There’s nothing more legendary than seeing something becoming a worldwide attraction, the property of everyone, globally. J. League is trying to achieve that, but to do so, you need a global fanbase. And it’s there, although its numbers can certainly rise. In this series of pieces – which will all fall under the label “J. League Worldwide”, we’re trying to tell the personal and professional stories of Japanese football fans all over the world.
Before introducing the eleventh instalment of the series, I want to remind the efforts of Stuart Smith in starting this column (you can find him @Sushi_Football on Twitter, doing a good job in spreading the word for J.League). Twenty-four episodes are done, and in the last one – published a few weeks ago – we talked with Nacho (@nacho_trinita) about his passion for Oita Trinita, which is burning from his days in Spain.
And if you can read here his interview with us, for Episode number 25, we move a bit on the West, from Spain to Italy. The country has been pretty active about its passion for the J.League, and we have new members to talk about. Among them, there’s Alex – who has been following the Japanese championship for a long, long time by supporting one of the most important clubs of the country.
Where are you from and when did you first start following the J. League?
I come from Tuscany, and I live in the province of Lucca. Although I’m not exactly young anymore, I started following the J.League basically from its birth. Of course, it wasn’t easy at the time to properly follow a league on the other side of the world.
Do you have a favourite team or player?
I’m a hardcore fan of Kashima Antlers. In fact, last year I had finally the chance of visiting Japan, and I went to Ibaraki to see the stadium, the club house and the official store of the club. Bummer that Antlers were not playing at home those days, but I managed to buy the jersey of my favorite player, Yuma Suzuki.
We’re used to seeing a lot of coverage around football here in Europe or South America. A tendency growing as well in North America and Asia. How do you keep up with the news regarding the league?
I’ve been lucky enough to have a lot of contacts through Twitter with Japanese fans and several insiders of the J.League-sphere, and of course I try to obtain as many news as possible. Naturally, I follow as well as many channels from J.League clubs as I can, and I use the J.League internationa YouTube channel to see the games live and watch all the highlights.
Have you ever been to Japan for some matches? If so, how was the impact? And if not, which match and which aspect are you longing for the most?
Like I said before, I wasn’t lucky with Antlers’ schedule last year, and I was in Osaka throughout my trip to Japan while the two local clubs were playing away. Luckily, in a month, I’ll be back in Japan and I have planned to see three matches live, two in Osaka and one in Yokohama – where I’ll finally catch up with my beloved Antlers (author’s note: Alex gave us this interview in late March, so he’s probably enjoying these games right now!).
From your point of view, how do you think the J. League has been perceived in your own country? And there’s a space to improve the image of the league around the world, just like they’re trying to do?
Unfortunately, when in Italy you try to show something around the J.League, some comments and stereotypes about Captain Tsubasa always come out – often ironically and not with a positive connotation. I think the J.League is doing an excellent job to expand their influence through their channels, and the performances by Japanese players in Europe are helping a lot.
In Italy we’re still so far away from a proper coverage – from my side, I’ve been trying and I’ll always try to push the J.League, because I love this football formed by great games, marvellous plays, healthy rivalries and a true and proper sporting culture.
We want to thank Alex for his time – it was a fine chat and he’s very active Twitter, where you can find him @alexcobra11. Meanwhile, we hope to bring you soon Episode 26, so stay tuned!
