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Kaoru Mitoma's early life, childhood and career in Japan
Kaoru has been a dribbler since childhood!
Kaoru Mitoma(三笘 薫 in kanji) was born in 1997 and spent his childhood mainly in Kanagawa Prefecture. His parents were sports enthusiasts: his father ran track and field when he was a student and his mother played volleyball. Kaoru started playing soccer because his older brother played soccer. His brother still plays soccer as a hobby. Seeing these sons, their father Takeshi connected the living room to the next room and let them play soccer freely with a soft ball.
When Kaoru became an elementary school student, he played for Club Saginuma SC, which played on the grounds of his elementary school. He then participated in the selection process for Kawasaki Frontale's academy (U-10). He was selected as a third grader (age 9) in a selection process that mainly focused on fourth-graders.
His coach at the time, Mr. Goto, said: "One year older than him were Koji Miyoshi (playing for Birmingham City in 2023-2024) and Koh Itakura (playing for Manchester City in 2019-2022). Kaoru was one grade below them, but he was agile and dribbled well, so I thought he could mix in with the upper grades."
After entering the academy, Kaoru's position was mainly volante, but he also played wide. His style of play was the same as now, dribbling past opponents. Ever since he was in elementary school, he played by stopping and shifting his opponents, taking them off target, and watching their center of gravity as he played the game.
In addition, before and after practice, he would grab a teammate who would later become a professional soccer player, and they would work incessantly on one-on-one practice in various phases of the game. He would practice thinking about how he could quickly set up in front of them, how he could use space, and so on.
Kaoru talked about those days: "In the third and fourth grade, I played side half, side back, etc. In the fifth grade, I played No. 10, but in the sixth grade, I played volante all the time. I was good at dribbling and through-passing. I think the coaches put me in this position to help me improve, because volantis is a position where you get a lot of touches on the ball."
Mr. Takasaki, who was the coach at the time, noticed Kaoru's talent right away. Mr. Takasaki said of that time, "Kaoru saw the situation of the opponent and immediately changed his play. It is a talent to be able to do this at a young age in elementary school. It is the same with Takefusa Kubo (who has been playing for Real Sociedad since 2022), and players who can do this go to the higher level."
Furthermore, according to Takasaki, Kaoru had instantaneous speed and was very quick with his first step. Thinking he would be even faster on his feet in the future, Takasaki had a trainer examine his body. At that time, Mr. Takasaki was told by the trainer that the quality of his muscles was different from other players. From that time on, Kaoru seemed to have the judgment to change his play when he saw his opponent, as well as the natural speed and spring in his step.
In addition to his natural ability, Kaoru had an outstanding attitude to challenge and learn new skills and challenges. One day, Mr. Takasaki realized that posture and walking style lead to better performance, so he taught Kaoru and the other players. From then on, he maintained this posture during meetings and while eating. He even kept his posture during school classes, and his mother even contacted Mr. Takasaki to tell him that his posture had suddenly improved.
According to Mr. Takasaki, there were many other good players besides Kaoru, but Kaoru stood out from the rest in terms of learning ability. Whenever Mr. Takasaki gave him a technical challenge, he would work on it and repeat it until he had mastered it and made it his own.
By the third-year junior high school students, the highest grade in the junior youth program, the presence of the dribbler Kaoru Mitomo was well known. Opponents were wary of his dribbling and tried to counter it with more players. At such times, if two opponents came at once, he would pull them back and play a one-two with an outside pass. He also saw the situation and used different plays, such as dribbling. His characteristic dribble up the left side and pass to the goal with the outside of his right foot was also done since those days. This is because the kicking motion of the outside of the foot is small, making it difficult for defenders to predict.
Kaoru had drawn steady growth through junior, junior youth, and youth, despite his thinness. Naturally, the club approached him about a promotion to the top team (Kawasaki Frontale) when he was a senior in high school at the youth level. However, he chose to go on to college, much to the surprise of the Kawasaki Frontale staff.
Kaoru recalled, "I saw Koji Miyoshi and Koh Itakura, who were a year above me, and I didn't have confidence that I could make it in the top team. I thought it would be better for me to go to a university for the future. I thought I could study for four years and look at myself and soccer more objectively. Professional soccer players are expected to devote themselves to one game at a time. However, I wanted to look at myself and soccer from a long-term perspective.
Kaoru participated in training at Tsukuba University when he was a youth player, and he was impressed with the quality and level of training and the environment. He thought that his active years as a soccer player would not be long and that his life beyond that would be longer. He decided to go on to the University of Tsukuba when he considered human development as well. As a sophomore, he won the University League championship and was named to the best eleven.
Meanwhile, he studied physical education, exercise physiology, and nutrition at Tsukuba University, all of which he could apply to soccer. He began to pay attention to recovery after playing, something he had never paid attention to before. He also received advice on how to run from the university's track and field specialist and strengthened his speed by learning about body mechanics and how to use it logically. In the youth team, he used timing and technique to dribble past opponents, but in college, he added speed to his game, leaving opponents behind.
After graduating from college, Kaoru joined Kawasaki Frontale. Despite being a rookie in his first year with the club, he performed at a league MVP level and contributed greatly to the team's victory in 2020. His first professional goal came against Shonan Bellmare on July 26, 2020, and he went on to score in five consecutive official matches. He became the fifth rookie in history to score double-digit goals in October. Finally, he scored 13 goals and provided 12 assists, earning him the Best Eleven award. After a year and a half with Kawasaki Frontale he moved to Brighton. He scored his first goal in the Premier League in a game in July 2022.
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