Man of chances

Francis Bacon once said: “A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds”. It’s not always easy to pursue such an adventurous approach, but someone can do it. And this is a tough virtue to find in life: making the best from small or no opportunities at all. If you look at several professional careers, you can count the ones with this special attitude on the fingers of your hand.

If we’re talking about football, then, you might even be more surprised in realizing how many have actually followed the opposite path: many chances, no signs of redemption. And then there’s this guy, came out from almost nowhere, who shook the first tier in Japanese football in his rookie year. The little detail is that he isn’t so young anymore: Noriaki Fujimoto will soon turn 30 and his dreams are all coming true.

Floating into darkness

Despite being raised through Gamba Osaka’s youth ranks – he was born in Tondabayashi, in South-East part of the city – and having featured for such a prestigious football institution like the Aomori Yamada Junior High School, Fujimoto didn’t impress anyone in his youngest years. He wasn’t even playing as a striker, because with Aomori Yamada he was fielded as a right-back. Can you imagine that?

Anyway, throughout the Kindai University years, Fujimoto attracted the attention of SP Kyoto FC. Or should I say Sagawa Printing Soccer Club, like the club was named in 2012. They even faced another denomination change between those two – becoming Sagawa Printing Kyoto Soccer Club in 2014 –, but the fate of the club was always tied to Sagawa Express, a shipping company in Minami-ku, Kyoto.

And while Fujimoto kept dreaming of becoming pro, he had a job there, wrapping books for expeditions during his days, matching that task with trainings. But even there, he didn’t impress anyone: he scored 23 goals in four seasons, with the highest digit of 9. Yes, SP Kyoto FC almost won the JFL title in 2014 (after leading the seasonal table and clinching one of the two stages back then), but then they lost the championship play-off on a 5-4 aggregate against Honda FC.

After a sixth place in 2015, it was announced that SP Kyoto FC was planned to be disbanded. A terrible news for many of their players, including Fujimoto. And if some of them just quit football, Noriaki wasn’t ready to leave. On the final matchday against Nara Club, seven of those 25 players opted to leave football; the remaining 18 found a new gig elsewhere and Fujimoto wasn’t going to be forgotten.

A destiny to meet (under a volcano)

Once left Kyoto, Fujimoto moved South to join newly promoted Kagoshima United FC, who also featured Akira Akao, his former team-mate in SP Kyoto FC. The cometh wasn’t forecast, but it hit hard on J3 League. It took three games for Fujimoto to let everyone know what he was about.

The first three pro-goals (and the first three wins, all for 1-0 against YSCC, Gainare Tottori and Fukushima United FC) were all signed and sealed by the no. 9. It was amazing to watch and it’s not a case if – at the end of the year – both him and his club performed well: KUFC closed fifth, while the striker scored 15 goals plus two in Emperor’s Cup, closing as the top scorer of the league.

After such a rookie year in the pro-world, the toughest task is to confirm yourself at certain levels. Not only Fujimoto did that, but he also out-performed himself from the previous season: KUFC come fourth, but most of all the vice-captain of the Kyushu-based club scores 24 goals, confirming himself at the top of the scoring chart and proving everyone that J3 League seems tight for him.

You can see from certain goals, like this beauty in Kitakyushu against Giravanz or this one against Blaublitz at home, where he shows how versatile and intelligent he could be on and off the ball. He’s capable of reading the right space, finding the proper timing to get into the penalty box, shooting with both feet and always doing the best choice in every possible situation.

Not everyone overcame the jump from J3 to J2, but Fujimoto found the right train to jump on in the Winter 2017-18. And the relationship with KUFC fans stayed despite him leaving, since the striker had been recently caught among them to celebrate the promotion of the club from J3 last Winter.

A new adventure was needed.

Kyushu-ready

To make the jump to J2, Fujimoto picked Oita Trinita. It was a good match, but it wasn’t granted: the squad led by Tomohiro Katanosaka did a solid job in coming back from J3 after a tough championship in 2016 – they were behind Tochigi SC, only to overcome them in the last matches – and then they consolidated in J2 in 2017, playing a nice brand of football and closing their comeback season in ninth place.

Oita did the right move. Beside Yusuke Goto – a spectacular second striker who scored 17 goals in 2017 –, the forwards department was lacking something to dream of promotion to J1. Kohei Isa scored 9 goals, Kazushi Mitsuhira only 5, Yohei Otsu 3. Things changed in the Winter transfer market: Otsu left for Sagamihara, Isa wasn’t meant to be as successful as in the season before and that’s where Fujimoto came into the picture.

At his first match as an Oita player, he scored against Tochigi SC to participate in a 4-2 win. After that, he missed some games, since Katanosaka opted to feature Isa, Baba and Mitsuhira, while Fujimoto’s shape wasn’t at its best. Yet, Oita were playing splendidly, leading the table for slightly more than a month and pursuing a precise tactic plan, starting the possession from behind.

Yet, at the end of 2018 season, the best ratio goal per minute in Oita’s squad was Fujimoto’s: 26 games played, 12 goals scored. He played only 12’ in 14 games between March and June, yet he was decisive when needed. Once he came back on the pitch, he scored two goals against Matsumoto Yamaga and Avispa Fukuoka; another run of six goals in four matches helped Trinita gaining four wins.

Of those four games, he played just once as a starter and scored four goals in just 57 minutes. FIFTY-SEVEN. His cleverness on and off the ball was crucial to play a certain brand of football and his linking with Yusuke Goto was deep, one of the best “on the pitch-relationship” I’ve ever seen.

You could have guessed that was it. He would never impress in J1, with another leap towards the top, struggling to get his pitch-time in Oita, since Ado Onaiwu was joining on loan from Urawa Red Diamonds after bagging 22 goals with Renofa Yamaguchi in the same J2 season. But nothing changed instead: Katanosaka thought that Fujimoto’s cleverness was a key-element to pursue his goals.

So while Onaiwu gained minutes and traction to score some goals in J1, Fujimoto didn’t lose any pitch-time. Goto and Mitsuhira were relegated to J. League Cup games, while Kohei Isa was never used during this season and Kenji Baba ended up getting loaned to FC Gifu. Fujimoto scored eight goals in J1, proving himself as one of the most talented players in the whole league in taking chances.

Take the debut in February: his first J1 game ever is against the continental champions, away, facing Kashima Antlers in Ibaraki. Brace, immediately… he almost scored a hat-trick in the end. Trinita took an unexpected victory, but the following path in this season proved that it wasn’t a fluke: they look comfortably on the road for safety and who knows if they might be able to lift the ceiling even upper than now.

Fujimoto was instrumental to hope for a better future, even becoming the monthly MVP in February/March 2019. The six times Fujimoto scored, Trinita always won: not a stat to undervalue. Unfortunately for Oita, that won’t happen anymore: in a surprise move, Vissel Kobe signed the no. 10 from Oita and the striker will enjoy the rest of the season in a real relegation-contender, the status that Fujimoto helped Trinita escaping.

Taking a deep breath

We can certainly say that Fujimoto’s story might be THE story of the season. Put in the right perspective and considering the trajectory he has been through, you can’t deny how interesting his rise has been in Japanese football, starting from an almost ending-career and now joining the club of Andrés Iniesta and David Villa (nothing much more to mention about Vissel Kobe, sorry).

And I can understand the view from Fujimoto’s side. What’s better? Staying in Oita, with the perspective of possibly getting relegated next season (not always surprises prosper in J1 for more than one year) or maybe settling for a mid-table team, in a nice city like Kobe, near his hometown? I could criticize Vissel’s perspective, since they are taking in a player in a role where they already two good interpreters (Villa and Washington).

But we’re not here to draw the spotlight (again!) on Mikitani. We’re here to celebrate a successful history and I hope Fujimoto will be able to enjoy the next future of his gig with Vissel in J1. I hope he’ll be able to reach – but maybe I’m over-optimistic here – 50 goals in the top tier and enjoy the rest of his career, after struggles and missed results almost brought him out of the game.

Last but not least, I hope Moriyasu will award him the chance of playing with the national team. Even for one game, even in the World Cup qualifiers against smaller teams… it’d be wonderful to watch this history be painted with some (Samurai) Blue. And I might be wrong, but he might become the first player to feature in the national team after coming from J3 League (let’s leave aside all who featured in reserves’ sides).

Francis Bacon said once: “If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties”. Noriaki Fujimoto has certainly lived a career full of doubts, but now he’s ready to enjoy some sure skills: his, the ones who brought back near home, but what a renewed status.