Ryotaro Meshino has made a flying start to life in the Scottish Premiership with Hearts.
The Japanese attacker was signed by Manchester City in summer for around €1m and - unlikely to get a work permit as a development player - was immediately loaned out.
Meshino made his debut for his new team at the end of August and scored in his second game - a 3-2 defeat at home to Motherwell. Hearts have not started the season too well with just one win from their opening eight games and more is expected of the 21-year-old as he adapts to the conditions of the league.
However, boss Craig Levein has been impressed that Meshino has been influential in the dressing room despite the many learning curves he is undertaking.
“He isn’t fluent in English but he is taking lessons three times a week and that has improved,” Levein told The Scotsman .
“The boys are teaching him a few words in the dressing room that maybe they shouldn’t be teaching him but he is a bubbly wee character. I think that will help him.
“This is a fair change in culture, it’s a fair distance away from his home, it’s a different language. Most foreign players who come to the UK, particularly from Japan, are very unlikely to be speaking fluent English. He’s got that to contend with, plus the football and the weather. He has been more to forefront in the dressing room that I would have thought.
