Foreign players in Japan have featured in different ways, squads, and leagues. Australians in particular have recently made history – it’s not an accident if we published last week our interview with Sacha Pisani, A-League producer, over the impact of the Socceroos in Japan and the football exchange between the two countries (here). But one thing is talking about Ange Postecoglou and Mitch Langerak, other is climbing down.
Australians have featured with many players as well in J2, but the J3 League is a different range. In a smaller division like the third one, in a decade of history, Brazilians and Koreans (both from the North and the South) have been the rule. Even Nigeria, Thailand, China, and Spain had more players featuring – Australia, though, comes eighth, with just three players in the mix.
You could say, though, this time we had an absolute debut. Because even if Nathan Burns (in 2016) and Pierce Waring (in 2018-2020) did play in the third division, they did so for the U-23 teams of FC Tokyo and Cerezo Osaka respectively. Our protagonist today, instead, became the first Australian player to feature for a senior team in the J3 League. And that someone is Ben Duncan.
We took the chance of interviewing the young forward, who came out of a solid season in the third tier – being part of the group that brought Ehime FC back to J2 with a dominant year. For him – who left Australia and the academy of Central Coast Mariners to look for fortune in Japan -, it’s been a nice experience until now. But let’s hear it more from the man himself, whom we interviewed just a couple of weeks ago.
You grew up into Australian football and the Central Coast Marines academy. How was your path within that environment?
Firstly my football journey started in small town in Dubbo, where I excelled at multiple sports, but I enjoyed football. And at the age of 12, my parents decide to have a lifestyle change by moving to the Central Coast, which also was a massive benefit for my football development – as it was much closer to Sydney, which opened me up to experiencing higher level coaching and competition.
I started in the Central Coast Mariners academy at the U-13 level and continued all the way to the 23’s by the time I left I had been in their academy system for around nine years. Like any football career, I had ups and down unfortunately when I was in the academy – I had quite a few set backs in multiple areas, but especially with injuries.
Adding up all the injuries, I would have been out for around 2.5 seasons. The environment within the academy system was also a mixed time, as CCM wasn’t a very wealthy club facilities tended to be not the greatest.
Once I worked myself up through the ranks and reached the U-20 team, that’s when things started to change drastically in terms of training more like a professional setup. Training went from 3 times a week to more around the 4-5 times a week with around 2-3 gym session on top that, which I thoroughly enjoyed (as I felt I was improving both as a footballer and physically).
But if I was going to quickly sum up my time at CCM it was a mixed bag for multiple reasons. Ultimately I’m glad I experienced what I did at CCM because it made me a resilient and hard working player with an extreme desire to win.
Australian football has many issues with it, though I believe Australian footballers have a high level of natural talent. It’s shame that sometimes Australians are look down upon in the footballing world, but I truly think with the adequate amount of funds, coaching, completions, etc. -, Australia could excel and go beyond the 2006 generations of Socceroos.
Then Japan came into the picture. How much did you know about Japanese football before moving there? And how the Ehime opportunity came by as a next step for your career?
To be fair I knew a bit about Japanese football but more about the J1 situation, as Ange (Postecoglou) came to Japan and succeeded with Marinos, so I watched quite a bit of top flight-football. I was well aware what Japanese football was about.
The opportunity came up in Ehime since I was stuck in academy system at CCM and was getting frustrated that I was running out of time to break into the first team. And I was further frustrated with the lack of chances I was being given to showcase my skills at that level. So the opportunity came as CCM u23 team had a pre season tour in Japan that was set up by Yuzo Tashiro.
Yuzo thought I had potential and told me and appreciated that: he didn’t forget it. About two months after coming back from the tour, and with my frustrations increasing, I decided to just ask Yuzo if he could help me break into the Japanese football world and the J.League, which to my surprise he said he could.
Then Yuzo did his thing and a lot of club turned me away. They wouldn’t even let me come on trial, which was fair – in the end, I was a young inexperienced player. But Ehime FC decided to take a punt on me – I came, did my trial with the team, and I’ve been here ever since.
Ehime FC have been a club long-present in J2 and who were re-starting in J3 after a long time. Which kind of club and reality did you find? And how was the connection with the team mates and the manager in Japanese?
When I arrived in Japan, I immediately sense how Ehime FC were ambitious to return to the second division, after having a very difficult period over COVID for various reasons. Obviously building a connection with my teammates and coaches was hard – as I can’t speak Japanese -, but I tried to be as open as I could.
I had a translator at the time who was only working part time for the club – and when he was there, he definitely made my life much easier. Nevertheless, the language barrier was definitely difficult and took sometime to get use to, but I did eventually get use to it and it wasn’t really a problem anymore.
You started from the third tier – which level did you find to expect? And how did you feel around your rookie season in Japan?
Even though I was playing in the third tier, the technical ability of the Japanese players was still very good. And to be honest, I wasn’t too surprised by this, as Japanese footballers are known as being technically good. But something that I didn’t expect was the relentless high pressing tempo used by the teams in the J3 League.
My rookie season was okay – I think I did well, but I could have done better. Nonetheless, for me, the most important thing was to keep developing as footballer which I definitely have over my rookie season. This also helped me adjusting to become a pro in all sense, gathering experience, playing in front of crowds, in stadiums and multiple other things.
That’s something different to academy football. In my opinion, the most important thing I learnt in my rookie season was the type of player I am.
Now it’s J2 time and we saw many Australians in the J.League, while some Japanese players started playing in the A-League. How do you feel about this exchange and what do you envision from J2 League season in 2024, for you and the team?
Yeah, definitely there’s an exchange of players between the two countries which is good. It helps strengthens both countries football, as Japanese footballers can bring their technique to the Australian football movement, and Australian players can bring a different mentality, power, strength, high, etc. to the Japanese game.
2024? I envision a tough seasons with many new challenges. Though it’s exciting, it can only make myself and my teammates better players. For myself, I envision myself scoring goals and just simply causing chaos for the opposition, whilst continuing to grow as footballer. For the team, I hope we’ll simply be able to overachieve and surprise everyone.
We want to thank Ben Duncan for his time. Massively appreciated, and he gave us the behind of the scenes of a particular kind of transfer. You can follow him on Instagram here, and we wish him and Ehime FC the best for the remainder of the 2024 season in J2.
J. League Regista 