Hoping to continuing their Galacticos tradition, Real Madrid are making their best efforts to roping in football stars of the future. The signing of highly-rated Brazilian teenager Vinicius Junior earlier this year for a whopping sum of £38million from Flamengo provided a clear indication.
The 17-year-old did have a choice of moving to Real's arch-rivals FC Barcelona, but he decided to join hands with Zinedine Zidane.
Now, it seems Barca are set to lose one of their biggest possessions from the La Masia academy to Real Madrid. Takefusa Kubo, a 16-year-old Japanese sensation, is catching the attention of Los Blancos lately, according to reports across Spain.
Hailed as the Japanese Messi, Takefusa, an attacking midfielder/forward, currently plies his trade for FC Tokyo. He left Barcelona's famous youth set-up, the La Masia, back in 2015, after FIFA found the Catalan giants guilty of violating the international transfer policy for youth player signings.
Like Vinicius, if Real indeed manages to strike a deal with Takefusa and bring him on to the Santiago Bernabeu, Barcelona no doubt would be seething with anger.
For now, he cannot join FC Barcelona unless he turns 18, and that gives the Los Blancos a tremendous opportunity to make a big-money move for him already.
There's no comparing him and me at this age. He's incredible.
- Shinji Ono, one of the most prominent footballers from Japan.
Facts about Takefusa Kubo
- He made his senior team debut for FC Tokyo earlier this year in a 1-0 win over Consadole Sapporo in the Levain Cup and subsequently became the second-youngest player to debut in the J League at 15 years, 10 months and 30 days.
- He joined the La Masia academy in August 2011 and had to leave in 2015. During his time at the FC Barcelona academy, Takefusa scored 74 goals from 30 matches for the club's U-11 team.
- He was a part of the Japan U20 football team squad for the FIFA U-20 World Cup 2017.
