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The story
Shin Miidera, a 16-year-old playing for Yokohama F. Marinos, is drawing attention after scoring what was then the youngest-ever J1 goal at age 15 — a feat that led a former Japan national team player to compare him to “the feeling when Yamal emerged at Barça.” In a thread on 5ch’s Geinou/Sports Breaking News+ board, some praised how physically developed he already is for his age, while others urged caution, noting that many so-called “child prodigies” have gone on to stall out. Posters also debated how he compares to Takefusa Kubo and when he might eventually move abroad.
The J.League switched to a fall-to-spring season format starting this year.
Amid that shift, a new star has emerged in J1, bringing a fresh breath of energy to the league.
That player is Shin Miidera of Yokohama F. Marinos.
Source: qoly.jp / Original article here
What people said
Physically, this guy's way better.
Shooting power too.
Kubo's more the Morimoto type, if anything.
Miidera and Yamal aren't really comparable, I don't think.
He's just an early peaker.
In baseball's case, guys like that just never make it pro.
Showing this much of your hand as a high schooler this early just means teams will figure out how to shut you down fast.
Pros have seen that type more times than they can count.
He got wrecked by Matsuzaka, a rookie fresh out of high school, though lol
He'd have gotten wrecked in his first and second year of high school too — give it a rest, baseball fanboy (ペロやきう, 5ch slang mocking overly defensive baseball fans).
Same with classical musicians —
you never know if a child prodigy will still be great as an adult.
It's what happens after 18 that really matters.
That was my impression too —
for a 16-year-old, his physicality holds up in J1, but I didn't get the sense he's freakishly fast or has otherworldly ball touch or a really powerful shot.
High school baseball's participant numbers and level are in freefall, and they're force-feeding hype into it anyway, so the whole star-making system just doesn't work anymore.
Baseball otaku (焼き豚, a slur for diehard baseball fans) should worry about their own house.
You can't transfer abroad until you're 18.
Re: #38
And it wasn't Marinos who developed him —
it was Zaizen, the guy Nakata himself said was the best.
Because the window where it works for you is short.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HM60SosXUAALl6Y.jpg
Why does he look like a completely different person lol
Did he seriously grow 10cm?
Being 16 means he's still at an age where his height can keep growing and his physicality is only just starting to really develop.
The Miidera we're seeing now is still just ver1.0.
If you want him to keep developing as a winger, it's actually better if his height stops within a few more centimeters.
Neymar and Salah are 175cm, Vinicius and Junya Ito are 176cm, Mbappé, Dembélé, and Mitoma are 178cm.
Wingers who get too tall also get longer legs, which makes it harder to pull off those quick, small-step dribbles.
Tore his ACL while playing in Serie A.
Ichiro struck out 4 times, after all.
Guess people forget the inconvenient stuff fast.
To answer seriously: 3 strikeouts and 1 walk in 4 plate appearances.
Miidera reminds me less of a pure dribbler and more of a high-soccer-IQ type like Barça's Raphinha.
Even the guy he says he respects, Foden, isn't really a dribbler either.
Shooting, passing, positioning, receiving and laying it off, movement off the ball, dribble line selection, defensive work — he's solid across the board, and he covers a lot of the pitch too.
Foden's a dribbler though.
Not a wide attacker, but he's a dribbler who can hold the ball in tight spaces.
Speed isn't his weapon, so if he adds more physicality he could probably play forward too.
And above all, his goal-scoring instinct is fantastic 👏
Kubo's got the better shot, honestly.
Something about him was on another level from around this age through his late teens.
Nice joke 🤪
More like a Harry Kane type, if anything?
He was a midfielder when he was young too.
Background and Key Points of the Discussion
The J.League shifted to a fall-to-spring season this year, which makes it easy for a mid-season breakout like Miidera’s to draw extra attention. Where opinions split in the thread was over how to read his “physical completeness.” Some saw the fact that he already holds his own physically in J1 for his age as proof of future potential, while others firmly maintained that he’s simply showing everything he’s got right now, with little room left to grow. Posters also pointed to past cases like Takayuki Morimoto, who retired young after an injury in Serie A, as a reminder that being called a prodigy is no guarantee of future success. Comparisons with Takefusa Kubo came up too, though it’s worth noting their playing styles differ enough that a simple better-or-worse comparison doesn’t quite hold. And as always in these kinds of threads, opinions diverged over the right age for Japanese players to move abroad.
※This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Geinou/Sports Breaking News+) thread “[Soccer] 16-Year-Old Prodigy Shin Miidera Stuns Even a Former Japan International With Youngest-Ever Goal at 15 — “It’s Like When Yamal Emerged at Barça”.”
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