Takahara to Leave

Barry writes

Word got around today (no surprise, I'm sure you'll agree) that Taka will not be offered a new contract at the end of this year. He's a popular figure and certainly shifted a few shirts, but for the wages he's on, the return we've got hasn't been wonderful, especially these last twelve months.

To be fair, he had a good year last season, and went a long way to making up for past discrepancies in sky blue. Seems like a nice fella, so all the best of luck to him wherever he may go.

He had some memorable moments, including that last minute winner at home to Niigata (サイコー！！), and the ball he dinked off to Takagi to smash home two men down against FC Tokyo. Rumour has it he duped former team mate Ota into laying it back to him with a sly shout for the ball.

Maybe his most memorable goal came in Saitama last year where he'd spent several hellish months with Urawa. Skip forward to 0:34.

And we all enjoyed that one. :)