Scouting report: Kawasaki Frontale defender Kota Takai
A look at towering Takai, Japan’s 20-year-old international defender
Kawasaki Frontale aren’t setting an example anybody should follow.
The Azzurro Nero won all four of their Japanese titles under manager Toru Oniki between 2017 and 2021 but have stalled badly since. They finished second in 2022 but eighth in both subsequent seasons, miles off the pace from start to finish each time.
Frontale at their peak were a pleasure to watch – a dynamic, whirling, vibrant attacking outfit underwritten by an apparent natural leaning towards a more defensive core philosophy. Those days feel like they were a long time ago. The club has been found wanting not only on the pitch but on both sides of the transfer market.
If Kawasaki’s recruitment has been lacking in the playing department, the appointment of 2023 J.League Manager of the Year Shigetoshi Hasebe as Oniki’s replacement ahead of the 2025 season is at least indicative of their ability to attract capable candidates to the dugout.
Hasebe’s record over five years at Avispa Fukuoka was impressive and included a cup win, Avispa’s first.
One of his first orders of business will be to persuade his new club to do all they can to hold on to one of the most highly regarded young players in Japan. Nurturing 20-year-old central defender Kota Takai is one of the few things Kawasaki Frontale have got right in the last two years.
Takai turned 20 in September 2024, a day before making his full international debut for Japan. He was already established in the Frontale first team and was well on the way to claiming the J.League Young Player of the Year Award, collecting it in an astonishingly stylish coat.
Represented by the same monolithic agency as Keisuke Honda – the stated aim of HEROE Football Management is for the Japanese national team to win the World Cup – Takai comes out on top in most aerial duels, wins more tackles than he loses, and plays a streetwise game beyond his years.
He has a long way to go in his profession but Takai is a significant prospect with a potentially high upper limit.
How good is Kota Takai?
Yokohama-born Takai’s stock rose quickly after a drenched Kanagawa derby against Yokohama F. Marinos in April 2024. He played brilliantly on the left side of the back two and helped a leaky Frontale side to a goalless draw despite ending the match with ten men.
Then 19 years old, Takai played three quarters of the game on a yellow card and spent much of it embroiled in a personal battle with Anderson Lopes. The Brazilian is one of the most formidable strikers in J1 and an imposing figure.
Frontale were indebted to the woodwork and their goalkeeper more than their defending but Takai’s ability to go at it with the Brazilian contributed to the clean sheet and certainly caught the eye.
Takai has the instincts of a defender first and foremost. His nose for danger is key to his game. He defends on the front foot, positions himself smartly and gets round well on the cover. He moves into passing lanes in his own penalty area to close off routes to goal, and can get across his man at speed to cut out threats at the back post.
When action is needed, Takai’s physical advantage comes into play. He can get his legs moving quickly and defends well when running back towards his own goal at speed.
Takai is a promising one-on-one defender. He engages quickly, reads situations well and is capable in the tackle. He’ll go to ground when the need is there, benefiting again from his size.
While he’s handy in the air defensively, he’s not yet dominant in aerial duels. His heading is no-nonsense – he wins plenty of headers at the back and tends to get rid of it any which way. Sometimes, defenders just need to defend.
Predominantly right-footed, Takai is confident in receiving and possessing the ball. He’s always showing for a pass when Frontale are playing across or out from the back.
He has a calm short passing game. He wants to progress the play but doesn’t take many risks. He seldom bursts forward with the ball but is composed when he does. He doesn’t show his long passing ability all that often either, but he has that in his locker too.
Kota Takai stats
Takai has been involved in the Frontale first team for two full seasons, starting a total of 34 times in J1 and racking up more than 3,000 minutes despite his youth, an injury lay-off and games missed on international duty.
He became a mainstay in Oniki’s defence in 2024. For a player who started the season as a teenager, that’s an achievement in its own right. Defenders in Japan’s top flight aren’t given an easy ride by strikers and earning that trust is noteworthy.
But Frontale’s defence is Frontale’s defence. Takai is part of a unit that shipped 57 league goals in 2024. Only six teams – five of the bottom six and the remarkably porous F. Marinos – conceded more.
Takai played 19 minutes in his full international debut for Japan, to date his only senior cap. He came off the bench in a 7-0 World Cup qualifying win over China in Saitama in September.
The player he replaced was Ko Itakura, a 27-year-old fellow Yokohama-born Kawasaki Frontale youth graduate who joined Borussia Mönchengladbach from Manchester City in 2022.
Growing into his style
Where some observers see Takai’s technical ability as a strength and his use of his physicality as a weakness, I see something different.
Takai plays like a complete modern central defender. He's technically sound but not always. He's physically strong but not always. It's not that he's mastered some aspects and not others. He is simply young and learning in every regard.
Questions about Takai capitalising on his size and frame are valid but his scrap with Anderson Lopes gave lie to any suggestion he can't mix it. Lopes is a physical specimen who found his match in Takai and visibly enjoyed the test.
Takai is a raw version of a mature, measured defender. He'll get better in every attribute and better overall.
Itakura’s example won’t be far from the minds of Takai and his agents when the time to move on comes along. There’s little doubt it will come along soon. Indeed, Gladbach are one of the clubs linked with him. Leicester City of the Premier League are another.
The young defender will be in demand. He’s a prospect with huge upside and his contract with Frontale is up at the end of the 2025 season.
As the European calendar rolls into the January transfer window and then into the summer, the need to recoup some of their investment in Takai’s development will guide the club’s next move.
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