On Monday, it was announced that Japanese center back Kota Takai would be joining Tottenham Hotspur ahead of the club’s 2025-26 Premier League campaign. According to The Athletic, the deal is for a flat £5 million transfer fee, which translates to about $6.8 million and 1 billion Japanese yen, a record for any outgoing transfer from a J-League club.
An academy product of J-League club Kawasaki Frontale, the 20-year-old Takai hasn’t played senior-level football for too long at this point, having only appeared in a combined 50 first-team matchups to this point for Frontale and an additional four caps for the Japanese national team. Despite being relatively inexperienced, it seems the Spurs front office is already sold on Takai. But how good is he? And what role will he play with Tottenham once their season officially begins?
How Good Is Kota Takai?
I’ll fully admit, I don’t watch much Japanese football. That said, ever since Takai was linked to a move to Tottenham, a lot of information has been compiled about his skill and potential.
From the rip, Takai seems to be a big presence in the box. Despite being a towering 6’4″, the Japanese international seems to possess good pace and is excellent at both closing down space and making emergency stops when an opposing attacker finds their way in behind. He’s also been useful on set pieces, having scored 4 goals with Frontale since debuting in 2022.
All in all, Takai looks like an athletic option at the center back position, a position that has required players to be more all-encompassing over the years. The question is: Where does Kota Takai fit amongst the defenders already under contract with Tottenham?
From the sounds of it, Tottenham isn’t looking to loan out Takai upon his arrival, and he will be a part of new Spurs manager Thomas Frank’s plans. But, at the moment, it looks like there will be plenty of competition for playing time. Tottenham’s traditional starting center back duo has been Cristian Romero and Mickey van de Ven, two very capable defenders with a good skill set. On top of that, Radu Dragusin and Kevin Danso also rotated into the center back spots last season, and Archie Gray spent some time there too, despite traditionally being deployed as a central midfielder.
As of now, all of those five players are under contract for Tottenham moving forward, meaning that Takai will have plenty of competition when it comes to playing time. That said, assuming Gray is moved back into his primary midfield position, there could be a pathway to minutes for Takai. Spurs will also be involved in the Champions League next season, meaning that rotation will be all but inevitable.
Ultimately, however, there is also the chance that Tottenham will renege on its previous comments to keep Takai in the fold this season and will decide to loan him out to ensure he gets the minutes necessary to continue his development. But only time will tell.
