With a fee of only 5 million pounds, Tottenham has a signature of young center -back Kota Takai from Kawasaki Frontale Club (Japan).
The 20 -year -old young talent has set a 5 -year contract with Tottenham. He will officially play for Tottenham after completing the procedure for applying for a work permit in the UK.
Tottenham did not disclose the contract details but according to SkySport, the North London team only had to spend 5 million pounds for this deal. However, this is still a record fee for a player playing in the J1 League. Specifically, Takai became a player sold abroad with the highest price of the Japanese championship, surpassing the previous record belonging to Kyogo Furuhashi – the striker joined Celtic from Vissel Kobe in 2021.
Kota Takai mature from Kawasaki Frontale's youth training. Although only 20 years old, Takai played 81 matches for the first team Kawasaki Frontale. He is a member of Japan U23 winning the U23 Asian Championship 2024. Also this year, Takai was awarded the Best Young Player J1 League.
Kota Takai was awarded the opportunity to launch the Japanese team last September in the match against China in the 2026 World Cup qualifier. Since then, the 20 -year -old center -back has played 4 matches for the national team.
Takai plays in the center -back position and has an impressive height (1m92). He is considered to be a very bright young talent of Japanese football.
At the age of 20, Takai was the pillar of Kawasaki, contributing greatly to the team to the AFC Champions League 2025 final (losing to Al Ahli), but before helping the home team defeated Al Nassr of Cristiano Ronaldo in the semi-final with a score of 3-2. In that match, Takai kicked, locked Cristiano Ronaldo and Sadio Mane.
Kota Takai became Tottenham's third contract this summer. Earlier, Tottenham triggered the term of purchase of defender Kevin Danso (Lens) and striker Mathys Tel (Bayern Munich).