{"id":76321,"date":"2026-08-18T16:58:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T16:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/76321\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T16:58:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T16:58:20","slug":"japanese-goalkeeper-set-for-premier-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/76321\/","title":{"rendered":"JAPANESE GOALKEEPER SET for Premier League"},"content":{"rendered":"

TOKYO \u2014 Zion Suzuki has had to overcome costly mistakes and racist abuse on the way to becoming the most expensive Japanese goalkeeper in history.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old will be the first Japanese goalkeeper in Premier League history when he seals his move to Aston Villa from Italian team Parma for up to 35 million euros ($40 million).<\/p>\n

Suzuki, who was previously linked with Manchester United, was born in New Jersey to a Ghanaian father and Japanese mother and moved to Japan at a young age.<\/p>\n

After coming through Japanese football he moved to Belgium then Italy and has already won 28 caps for his country.<\/p>\n

Suzuki, who appeared set to join Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain before Villa came calling, believes he has the tools to make it in the Premier League.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOf course big saves are important but above all I want to become a goalkeeper who brings stability to the team,\u201d Suzuki told FIFA\u2019s website ahead of the World Cup, where he played a central role in Japan reaching the last 32.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoing the simple things well consistently. Playing with the determination not to concede.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suzuki rose through the ranks at J. League side Urawa Reds and made his international debut after only a handful of appearances for his club.<\/p>\n

He moved to Belgian side Sint-Truiden in 2023 despite reported interest from United, reasoning that he wanted to get more experience as a first choice.<\/p>\n

He was handed Japan\u2019s number one jersey for the Asian Cup in January 2024 but turned in a series of blundering performances before they were eliminated in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

The young stopper suffered online racial abuse after a group-stage defeat to Iraq.<\/p>\n

Suzuki said of the abuse: \u201cI\u2019m not about to let it beat me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to come back at them by producing good results.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mental strength<\/p>\n

Suzuki continued as Japan\u2019s number one after the Asian Cup and gradually built up his reputation.<\/p>\n

He moved to Parma in 2024 to become the first Japanese goalkeeper to play in Italy\u2019s Serie A.<\/p>\n

His team-mates called him \u201canimale\u201d because of his muscular 6ft 3ins frame.<\/p>\n

Suzuki broke his hand in late 2025 but returned in time for this summer\u2019s World Cup and excelled as Japan progressed from a group that also included the Netherlands, Tunisia and Sweden.<\/p>\n

He again impressed against Brazil in the last 32 but could not prevent his team from going out 2-1 after conceding a 95th-minute winner to Gabriel Martinelli.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Zion<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Zion Suzuki t AFP FILE PHOTO\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOKYO \u2014 Zion Suzuki has had to overcome costly mistakes and racist abuse on the way to becoming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49048,49043,49046,48365,15745,49041,1754,8,47520,17,49039,49042,3754,39837,33330,48354,5175,49040,49047,48356,49045,49044,11072,49049,5140],"class_list":["post-76321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-animale","tag-28-caps","tag-asian-cup","tag-aston-villa","tag-belgium","tag-ghanaian","tag-j-league","tag-japan","tag-japan-national-team","tag-japanese","tag-japanese-goalkeeper","tag-japanese-mother","tag-manchester-united","tag-mental-strength","tag-new-jersey","tag-paris-saint-germain","tag-parma","tag-premier-league-history","tag-racial-abuse","tag-serie-a","tag-sint-truiden","tag-urawa-reds","tag-world-cup","tag-world-cup-2025","tag-zion-suzuki"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}