Kaoru Mitoma’s New Squad Number Revealed — 5ch Reacts: ‘Absolutely Badass’

I hate number changes, except when a young player who got randomly assigned a number as a rookie becomes a regular and switches to something else.
I love it when a guy changes numbers all the time depending on the situation, like Zidane.
I'm not a Kashima fan, but I do like how 40 became a special number there.
Cristiano should've just kept number 9 at Real Madrid too.

August 7, 2026
Terrestrial TV ratings (Kanto region)

NHK — 108th National High School Baseball Championship, Shimane vs. Nagasaki: 5.1%

Fuji TV — J.League Opening Commemorative Match, Yokohama F. Marinos vs. Kashima Antlers: 2.5%

This is reality.

>>17
No point cherry-picking the number from 3 minutes into the broadcast and spinning it like that.

>>17
Funny how you're pretending it never got close to 5% by the time the match ended.

I'm a soccer fan, but I'm boycotting matches until they bench Mitoma and Sano.

>>18
It's absolutely no problem if you don't watch.
Go right ahead.

>>18
Do whatever you want, man.

It was a shock that Solly March left the club.
There was a time I thought he'd get capped for England.

>>31
Before the injury, the way he'd relentlessly cut inside and get the job done was so cool.
Also bugs me that they phrased it as "departed" rather than "transferred."

Kubo's about the only attacker who still looks like he could land at a big club.

>>44
Kubo's already 25, though…
He'd need a really strong league season to have a shot — double-digit goals at minimum.
Big clubs already have 16-year-old wingers on their books; there's such a glut of winger talent that no big club needs to buy one.
The Premier League's been picking up Japanese players lately, so a mid-table or lower Prem side is plausible, but a cash-strapped Spanish club like Sociedad won't sell him.
So in the end he's locked up at Sociedad, run out his contract there, and by the time he's a free transfer his prime is over — he ends up somewhere like Betis. That's how it goes.

>>44
There's zero real demand for him, no matter how much the web news makes it look like there is.

He was a fantastic player, but he's a thing of the past now.
He'll never get back to his pre-injury form.

>>50
Yeah, that's how it is.
It's sad.

For some reason nobody brings it up, but he might be the best soccer player Japan's ever produced.

Is there really such a thing as a "cool" or "uncool" squad number?

>>76
Fine, then you're stuck wearing number 931 forever.

Squad numbers are about the only thing that gets people talking about "ball-kicking" (lol) (a dismissive slang term for soccer).

Mitoma's a serious, hard-working guy so he tracks back on defense too, but why not just let him focus purely on attack?

>>89
There's no team in the Premier League that lets you get away with only attacking.

Only good in year one, mediocre ever since.

>>92
Actually his best season was year three.

>>86
Baseball, where nobody even talks about squad numbers — nobody has a clue what number Murakami wears.

>>94
Baseball gets talked about through stats.
You guys have nothing else, so all you can do is talk about squad numbers.

>>98
He's hitting at a faster pace than he did in NPB — so much for MLB being the higher level, huh?

>>98
Unlike baseball, it's not an individual sport.

A player big clubs won't even glance at —
that's true of pretty much every Japanese player, and it makes me sad.

>>107
There have been plenty in the past, and there's still one at Liverpool right now.

He's probably going to finish his career at Brighton.
Such a waste.

>>112
If he'd shone at the World Cup, he might've had a shot.

The new face of number 7 is Lee Kang-in
http://youtu.be/zfVfIZd-vMs?t=346&si=GXWTbbl8dvk9ZkoX


A wonder goal on his Atlético Madrid debut.

>>131
Mitoma also scored on opening day back in 2025, come to think of it.

>>131
Málaga finished 4th in the Segunda División last season — a team about on par with Japan's J2.