. Honda's been impressive so far, five goals and six assists in nine matches. Thanks for the compliments by the way, Pat.
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illya mclellan 6 months ago
how is he going now any transfer rumours?
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Guido 6 months ago
Still nothing confirmed. He's made a statement he wishes to remain at VVV until the end of the season to win a title with them. After that, who knows... He's still being linked to various teams, but nothing solid as of yet.
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