Marked for Kento Doan
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Sep 2029
Alexander Scholz damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Marcelo Ryan
26 goals and a season average of 7.36 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market24 Sep 2029
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marcelo Ryan wants continental football; whether FC Tokyo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words exchanged at FC Tokyo
Takahiro Ko and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
Soma Anzai runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Sep 2029
A row about effort at FC Tokyo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kei Koizumi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
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Loan watch24 Sep 2029
Hayate Tanaka’s loan is measured in nothing happening
13 clean sheets from 31 appearances at Kashima Antlers. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
Nicolai Vallys, 33, rolls back the years — 8.16
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.16 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
Nobody could get near Soma Anzai
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market27 Aug 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market27 Aug 2029
Yuma Obata wants European nights
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The dugout27 Aug 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Transfer targets27 Aug 2029
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. FC Tokyo will try again when the window opens; Vissel Kobe may not be selling by then.
Match25 Aug 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nicolai Vallys. 1‑0 against Ventforet Kofu, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout27 Aug 2029
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Squad27 Aug 2029
A row about effort at FC Tokyo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Teruhito Nakagawa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match28 Jul 2029
The derby belongs to FC Tokyo
2‑0 against Urawa Reds, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
Squad30 Jul 2029
23 goals and a season average of 7.40. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
The deal with Shonan Bellmare is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The FC Tokyo support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
Market30 Jul 2029
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at FC Tokyo heard it as anything else.
Match28 Jul 2029
Nobody wants to play FC Tokyo right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words exchanged at FC Tokyo
Takahiro Ko and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
No deal for Jesiel at that price
FC Tokyo offered $39.0K; Kawasaki Frontale said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Kei Koizumi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings25 Jun 2029
Two goals and a mark of 8.63 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market25 Jun 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Tokyo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad25 Jun 2029
The medical room confirms 46 days on the sidelines for Alexander Scholz, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market25 Jun 2029
FC Tokyo may not be able to give Yuma Obata what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Yuma Obata wants continental football; whether FC Tokyo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Boardroom25 Jun 2029
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Yasuki Kimoto has agreed terms with Kawasaki Frontale for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Marcelo Ryan is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.27 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Takahiro Ko was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match23 Jun 2029
Shonan Bellmare made FC Tokyo work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Boardroom25 Jun 2029
Sanfrecce Hiroshima will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Takaaki Shichi has pre-agreed a move to FC Tokyo, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match23 May 2029
The cup run ends for FC Tokyo
1‑3 against Jubilo Iwata, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad28 May 2029
78 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match26 May 2029
5 matches without a win for FC Tokyo
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around FC Tokyo are no longer polite ones.
Market28 May 2029
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at FC Tokyo heard it as anything else.
Squad28 May 2029
Takahiro Ko in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Tokyo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 May 2029
Kei Koizumi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout28 May 2029
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Player ratings28 May 2029
Ninety minutes of Leon Nozawa at his very best
Marked 8.19. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at FC Tokyo.
Player ratings28 May 2029
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.87 on the card, and the FC Tokyo support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Apr 2029
Takahiro Ko in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Tokyo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Kei Koizumi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match28 Apr 2029
Three points for FC Tokyo, 1‑0 the final word against Ventforet Kofu in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
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Player ratings30 Apr 2029
Marked 7.96 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, FC Tokyo had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Hajime Kamada could afford to be generous.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
Kim Seung Gyu has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at FC Tokyo will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market30 Apr 2029
Soma Anzai linked with a move away
The name of Soma Anzai keeps appearing in other people's back pages. FC Tokyo say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match31 Mar 2029
Derby days make names, and Shosei Usui made his against Urawa Reds. 2‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
Squad2 Apr 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daiki Minamino
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. FC Tokyo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings2 Apr 2029
The derby has a name on it: Soma Anzai
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and FC Tokyo supporters have already started telling it.
Match31 Mar 2029
Another one collected away from home
5 on the bounce on the road for FC Tokyo. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Squad2 Apr 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kim Seung Gyu and FC Tokyo agree another 2 years.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Takahiro Ko in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Tokyo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
Kashiwa Reysol will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Jin Okumura has pre-agreed a move to FC Tokyo, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
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Squad2 Apr 2029
Teruhito Nakagawa falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match3 Mar 2029
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad5 Mar 2029
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match3 Mar 2029
FC Tokyo make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now FC Tokyo have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Takahiro Ko in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Tokyo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets5 Mar 2029
The window shuts on the Ten Miyagi deal
FC Tokyo ran out of time with Nagoya Grampus. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Marcelo Ryan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.63. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad5 Mar 2029
100 goals for the club, every one of them filed away in the memory of a supporter somewhere.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
A performance of 9.50 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words at FC Tokyo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kei Koizumi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Feb 2029
The bid was some way short and FC Tokyo did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market5 Feb 2029
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Takahiro Ko in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Tokyo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Soma Anzai falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Alexander Scholz has moved up it.
Market5 Feb 2029
Kento Doan told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Kento Doan has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at FC Tokyo.
Market5 Feb 2029
Soma Anzai linked with a move away
The name of Soma Anzai keeps appearing in other people's back pages. FC Tokyo say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market29 Jan 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market29 Jan 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Tokyo can pretend not to have heard.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Takahiro Ko was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
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Squad29 Jan 2029
A row about effort at FC Tokyo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Teruhito Nakagawa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
Soma Anzai has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at FC Tokyo will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market29 Jan 2029
The Yuma Obata story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yuma Obata signs something — a contract at FC Tokyo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
Fuki Yamada has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Fuki Yamada has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Jan 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad1 Jan 2029
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. FC Tokyo had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” FC Tokyo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad1 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Tokyo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Soma Anzai falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
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The dugout1 Jan 2029
Hirokazu Ishihara has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at FC Tokyo will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad1 Jan 2029
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Keita Yamashita has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
Shosei Usui asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words exchanged at FC Tokyo
Hirokazu Ishihara and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad20 Nov 2028
A row about effort at FC Tokyo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Soma Anzai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
The manager makes an example of Motoki Nagakura
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market20 Nov 2028
The name of Nicolai Vallys keeps appearing in other people's back pages. FC Tokyo say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Kai Shibato has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Kai Shibato has written the date down.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Kim Seung Gyu has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Kento Doan is not doing himself any favours
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
Boardroom20 Nov 2028
FC Tokyo keep producing them
32 graduates from an academy now rated 11 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at FC Tokyo
Hirokazu Ishihara and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at FC Tokyo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Soma Anzai is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Shosei Usui, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Oct 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kento Doan and FC Tokyo agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad23 Oct 2028
5 new faces, and FC Tokyo are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
Marcelo Ryan gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Marcelo Ryan is on it.
Market23 Oct 2028
The name of Nicolai Vallys keeps appearing in other people's back pages. FC Tokyo say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
Shion Homma knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at FC Tokyo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at FC Tokyo. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.