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The story
Liverpool midfielder Wataru Endo (33) has been named in the matchday squad for 13 competitive games this season for the Premier League club, but has yet to play a single minute — and he’s been left off the Champions League squad entirely. British outlet This Is Anfield reports that a January departure now looks unavoidable, with clubs in Saudi Arabia and Japan’s J-League said to be interested. On the 5ch “Geinou/Sports News Express+” board (a sports-and-entertainment-news discussion board on the Japanese forum site 5ch), posters traded theories ranging from Endo stubbornly clinging to the Premier League’s prestige, to a possible link with the circumstances of his retirement from the Japan national team — with more interest in figuring out why he’s been shut out so completely than in debating whether letting him go makes sense.
A January departure appears unavoidable for Wataru Endo (33), midfielder at storied Premier League club Liverpool. British outlet This Is Anfield reports.
Endo, who hasn’t played a single minute so far this season, has also been left off Liverpool’s UEFA Champions League squad list, confirming he’s outside manager Andoni Iraola’s plans. Amid this, first-choice Hungary international midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai went down with injury, which was reported as a chance for squad players like Endo to make their case — but he still got no minutes even in the League Cup (the Carabao Cup, England’s secondary domestic cup competition), throwing his difficult situation into sharp relief once again.
On Endo, the outlet writes: “It’s been a similarly difficult start to the season. Endo has already been named in 13 matchday squads this term, but he’s the only senior outfield player yet to play a single minute.” It adds: “While it was expected that he wouldn’t play a major role under the new manager’s plans, the fact that he still hasn’t set foot on the pitch even once only makes it clearer that he has no long-term future at Liverpool.”
Source: tokyo-sports.co.jp / original article here
What people said
Gotta be a fresh young boy instead
It's not about 'needing' him — he announced his own retirement from the national team
Must be the sponsors
That's enough trash-talk about Mr. Penaudo [translator's note: likely a mocking nickname for a star player now in the Saudi league; exact identity unclear from context, possibly a jab at Ronaldo]
Crowdfunding-style furusato nozei (hometown tax donation) reward featuring Wataru Endo cleats gets zero orders — Yokohama's Totsuka Ward says 'We're sorry'
https://www.sankei.com/article/20251205-BBNN4VUFOJLKZGBBCWFGMWRWLQ/
LOL this one
Kashima and FC Tokyo are stingy
That's way too big a step down
It's probably going to be his last club abroad anyway
Yeah, probably this
Footballers should earn while they can
Can't really fault him for that even in his prime
No way they'd sign someone like him
His name value doesn't match the salary he'd want
He's obsessed with status, so he'll probably go play with Messi and Suárez in Miami instead
He clung to Liverpool even while being frozen out, so now there's no offers even from mid-to-lower table clubs — it's the Middle East or Japan for him
Just sitting on the bench he's pulling in nine figures (yen),
and if he goes to Saudi Arabia it's another nine-figure payday
Retirement's all set
Freezing him out this hard means they can't even sell him properly anymore — at this point it's basically bullying
He hasn't said anything
If anything, maybe he says too little
Some European managers still look down on Japanese players
Stop wasting your time for nothing
Exactly right
So you should get off 5ch right now too
he never complains about it
Normally that's exactly the kind of guy
you keep around just in case
of an injury crisis
But if even keeping him on the squad
is unwelcome, and his salary
shouldn't be that high to begin with,
there's gotta be something else going on
There's also the foreign-player roster quota issue, so he's not actually that convenient to keep around
Background and talking points
Endo has been named to the squad for 13 competitive matches this season but has yet to play a single minute, and he’s been left off Liverpool’s Champions League squad entirely. Even when first-choice midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai went down with injury, Endo still got no minutes — a point this report treats as further evidence of how precarious his standing has become. The thread brought up both the circumstances around Endo’s retirement from the Japan national team (>>16) and a December 2025 Sankei Shimbun report that zero people applied for a furusato nozei (hometown tax donation) reward featuring Endo-model boots in Yokohama’s Totsuka Ward — comments that pointed to his struggles with popularity more broadly. At the same time, one comment (>>120) noted that a J-League move isn’t necessarily straightforward because of foreign-player roster quotas — a nuance that’s easy to miss when a report about a club “considering” a transfer gets read as confirmation that the move will actually happen.
※This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News Express+) thread “[Soccer] Wataru Endo: Liverpool Mulling January Exit — “Saudi Arabia, J-League Clubs Interested,” British Media Reports.”
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