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A rock solid presence in midfield, Junichi Inamoto is one of the emerging stars of Japanese soccer.
Inamoto is a bustling, tough-tackling midfielder and an excellent ball-winner who uses quickness and foot speed to elude opposing defenders, and he's responsible in his own end, too. Inamoto reads the game beautifully and has a superlative sense of positioning that he uses to thwart opposing attackers.
His two goals in the World Cup - including the game winner against Russia - only serve to underline his importance to the team as a clutch scorer, especially considering that he only had one international goal going into the tournament.
Even though he has failed to make any kind of impression since signing with Arsenal - he's only played on the London club's reserve team - Inamoto is still considered one of the best Japanese exports in soccer today.
Inamoto honed his soccer skills at Gamba Osaka's youth academy before graduating to the senior club in 1998 straight out of high school.
In five seasons with Gamba Osaka, Inamoto made 105 appearances and scored 14 goals. Inamoto earned his first cap for Japan on February 5, 2000 against Mexico and soon became a regular for the national team. He went on to represent his country at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, and helped Japan win the 2000 Asian Cup held in Lebanon.
His strong performance in the 2001 Confederations Cup did not go unnoticed as Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger shelled out $5 million to J-League club Gamba Osaka for the midfielder last summer.
However, despite becoming the first Japanese player to sign with an English Premiership team, he failed to make a single appearance for the club in league play, playing all of his games for Arsenal's reserve team.
While reports that he will be dropped by Arsenal are
so far unsubstantiated, there's little doubt that with
his strong showing at the World Cup, the queue of top
clubs from across Europe will soon be knocking down
his door to secure his signature.
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