Shinji Okazaki: ‘I Played With Real Desperate Desire’

[davieG]

Shinji Okazaki talks Leicester City's 2016 title win, English classes with N'Golo Kanté, ambitions to be a manager, and a fancy dress party in Copenhagen...

 

Bananaman walks into a bar in Copenhagen, the Danish capital. He’s joined by Batman, Mr Incredible and the White Power Ranger. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are there too. This odd spectacle becomes stranger yet when you realise who’s behind the masks. This isn’t a comic-book convention, instead it’s Leicester City’s players on a Christmas party in 2015. It’s the fearless Foxes, atop of the Premier League, stunning the world one weekend at a time.

Eight years later, Shinji Okazaki grins as he recalls that night out with his team-mates. It was still very early days for Shinji at Leicester City. Less than five months into his new adventure, he didn’t speak very much English at all. The Japanese striker, though, had joined a unique dressing room. When everything else is stripped away, football teams – Premier League or Sunday League – are just a group of likeminded people. And these were a band of brothers on the cusp of achieving unthinkable glories. Shinji was already feeling at home. 

“It was a fancy dress party,” he chuckles, talking through a translator, sat in the town square of Sint-Truiden, a pretty city in Belgium’s Flemish region. “We went out into the town wearing fancy dress and we drank all night! That night, I really felt accepted and a part of the team. I really got to know Jamie [Vardy], Kasper [Schmeichel] and Wes [Morgan] on that trip.”

 

More here - https://www.lcfc.com/news/3087772/shinji-okazaki-i-played-with-real-desperate-desire/featured?lang=en

[Ric Flair]

The title sounds like our next Nigerian signing.

[fleshdaddy]

I miss that team / those years!

[filthyfox]

I MISS SHINJI

[ParkerPen]

4 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

The title sounds like our next Nigerian signing.

Marvellous !

 

Real Desperate Desire

is that one of these new US teams ? 

 

[Cincinnati Fox]

Gave a shit, if only these days

[somebum]

Scored some important goals what a great signing.

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

Busy busy busy, allowed other players to do their stuff, always remember the overhead kick vs Newcastle 

[TeamRocket]

Miss this dude and miss the clubs identify to be honest.

[davieG]

Can't imagine the current squad have anywhere near the same closeness and camaraderie.

[Mike the Metal Ed]

We could have used some desperate desire the last few games. Too bad it's just not the way we play, and that's that.

[Sampson]

Loved Shinji. One of the weirdest and most uncategorisable players ever though. He was a striker who never scored or got assists and fell over all the time but was still somehow brilliant. Never scored a normal goal either. They were all either screamers or weird, bizarre efforts.

[Dunge]

I always think he’s underrated for his link-up play, wanting to play one-touch football in direct counters, playing with his back to goal and winning free kicks when there was nothing on. He was someone who wasn’t just a guy with high work rate, he had the abilities to help that team work.

[kristianity77]

Didn't score many goals, didn't get many assists, didn't really do a lot that you could look up in stats. But without him, we didn't win that league, not a chance.

[Lambert09]

Never has a player scored such ugly goals at such beautiful moments! 

[SecretPro]

1 hour ago, davieG said:

Can't imagine the current squad have anywhere near the same closeness and camaraderie.

Not even on the same planet. 

[Gazza M]

Lend a bit to the current lot Shinji....

[fox_up_north]

He must pinch himself when he sees his medal on the mantelpiece. The beam one of his amazing smiles. 

[Bellend Sebastian]

56 minutes ago, Sampson said:

Loved Shinji. One of the weirdest and most uncategorisable players ever though. He was a striker who never scored or got assists and fell over all the time but was still somehow brilliant. Never scored a normal goal either. They were all either screamers or weird, bizarre efforts.

Player most likely to have a goal go in off his arse or face.

 

We all love a player that just runs about and hurls himself at everything, don't we? A real bonus when it's sometimes effective too 

[Spudulike]

[SpacedX]

He introduced an unpredictable chaos onto the field - rather like releasing a pinball and watching it ricocheting around or the random path of a whirling dust devil. And yes, he was prone to falling over for no apparent reason. Away to Millwall in the cup, I recall after a crap lunging tackle in the box, people screaming for him to go down for the penno, which was the one time he stayed on his feet. My favorite Okazaki goal (aside from the overhead kick against Newcastle) was also against the Toon, in the away leg that season because, in contrast to the one scored at home, it's possibly one of the most underwhelming, crap and unspectacular goals scored in league history. My favourite assist was against West Brom, when he slipped and fell on his arse, in so doing inadvertently playing a perfectly timed and weighted through ball through to Vardy to score. One the most memorable headlines that season (and there were many), was in the Times Sport section, that simply read, 'Okazaki Acrobatics'. 

[Danizen]

12 minutes ago, Line-X said:

He introduced an unpredictable chaos onto the field - rather like releasing a pinball and watching it ricocheting around or the random path of a whirling dust devil. And yes, he was prone to falling over for no apparent reason. Away to Millwall in the cup, I recall after a crap lunging tackle in the box, people screaming for him to go down for the penno, which was the one time he stayed on his feet. My favorite Okazaki goal (aside from the overhead kick against Newcastle) was also against the Toon, in the away leg that season because, in contrast to the one scored at home, it's possibly one of the most underwhelming, crap and unspectacular goals scored in league history. My favourite assist was against West Brom, when he slipped and fell on his arse, in so doing inadvertently playing a perfectly timed and weighted through ball through to Vardy to score. One the most memorable headlines that season (and there were many), was in the Times Sport section, that simply read, 'Okazaki Acrobatics'. 

Pretty sure he did that exact same thing against Liverpool as well. For the other goal in that game.

Edited 8 March 2023 by Danizen

[ceebeefox]

Okazaki was great managed to be a midfielder out of possession and a striker with it. A similar player to sign now would be fellow Japanese international Maeda. Would make an industrious no 10 or anywhere in the forwards, and, like most Japanese players has an appetite for grafting which, sadly most of our players currently do not! 

[bovril]

The kind of player that would give the crowd a lift as well. I remember a couple of times - Liverpool at home in the Carabao and Fulham away in the league - where he came on and changed the game and the atmosphere.

[Ozwin]

Exactly what this side currently needs.