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Shinji Okazaki embodies Leicester City’s electric spirit

By on February 3, 2016

There have been many, many eloquent words used to describe Leicester City’s uniquely incredible Premier League campaign this season. The Foxes are writing history and the journalists, pundits, and even Hollywood screenwriters are hanging closely onto their every verse. There is, however, one simple word to encapsulate their season so far: electric.

You can feel the live wire on match-day at the KP Stadium and in the spring in Leicester’s step. “Without electricity we are a normal team,” said manager Claudio Ranieri a few weeks back. “With the fans, who push behind us, it is fantastic and I’m very happy.”

Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy sparked the energy now coursing through Leicester’s veins and have lit the league alight with their fantastic combinations and goal-scoring records. Yet in the end, their title credentials will rest upon the depth of the rest of their squad. So far, so good, and Ranieri’s men have formed a firm bond centered around a hard-working ethos.

Nobody embodies this team-first spirit like Shinji Okazaki. Ranieri’s summer signing has smoothly adapted to a new team, a new culture and a new position at Leicester. After joining from Mainz 05, he has that ignited their midfield from the very beginning of the season.

After graduating from high school in Japan in 2004, Okazaki signed his first professional contract with Japanese side Shimizu S-Pulse. His impressive goal-scoring form from 2005 to 2010 warranted a move to VfB Stuttgart.

Like many young players venturing abroad, he had his doubts. “I came as a young player and did not know whether I had what it takes to compete in Europe,” he said. “VfB gave me the opportunity to prove myself, and I’m grateful. I gained [Europa League] experience, which was important for my development.”

He originally struggled to adapt to a new left-sided position on the pitch, but eventually found his feet. His ten goals in two years at the club, were more in spite of the club’s mid-table position than due to it. “In the end I was not even sure where I belonged. [Was I] a striker? A midfielder with defensive or offensive orientation? This was a difficult situation and ultimately had an effect on my performance.”

A move to Mainz in the summer of 2013, however, was a godsend.

“Mainz committed me as a striker. Since there was a clear message from the outset, I was able to grow into the role I fill now,” he said towards the latter end of his days in Germany. As a No. 9, he scored twenty-seven goals in sixty-five appearance for the club and surpassed Shinji Kagawa’s record of most goals scored by a Japanese international in a single season in the Bundesliga.

It was at Mainz that Okazaki’s reputation began its rapid ascent back home in Japan and he even published a book in Japan about his rise in the Bundesliga, per Four Four Two. He had been a part of Japan’s 2010 World Cup squad, but earned a starting position in Brazil four years later, scoring a group stage goal against Colombia. He is currently the highest scoring active Japanese international.

When rumors that Leicester were interested in Mainz’s hottest property in January of last year, the Japanese media went into a frenzy, and travelled the KP Stadium en masse when Okazaki completed the move last summer. He says he doesn’t see himself as a superstar and has simply “been trying to track all [the press].”

At Leicester, his adaptability was again put to the test. “It may be a strange way of putting it, but I’ve got to throw away my old style,” he said, per Leicester forum Foxes’ Talk. “I stayed up front (in Germany) but here Vardy is quicker than me so it’s better if he stays up top and tries to get in behind them, while I drop back and act as a decoy.”

He realizes that the shift back to midfield means he won’t get as much recognition as his star teammates have had, but has once again put the team ahead of himself, to great reward. He scored in his second Premier League match, a win over West Ham United, with a headed effort, and has not stopped scoring since.

“Interestingly, prior to coming to the Premier League, I would have trapped the ball, but my instinct told me that I needed to react quickly at this level and I took the chance and volleyed the ball instead,” he said of the built-up to his first goal for the Foxes, per Mail Online.

At Mainz, he told the Bundesliga’s official Youtube channel that his goals were to “score goals, set records, win titles, and make football history” and hopefully fulfill his dream of playing in the Champions League. If he continues this exceptional run of form with Leicester, those goals will soon become true in the East Midlands.

Photo credit: By Matt Neale from UK (Walkers Stadium  Uploaded by NotFromUtrecht) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.