A Japanese unleashed in Patagonia: Shunsuke Murakami, the globetrotter who arrived from Australia to make history in the Federal A

While Chubut was put back on the map of Argentina due to the funds that the National Government tried to cut, Shunsuke Murakami It gave shape to his dreams: the Argentine time zone and being a footballer in this land. He arrived in the country after a season in the promotion Australia with a purpose: “Succeeding in South American football”.

Murakami is Japanese, 23 years old and plays as a right winger. This is what he did Heidelberg Kingdomwith five matches in the tournament National Premier League – Victoryand two gods Australian Cupall from owners.

come to Rawson with a suitcase and the pass in his possession, focused on what is at stake: in Germinal They were waiting for him for a series of tests to evaluate him as a possible reinforcement of the Federal A of this year. His brothers, he the middle one, played football but never at a professional level and Shunsuke is the only one in his family to dedicate himself to football.

The distance from his country, Chubut’s hotbed for issues of sharing and the promise that not even a drop of oil would leave the territory, aspects that Murakami hardly grasped, suggest a loneliness equal to that of the characters. In Bill Murray AND Scarlett Johansson In “Lost in Tokyo”.

-How are you Shunsuke, how do you feel?

Murakami apparently has no adjustment problems. In a conversation via Whatsapp with Clarion, “todo piola” is one of the few words that does not come in English. This, for now, is the language he uses even if he studies “Spanish”. He jargon leaves the locker room. “I have problems with my Spanish, but my Argentinian colleagues are all very friendly and always ready to help me. And they always invite me with yerba mate! ah ah”

How did a Japanese guy come to Germinal for Federal A? Technically it is a management of Damian Escuderothat midfielder of Velez AND Mouthamong others, who after his retirement dedicated himself to the representation of players.

Although he has not yet signed a contract, during his probationary period, Shunsuke has already raised a trophy: the “Town of Trelew” Summer Cup organized by Independent of that city, a trial by fire in which he started in the semi-final – he scored a goal – and came off the bench in the final.

“I’m happy to have scored a goal. It was nice to show something good in my first game at El Verde.”says in English except when he says “The green”. Of all your goals, the first is to sign the contract. The best is to build a distant career, which places him in the national team of his country. But for that transit you have other expectations: “I want to promote with Germinal, try to be number one and increase my personal value”. Take.

For Murakami there is no abyss between football Professional League and the Federal A. This year Germinal will be – of the 38 teams divided into four zones – the team that will have to cover the most kilometers in the first phase: 15,722 to face nine other teams, including Olimpo from Bahía Blanca or Kimberley from Mar del Plata. The shortest distance that the Chubut team will travel to reach the rival’s camp will be 506 kilometers, and the longest will be 1,190. You may not know that most of these trips will be by bus. Or maybe yes, and you don’t care.

“I want to play in front of a big crowd, entertain the crowd and make my family happy with football. The audience here is also fascinating. Since I was a child I dreamed of becoming a professional footballer and I am grateful and very excited to be able to sign a professional contract in South America, a place I have watched on television since I was a child. Also I watched a video documentary on the history of Boca “And I watched a lot of Diego Maradona videos!”, he says and explains what he likes, what he would like and what he wants.

As a child in Japan, he went to soccer games. FC Tokyo from his hometown. From what he has seen here, he believes they are his companions “They have a very high knowledge of football” and guarantees it “They are capable of improving each other in training”. He believes that the training modality is different from what he knows. Not for his physical appearance, in fact Murakami is a physical education teacher –“I graduated, but I’ve never played, I want to be a footballer”observes, but for the concepts it captures.

“Asado”, obviously, in Spanish and accompanied by an emoji that reinforces the point. Federal A’s first date for Germinal will be at home. On March 24th they will host the Círculo Deportivo de Otamendi, The paperand that day is already marked in Murakami’s agenda as the first step of his South American dream.