Kaoru Mitoma’s former coach on Brighton star's university days

Two questions in and Kauro Mitoma’s former coach at Tsukuba University had gone over to the nearby shelf and reached for a binder.

Carefully protected in there was the thesis on wingplay and dribbling which Mitoma put together with an awful lot of care and hard work during his three years at the university

His coach, Masaaki Koido, flicked through the pages and pointed out a few highlights.

Diagrams, charts, graphs and lots of beautiful Japanese script gave Mitoma’s views on his favoured position.

The football world now knows the Albion star studied dribbling and here, on a table between us in Koido’s office, is the document itself.

Time constraints and the language barrier meant we couldn’t go into all the technical details.

But, not long after that, Koido was reaching for more paperwork.

This time, it was Mitoma’s self-assessment on his own career and where he wanted to be.

Written when he was 19, it set out targets of a national team place at 22.

Then to become a core member of the national team.

He wanted to play at the Tokyo Olympics.

There is nothing about the Premier League but he was eyeing the Bundesliga by the time he was 23.

Two or three years after that he wanted to be in the Champions League.

It’s is all there in that self-assessment, again carefully preserved in his office by Koido.

You don’t even want to touch it or risk spilling your cup of water over it as it sits there on the table in front of us.

The self-assessment also saw Mitoma express concerns about his injuries and lack of physical strength, telling himself to toughen up. And there are even doubts over his speed.

“He was diligent, humble - and good-looking too for Japanese people!” Koido says with a laugh.

But he also has a question. “What is Mitoma for the people of Brighton?"

He is informed of the winger’s popularity, the run of games 18 months ago when it seemed he could do no wrong.

About the influx of Japanese fans now at the Amex on a regular basis.

And then there is mention of him being good in the air. Did he show signs of that in university?

‘No!” Koido said laughing. “One or two headers at the university, that’s all.

“I watch him on TV but one day I want to go to Brighton.”

We are talking in Koido’s office at the vast university sports campus.

It is between 45 minutes and maybe 75 by train from central Tokyo, depending whether you get the Tsukuba Express, the stopping service or what they call the “semi-rapid” service.

One end of the room is full of shirts from former Tsukuba players, many from the J-League.

There’s a signed shirt from a colleague who went on to work as an analyst for Holstein Kiel.

But pride of place goes to Mitoma’s Albion top.

Maybe it was just there because Koido, a 46-year-old ex-pro, knew I was coming.

He is told how, in England, we can’t get our heads around a player turning down a professional contract to go to a university team, as Mitoma did.

But Koido said he was right to put Kawasaki Frontale on hold and added: “Mostly when you are 19 or 20 in the J-League, you don’t play.

“He needed the experience and the university league is a high level.

“I’ve coached at Shizuka S-Pulse, Gamba Osaka and Kashiwa Reysol so I know the professional level and university is almost the same.

“Plus there are no foreign players in university football and that makes a big difference.”

Perhaps the easiest comparison to make is with the popularity of college sports in the USA.

But Koido said: “USA varsity sports have a lot of money.

“Japanese varsity sports have less money.

“But we train professionally. We have a match every weekend.

“In the week it is one-and-a-half hours every day except for a rest day.

“Kaoru was a winger here but sometimes he played as a No.9.

“He scored two goals as a No.9 and we called it the Mitoma tactics.

“The result depended on Mitoma. If I wanted him to score, i had him at No.9.

“If I wanted him to assist, he was on the wing.”

It’s hard to tell whether this is totally serious as the reply comes via our interpreter, 21-year-old university midfielder Kotaru Kishitani and everyone chuckles.

The serious balance is obviously whether you hinder a player’s progression in pursuit of a result.

But Koido said: “Of course you think about the player’s career as well but the important thing is having that desire to win.”

The next exhibit is on a computer screen from the other desk, which Koido turns around to show me a story on the FIFA website focussing on the strength of university football in Japan.

It used a photo he had shown me earlier of Mitoma and other would-be pros as part of a successful Japanese Universities squad.

He said: “In Japan and here at Tsukuba there is a lot of talent.

“Kaoru really wanted to be a pro. He prepared for his career in a good way.

“He studied English. He prepared for Europe. 

“He is one of the best role models for Japanese football.

“Not just in the way be played football but the way he prepared his career.“

Kishitani, our interpreter, says Mitoma is an inspiration to young players for showing there is a different path to the professional game.

We take a walk through the sporting facilities in the scorching heat and there is the football pitch, tucked in near areas for rugby and American football.

Kishitani says home matches pull in crowds of about 1,000 and adds that’s more than the team got in Mitoma’s day.

There’s a part of the 4G pitch which Koido refers to as Mitoma’s corner because he always trained there.

Koido picks up on Mitoma’s use of a Go-Pro to illustrate a point in the thesis and says it’s not the same viewpoint as your eyes.

“He should have used a more expensive camera!”

He is joking, of course. The thesis is now famous and Mitoma, who visits the university every year, is an inspiration to those who play for Tsukuba.