Nick Jehamy | December 19th, 2019
A deal has been reached as Liverpool’s first signing of the new year will be Japanese national Takumi Minamino. The attacking midfielder was hot on the radar of rival Premier League club Manchester United, but the current league-leading club and reigning Champions League champions swooped in and have agreed to sign the young Red Bull Salzburg star after activating his £7.25 million release clause.
Takumi Minamino played for the Japanese U-17 national team in 2011, starting in four matches and scoring a goal, where he then began his higher level domestic play in Japan. In 2012 he began his time in the Japanese J1 League playing for Cerezo Osaka from where he played till 2014, appearing in 62 matches for the club where Minamino and gaining experience as the statistics to show for his time there were mediocre at best. In 2015 Minamino signed with Red Bull Salzburg on a deal that ran to 2018 with an option to extend further. Minamino’s time in the Austrian Bundesliga came with much success as Red Bull Salzburg has won every year since 2013. In 92 starts for the Austrian club in league play, Minamino has scored 42 goals and 20 assists, Minamino has been placed in the starting lineup more each year as he continued to show his strong skillset.
Minamino has had success at the club international cup level as well, gaining eight starts in 23 appearances in the Europa League where he scored six goals and two assists, as well as this year appearing in the Champions League where he started all six of RB Salzburg’s matches and showed his talents off against some of the best in Europe where he scored two goals and three assists. Even though Salzburg’s time in the Champions league may be done, seems like Minamino has some more to look forward to with his new club.
Liverpool is getting a young talent who has again in his career grown too big for his environment and needs a new challenge such as the Premier League. A solid passer and strong on the offensive Minamino is a game-changing type of player. Liverpool is getting him at his prime as Minamino is having a fantastic year between domestic and international play, through 11 domestic matches played her has scored five goals and five assists averaging almost one G+A per game, as well as appearing 15 times for the Japanese national team this year and scoring seven goals for them in World Cup qualifying play.
Liverpool is currently away and Minamino will join the club once the transfer window opens on January 1st, adding to their already high-powered offense in the run to win the Champions League once again as well as maintain their massive lead in the Premier League that they have built up this season.
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