Tottenham defender Kota Takai (21) will join Belgian First Division side Sint-Truiden on loan, it was announced on September 1, 2026. He’ll wear number 4. A product of Kawasaki Frontale’s youth academy, Takai made his Japan national team debut in 2024 and won the J.League Best Young Player award, but after his move to Tottenham in July 2025 he couldn’t get playing time, and even during his January 2026 loan to Borussia Mönchengladbach he failed to produce results, missing out on a World Cup squad spot. On 5channel threads, some praised the move (“slow to decide, but the right call”), while others were more skeptical (“back to square one,” “really drives home how important it is to climb the ladder step by step”), and there was also discussion of Kawasaki Frontale’s roughly ¥1 billion transfer-fee windfall.
Belgian First Division side Sint-Truiden (STVV) announced on the 1st that Tottenham Hotspur defender Kota Takai (21), of England’s Premier League, will join on loan. He’ll wear number 4.
Takai is a 192cm center-back. He was promoted to Kawasaki Frontale’s first team from the youth academy in 2023, then made his Japan national team debut in 2024 and won the J.League Best Young Player award.
He made a surprise move to Tottenham in July 2025 but couldn’t earn playing time. He also failed to make much of an impression during a loan spell at Germany’s Borussia Mönchengladbach starting January 2026, and missed out on selection for the World Cup in North/Central America.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
Late as it is, still a good decision.
He got injured right after moving to Europe and never got his conditioning back, so it probably would've turned out the same no matter where he went.
Guess it's just Kamada and Zion (goalkeeper Zion Suzuki) left now.
we're back to square one.
Normally it's the other way around — players go from Sint-Truiden, sponsored by a Japanese company, to the Premier League or Bundesliga.
This is completely backwards.
Is he scouting for his next landing spot?
Feels like a return to Japan might come sooner rather than later.
If he can't even get on the pitch for a Spurs side flirting with relegation, there's no future there.
but I guess the Premier League was a bridge too far.
Watching guys like Cubarsí tearing it up for Barça as teenagers, you can't help but feel Japanese players are just a level below.
This is a good move.
Sint-Truiden basically raised both Tomiyasu and Endo too.
Better to start somewhere that matches your level instead of aiming too high.
He'll have to pick it up gradually now in Belgium.
He mismanaged his career path and missed out on the World Cup because of it.
Even Tomiyasu, who's a level above Takai, went through Belgium and Italy first.
Tomiyasu and Zion (goalkeeper Zion Suzuki) have similar career paths — Sint-Truiden → Serie A → Premier League.
He's overrated for now, but it's still too early to say.
It's a good place to take that next step.
Ha, a last-minute deadline-day move.
Transfer window deadlines by league:
https://dec.2chan.net/up2/src/fu7202705.png
France, Germany, and Italy's deadlines are around 4:00 in the morning. England's is 7:00, and Spain's is maybe 8:00.
At this point a step down to somewhere like Sint-Truiden is about all that's left.
What a wasted year.
If Zion (Suzuki) had gone to Man United back then, he might not be where he is today either.
When Min-jae was 21 he was still in the K League or the Chinese league, wasn't he?
Sugawara's at Cagliari.
Sint-Truiden wouldn't have paid ¥1 billion for him.
Mitoma also spent a year in Belgium before Brighton, so I don't think it's a bad path,
but a 21-year-old center-back thrown straight into the Premier League seems like he'd break down fast.
He's not really that young anymore by football standards.
Either way, that's two years of failure so far.
It's been one year — the Tottenham move was last year.
Assuming he actually performs well first, of course.
Moriyasu already called up Takai to the senior national team back when he was still at Kawasaki Frontale.
Background and Key Points of This Story
Sint-Truiden is a club effectively owned by the DMM.com group, and it has a track record of serving as a stepping stone for Japanese players like Takehiro Tomiyasu and Wataru Endo before they moved on to major European leagues. This time the flow ran in reverse — a Premier League player joining the club in what looked like a step down — which drew surprised reactions on the thread about the order being “backwards.” Kawasaki Frontale received roughly ¥1 billion in transfer fees from Takai’s move, so beyond the debate over his personal career path, the deal also drew attention for what it meant financially for a development-focused club. Since joining Tottenham he has cycled through loans without getting playing time, and whether this latest move becomes the springboard back to the national team and a World Cup squad spot remains to be seen — it will come down to how much he actually plays going forward.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Geinou/Sports Express+) thread “[Soccer] Kota Takai’s move to Belgium’s Sint-Truiden confirmed — loan from Premier League’s Tottenham, will wear No. 4“.