The 25-men Japan national squad set to play Cameroon (9 Oct) and Côte d’Ivoire (13 Oct) was announced on 1 October.
This is the first time the Samurai Blue will be in action since the EAFF E-1 Football Championship in December 2019. Given the 14-day isolation requirement imposed on Japan returnees from the Netherlands, where the two international friendlies will be held, a decision was made to call up only Europe-based players.
The squad are headlined by the likes of Villarreal’s Takefusa Kubo and Bologna’s Takehiro Tomiyasu. In addition, a total of five players from Belgium were selected which included Junya Ito and Musashi Suzuki.
The full squad is as follows:
Goalkeepers
Eiji Kawashima (Strasbourg, France)
Shuichi Gonda (Portimonense, Portugal)
Daniel Schmidt (Sint-Truiden, Belgium)
Defenders
Yuto Nagatomo (Marseille, France)
Maya Yoshida (Sampdoria, Italy)
Hiroki Sakai (Marseille, France)
Sei Muroya (Hannover, Germany)
Koki Anzaki (Portimonense, Portugal)
Naomichi Ueda (Cercle Brugges, Belgium)
Ko Itakura (Groningen, Netherlands)
Takehiro Tomiyasu (Bologna, Italy)
Yukinari Sugawara (AZ, Netherlands)
Midfielders
Genki Haraguchi (Hannover, Germany)
Gaku Shibasaki (Leganes, Spain)
Wataru Endo (Stuttgart, Germany)
Junya Ito (Genk, Belgium)
Takumi Minamino (Liverpool, England)
Daichi Kamada (Eintracht Frankfurt, Germany)
Yuta Nakayama (Zwolle, Netherlands)
Koji Miyoshi (Antwerp, Belgium)
Ritsu Doan (Arminia Bielefeld, Germany)
Takefusa Kubo (Villarreal, Spain)
Forwards
Shinji Okazaki (Huesca, Spain)
Yuya Osako (Werder Bremen, Germany)
Musashi Suzuki (Beerschot, Belgium)
CoolJapan Soccer 