And 15 for Japan! Unlucky finalists in 2019, the Samurai Blue are back for their fifteenth appearance at the Maurice Revello Tournament, their fifth in a row. Facing Algeria, Colombia and Comoros in Group C, they will have a hard task to reach the semi-finals against a variety of teams with totally different styles. With nearly 80 players who became senior internationals after they featured in the tournament, Japan have rarely disappointed, often putting on a quality show thanks to talented generations and a well-oiled team. It is up to the 2022 batch to do the same!
RECORD
14 participations : 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
Runner-up in 2019
Third in 2002
The Japan team at the 2016 Tournament with Daichi Kamada (standing, sixth from the left) and Takumi Minamino (n°18)
AWARDS
Second best player : Daisuke MATSUI (2002)
Third best player : Hiroki MIZUMOTO (2008), Ao TANAKA (2019)
Top scorer : Satoshi NAKAYAMA (2002)
Goal of the Tournament : Hiroto MOGI (2003), Hiroki ITO (2016)
Fair-play Prize : 2000, 2003, 2016, 2019
THE MOST FAMOUS JAPANESE INTERNATIONALS WHO HAVE PLAYED THE MAURICE REVELLO TOURNAMENT
Koji YAMASE (2001, 2002), Daisuke MATSUI (2002), Makoto HASEBE (2003), Shinji KAGAWA (2007), Atsuto UCHIDA (2007), Mike HAVENAAR (2007), Shinji OKAZAKI (2008), Keisuke HONDA (2008), Maya YOSHIDA (2008), Yuya OSAKO (2010, 2012), Gotoku SAKAI (2012), Takuma ASANO (2016), Takumi MINAMINO (2016), Genta MIURA (2016), Daichi KAMADA (2016), Yosuke IDEGUCHI (2016), Ado ONAIWU (2016), Keisuke OSAKO (2017), Hiroki ABE (2017), Koji MIYOSHI (2018), Takehiro TOMIYASU (2018), Daiki HASHIOKA (2017, 2018), Reo HATATE (2019), Kaoru MITOMA (2019), Yuki SOMA (2019), Ao TANAKA (2019), Tatsuya ITO (2019)
Keisuke Honda besides former Italian international Claudio Marchisio during the 2008 Tournament
MANAGERS
Toshiro TAKII (2000), Takeshi ONO (2001, 2002), Kiyoshi OKUMA (2003, 2004), Tomoyuki ISHII (2005), Yasushi YOSHIDA (2007), Yasuharu SORIMACHI (2008), Akihiro NISHIMURA (2010), Takashi SEKIZUKA (2012), Makoto TEGURAMORI (2016), Masanaga KAGEYAMA (2017), Akinobou YOKOUCHI (2018, 2019)