Tottenham fans have been told to get excited about summer signing Kota Takai after he proved his ability against Cristiano Ronaldo.
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Spurs confirmed Takai signingSet to link up with first-teamJapanese football expert gives lowdown on defenderFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?
Tottenham confirmed the signing of Takai from Kawasaki Frontale on Tuesday, with the Japan international moving to north London in a £5 million ($7m) deal, making him the most expensive J1 League sale of all time. Now, Japanese football expert Alan Gibson has claimed that the centre-back could end up being a bargain.
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Takai has won four caps for Japan at the age of 20, and he has played against some of the very best in the AFC Champions League. He was on the winning side as Kawasaki beat Cristiano Ronaldo's Al-Nassr, with Gibson claiming he had the Portugal superstar, Sadio Mane, and Jhon Duran "in his pocket".
WHAT JACOBS SAID
Jacobs told talkSPORT: "He's very, very good. He's very fast.
"He's registered at 6 foot 4, 6 foot 3 and a half, which is very unusual for a Japanese player and shouldn't be a problem in the Premier League if size matters. And he's only about 80, 82, 83kg at the moment. So he might need a bit of beefing up"
"I think some of the highlights you've probably seen were in the Asian Champions League semi-final when he played against Cristiano Ronaldo, Sadio Mane and Jhon Duran, and basically he had them in his pocket all game."I didn't realise Ronaldo was playing for about 60 minutes. Seriously, I was watching it on a small screen, and I really had forgotten that Ronaldo was there."
Getty Images SportWHAT NEXT?
Spurs kick off their pre-season preparations against Reading on July 19 as Thomas Frank gets his first look at his Spurs players in action.