Tottenham have agreed a £5million deal for 20-year-old Japan international centre-back Kota Takai from Kawasaki Frontale.
football.london understands the young defender is expected to be part of Thomas Frank’s first team squad for the coming season and will leave Kawasaki midway through their J.League campaign to join up with the Dane’s pre-season preparations, which begin in just over a fortnight.
Takai, who will turn 21 in September, has played 19 times this season in the Japanese league and another nine in the AFC Champions League, scoring twice. He impressed against Cristiano Ronaldo, Sadio Mane and Jhon Duran in the semi-final of the latter competition less than two months ago as Kawasaki beat Al-Nassr 3-2.
Despite his age, the young defender has also captained the side once, in their 3-3 draw at home against Yokohama in April and he will depart for a J.League record fee for a Japanese player.
The Yokohama-born centre-back, who can play on either the right or left of a duo, was identified by Spurs technical director Johan Lange and his staff as being able to step into the Premier League, following in the footsteps of other young signings at the club in recent years such as Lucas Bergvall, Pape Matar Sarr and Destiny Udogie, with the signing given the green light by Frank.
The current expectation is that Takai, who has now made four senior international appearance for Japan, will remain with the squad rather than be loaned out, but he will be fully assessed by Frank and his coaching staff up close in training when he arrives at the club.
However, his experience with 78 senior club matches at his age, Olympic appearances and four senior international World Cup qualifying caps is seen as similar, if not more advanced on the international stage, to the likes of Bergvall, Sarr, Udogie and Archie Gray as being able to make the step up.
The Japanese defender played a major role in Kawasaki winning the Japanese Super Cup in 2024 and was named the league’s Young Player of the Year. His favoured shirt number two is also available at Tottenham.
Takai will arrive in the same summer as teenager Luka Vuskovic. The Croatian centre-back has been out on loan in both Poland and Belgium and now he has turned he can officially make the move from Hajduk Split.
Spurs currently have a large number of centre-backs with Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Kevin Danso, the injured Radu Dragusin, Ben Davies and the younger Ashley Phillips and Alfie Dorrington and now Vuskovic and Takai.
The Japan international will become the second signing of the Frank era after Mathys Tel’s loan move from Bayern Munich was made permanent. The Frenchman will cost Spurs £29.8million (€35million), plus a potential further £4.2million (€5million) in add-ons. Tottenham to managed to knock around £15million off the original £45million option to buy the player at the end of his £8.5million loan spell.
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