The remarkable rise of Robaato Rasamu in the world of football management had seen him go from being unemployed to reaching the J1 League in just over three years. He now faced a huge task as he prepared for his first taste of top-flight football.
Rasamu was also progressing off the pitch as passed his Continental C Licence and the Niigata board immediately agreed to fund his Continental B Licence, which he passed on 1 April 2027. So nearly four years into this adventure, Rasamu had a 2.5-star reputation and had attributes that were beginning to represent a real Football Manager. As a result, the Niigata board handed him a new contract on £3,600 per week until the end of 2029.
Rasamu had his work cut out to strengthen his squad and meet the board’s objective to try and avoid relegation from J1 League. He released 18 players at the end of the season, including Victor Wanyama, while right-back Junya Suzuki moved to Kanazawa. But a big move was locking star man Yuta Maeda down to a new contract that removed his minimum fee release clause.
Five new players arrived as the transfer window opened, led by goalkeeper Mitsutero Naruo for £1.8m from Shimizu. He was joined by midfielder Yoshitake Hironiwa for £500k from Tokyo-V, attacking midfielder Kazuhiro Akimoto for £850k from Ryukyu, centre-back Yoshikazu Yoshida for £725k from Okayama and Raamu’s former Sakuni striker Harumi Minamino on a free transfer.
More reinforcements arrived in exciting holding midfielder Takashi Yamamoto for £975k from Mito, Korean right-back Lee Jin-Ho for £400k from Ulsan, Australian/Mauritian left-back Jean Casimir for up to £3m from FC-Tokyo and renewed the loan deal of left-back Junpei Mizuguchi. Then on deadline day, backup winger Kenta Momoi kicked up a fuss about a lack of playing time, was sold to Nagoya for a new club record £3m and was replaced by Naoki Hattori for £1.1m from Tokushima.
With those signings made, Rasamu stuck with the 4-2-3-1 that worked so well last season with a few slight tweaks. Vusi More is being retrained to play from the left and potentially as the shadow striker to fit him and the improving Takashi Wakabayashi into the team. While Rasamu’s focus on youth saw them begin the campaign with an average age of just 19.45!
Stepping Up To J1 League
The bookies are fairly optimistic of Niigata’s chances, predicting them to finish 15th with title odds of 100/1. Kashima are favorites at 7/5 followed by champions Kobe (9/2), Urawa Reds and Gamba Osaka (9/1), Kawasaki-F (11/1) and Yokohama F-M (15/1). While Mito are huge relegation favourites with 1000/1 title odds followed by Nagasaki (600/1), Tokushima (250/1) and Shimizu and Shonan (200/1). That said, Niigata have J1’s lowest salary spend at £4.21m compared to top-spending Kashima’s £20.4m.
Niigata began with a tough trip to Gamba Osaka and Rasamu’s first taste of J1 was a bitter one thanks to stupid VAR. Niigata were denied a penalty before Osaka were given a penalty for an identical challenge. But they came back into it in the second half and Maeda’s sublime strike earned a point. Their first home game in J1 started well as Maeda scored just before half time. But Yokohama quickly turned things around only for Wakabayashi to win and convert a penalty in the 80th minute and seal another point.
Next up was an emotional day as Rasamu’s father came to meet him ahead of his first-ever visit to his boyhood club Nagoya Grampus. Rasamu’s father was secretly happy as Nagoya scored inside three minutes. But More sent Wakabayashi through for the equaliser then another homegrown player, winger Ryutaro Ito, came off the bench to bag Rasamu’s first top-flight victory. That earned Ito his first start and he scored again to earn a 1-0 victory at home to Mito.
Taking On Japan’s Best
The good start continued in a 1-1 at Tokushima, but Niigata should have won given the hosts had 10 men for 30 minutes, before a 1-1 at home to Shimizu, which made it four draws out of six. But their biggest test yet came with a trip to leaders Urawa. Niigata dominated the first half and led early on through Wakabayashi, but Urawa grew into the game and got a little bit lucky to score late goals and end Niigata’s long unbeaten run.
Another tough challenge took Niigata to reigning Japanese champions Kobe and they again started well as Yamamoto and Yoshida’s first Niigata goals took them into half time 2-1 up. Lincoln (former FM wonderkid) scored twice just after the break to seemingly turn the game around. However, underestimate this Niigata side at your peril as More fired home then Wakabayashi turned in the box and drilled into the bottom corner to claim a famous victory!
Niigata took confidence from that comeback to win 2-0 at Kyoto, with goals by More and captain Yuito Suzuki. Then a stunning performance was probably the best of this entire save so far in a 5-0 hammering of Kawasaki-F led by Maeda’s hat-trick and Hattori’s first for the club, but they lost Ito to a broken foot for four months.
A brutal May saw Niigata play eight league matches in 27 days. It began with a 2-2 at home to Shonan then easy wins over struggling Nagasaki 3-1 and Sapporo 3-0, the latter inspired by More’s perfect hat-trick, before More scored the only goal at Cerezo Osaka with Naruo earning player of the match. But the games caught up with them as they struggled to get going at home to 3rd-place Kashima and lost 1-0.
That left Niigata sitting in a superb 2nd place after 18 matches, only trailing leaders Urawa by one point. Only two teams had scored more than their 33 goals and only 11th-place Yokohama F-M had conceded fewer than their 16.
Niigata’s form had been unbelievable so far this season and they were already safe from any relegation worries with more than half the season remaining. The big question was whether they could maintain their form and finish in the top five to secure what Rasamu presumed would be qualification for the AFC Champions League.
Could they keep pace with Japan’s big boys and push for Rasamu’s first taste of continental football? Join us on Monday to find out!
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