Takefusa Kubo (born 4 June 2001), commonly known as Take Kubo, is a Japanese professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

right winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

club

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

and the Japan national team. He has been dubbed "Japanese Messi" by Japanese football fans because of his dribbling, shooting and playmaking ability.

Club career

Early career

At the age of seven, Takefusa Kubo started playing football for some local clubs in his hometown, Kawasaki. In August 2009, he was awarded the MVP at FC Barcelona Soccer Camp in which he participated at the age of eight. In April 2010, he was selected as a member of FC Barcelona School team and participated in Sodexo European Rusas Cup held in Belgium. He was awarded MVP even though his team finished third. After returning home, he began to play for the

Kawasaki Frontale is a Japanese professional football club based in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo. The club currently compete in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. Their home stadium is Kawasaki Todoroki Stadium i ...

junior youth team.

Barcelona

In August 2011, Takefusa Kubo had been invited to join FC Barcelona's youth Academy,

La Masia La Masia de Can Planes, usually shortened to La Masia (; ), is FC Barcelona's youth academy. It includes more than 300 young players and has been an instrumental factor in Barcelona's European success, producing several world class players and ...

, after passing the trial. He began to play for Barca Aleví C (U11). During his first full season (2012–13), he was top goalscorer in the league with 74 goals in 30 games. In his third full season (2014–15), he was promoted to Barca Infantil A (U14). The Spanish club was later found to have violated FIFA's international transfer policy for under-18 youths, making Kubo ineligible to play for the club. He returned to Japan in March 2015 in search of playing time, signing with

FC Tokyo , commonly known as , is a Japanese professional football club based in Chōfu, Tokyo. The club plays in the J1 League, the top tier of football in the country. From 2025, FC Tokyo is one of the few J.League clubs to be simply called ''Footb ...

’s junior youth team.

FC Tokyo

Takefusa Kubo joined

U-18 team in 2016. In September 2016, he was promoted to the senior side at the age of fifteen. On 5 November, he made his formal debut for the reserve team in the

J3 League or simply J3 is the third division of . It was established in 2013 as the third-tier professional association football league in Japan under the organization of J.League. The league is known as the for sponsorship reasons. The third-tier nation ...

as a halftime sub for match against

AC Nagano Parceiro AC Nagano Parceiro (AC長野パルセイロ, ''E Shī Nagano Paruseiro'') is a Japanese football club based in Nagano, capital of Nagano Prefecture. They play in the J3 League, Japanese third tier of professional football. Name origin The clu ...

. He made his professional debut at the J.League record of 15 years, five months and one day. On 15 April 2017 Kubo became the youngest player to score in the J.League at 15 years, ten months in a 1–0 win over Cerezo Osaka U-23. On 3 May, he top-flight debuted for the first-team in J.League YBC Levain Cup playing 25 minutes in a 1–0 win against

Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo is a Japanese professional football club based in Sapporo, on the island of Hokkaido. They will play in the 2025 J2 League, the second tier league of Japanese football, after relegation from the J1 League at conclusion of the 2024 season. Th ...

. In November 2017, FC Tokyo announced an update to Kubo's contract improving it to pay him as a first-team member.

Yokohama F. Marinos (loan)

On 16 August 2018, he joined Yokohama F. Marinos on a half-year loan. He immediately scored on his debut with ''Marinos'' in an away game against

Vissel Kobe is a Japanese professional football club based in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. They are currently the J1 League champions. The club's home stadium is Noevir Stad ...

. From the start of the 2019 season, Kubo became a regular starter for FC Tokyo in both the J.League YBC Levain Cup and J.League scoring goals in both competitions.

Real Madrid

On 14 June 2019, Kubo signed with Spanish club

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

on a five-year deal. Although registered with their U-19 team, he had been expected to mainly play for Real Madrid B during the 2019–20 season. However, he featured regularly with the first team during Real Madrid's preseason tour of the United States and Germany.

Mallorca (loan)

On 22 August 2019, Kubo joined

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...

on a season-long loan, becoming the third Japanese player in Mallorca history after Yoshito Ōkubo and

Akihiro Ienaga is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a winger for Kawasaki Frontale. He also formerly played for the Japan national team. Club career Born in Hyogo Prefecture, Ienaga began his career as a trainee with Gamba Osaka, one of the l ...

. On 1 September, he made his

debut, playing 15 minutes in a 2–0 loss to

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

. He became the youngest Japanese player in the Top 4 European leagues history that has played in a match with a record of 18 years, 2 months, and 28 days. On 10 November, he scored his first goal for the club in a 3–1 victory against

Villarreal Villarreal (officially, in ) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's capital ( ...

. He later scored his second goal in an entertaining 3–3 draw to

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It plays in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. It plays home ...

on 21 February 2020. Two weeks later, he scored a game-winner in a 2–1 victory over

Eibar Eibar (, ) is a city and municipality within the province of Gipuzkoa, in the Autonomous Community of Euskadi. It is the capital of the '' eskualde / comarca'' of Debabarrena. Eibar has 27,138 inhabitants ( Eustat, 2018). Its chief industry is ...

Loans to Villarreal and Getafe (loan)

On 10 August 2020, he was loaned to

until the end of the 2020–21 season. After being mainly used as a substitute, his loan was cut short on 8 January 2021. Immediately after leaving Villarreal, Kubo moved to fellow top-tier side

Getafe Getafe () is a municipalities in Spain, municipality and a city in Spain belonging to the Community of Madrid. , it has a population of 180,747, the region's sixth most populated municipality. Getafe is located 13 km south of Madrid's city c ...

on loan for the remainder of the season.

Return to Mallorca (loan)

On 12 August 2021, Kubo rejoined

on a season-long loan. On 4 December, Kubo scored a stoppage-time winner in a 2–1 victory at the Wanda Metropolitano against

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

Real Sociedad

On 19 July 2022, Kubo joined

on a permanent deal, becoming the first Japanese player to sign with the club. Kubo marked his debut by scoring the only goal in a 1–0 win away to

Cádiz Cádiz ( , , ) is a city in Spain and the capital of the Province of Cádiz in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula off the Atlantic Ocean separated fr ...

in their opening game of the season in La Liga. On 18 September 2023, Kubo's adept performance against his former club Real Madrid earned him recognition despite Real Sociedad's 2–1 defeat. On 22 October 2023, Kubo was instrumental in leading Real Sociedad to a 1–0 win over Mallorca, earning the man-of-the-match title for his performance.

International career

Kubo has been involved in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

national teams from U-15 to senior level. At the age of fifteen, he was selected to the Japan U-20 national team for the

2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 21st edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in 1977 a ...

. Shortly before turning eighteen, Kubo was named in the squad for the

2019 Copa América The 2019 Copa América was the 46th edition of the Copa América, the international men's association football championship organized by South America's football ruling body CONMEBOL. It was held in Brazil and took place between 14 June and 7 Ju ...

, which marked his first call up to the senior squad. He made his debut on 9 June 2019 in a friendly against El Salvador, as a 67th-minute substitute for Takumi Minamino. In July 2021, he was included in the 22-player squad of the under-23 team for the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

. On 22 July 2021, Kubo scored Japan's first goal against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

in the 2020 Olympics. On 1 November 2022, Kubo was named in the Japan squad for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

, where he started in the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

victories over

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, despite being subbed off early in both matches.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Japan's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Kubo goal.''

Honours

Individual *

La Liga Player of the Month The Player of the Month is an association football award that recognises the best La Liga player each month of the season. Winners Multiple winners The following table lists the number of awards won by players who have won at least two Player ...

: September 2023 *

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

La Liga Revelation Team of the Year: 2019–20 *

IFFHS The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) is an organisation that chronicles the history and records of association football. It was founded in 1984 by Alfredo Pöge in Leipzig. The IFFHS was based in Abu Dhabi for so ...

Asian Men's Team of the Year: 2021, 2024 *Japan Pro-Footballers Association Awards Best XI: 2022, 2023 *

Player of the Season: 2022–23

References

External links

Profile
at the Real Sociedad website * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kubo, Takefusa 2001 births Living people Japanese men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Men's association football forwards FC Barcelona players FC Tokyo players FC Tokyo U-23 players Yokohama F. Marinos players Real Madrid CF players RCD Mallorca players Villarreal CF players Getafe CF footballers Real Sociedad footballers J1 League players J3 League players 21st-century Japanese sportsmen La Liga players Japan men's youth international footballers Japan men's international footballers 2019 Copa América players 2022 FIFA World Cup players 2023 AFC Asian Cup players Japanese expatriate men's footballers Japanese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Footballers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Japan Association football people from Kawasaki, Kanagawa