Japanese Soccer

Keisuke Honda has undoubtedly been one of the stars of Japanese football in the last decade and he made a major move by signing for AC Milan. Even though they are not as successful as they once were, Milan will still provide him with an opportunity to get a lot of exposure in world football. The 27-year-old is at the peak of his career. Hence, it was probably right for him to move from a club like CSKA Moscow, which does not have a lot of international pedigree, to a club that has won seven Champions league titles.

The forward has been signed on a free transfer, while also becoming the first Japanese to play for the Italian club. Italian Alberto Zaccheroni, who is in charge of the Japanese national team, says that it will take a lot of mental strength in order to be successful at a club like Milan. Zaccheroni is someone who was Milan extremely well after being linked heavily with the managerial job only in recent weeks. Milan manager Massimiliano Allegri recently announced that he will step down from the post in the New Year.

Despite this, Honda is expected to be a key player for Milan, who have lost a number of quality individuals in recent years.

“Honda has the physical strength, the technique and the mentality to more than succeed in the Serie A at Milan. You need a strong personality to make it at Milan, and Keisuke has that on top of all the other tools you need to have, like the physicality and skill. When (Shinji) Kagawa joined Manchester United, I remember telling him that he was only getting started and signing with them was not his goal,” said Zaccheroni.

Milan are currently in the bottom half of the table after a very poor first half of the campaign.