Pride. Literally, pride, self-esteem.
Although every professional soccer player has this in their heart,
Each player's approach and mindset is very different.
This season's WE ARE GAMBA OSAKA is,
Deep in the hearts of the players,
Revealing each person's pride.

Surprisingly, he says that he didn't have much confidence in himself even as a child. This may be due to the strong sense of responsibility he felt as a central player on the team.

"Even when I was in elementary school and after I started playing for the Gamba Academy, if the team wasn't doing well in a game, I thought it was all my fault. When the team wasn't progressing as they wanted in practice or in the red-white game, I thought, "I must be holding them back." Even though people around me told me, "That's not true," I still couldn't gain confidence."

It's also because I've always played in a position to score.

"If I had scored, we would have won."
"If I had sent in a good ball, it would have led to a shooting opportunity."

Since soccer is a sport where you can "win" by scoring points, when you don't get results, it's when you point the arrow of responsibility at yourself. He says that this is also due to the influence of his father, who taught him soccer at a young age and always kicked the ball with him.

"I hate to say it myself, but when I was little, I was better than anyone around me, and I hardly ever make any mistakes. But my dad never praised me. Rather, he would always criticize me very harshly for one mistake, rather than for the plays that went well. When I asked my dad about that time as an adult, he said, "I would stop growing the moment I got too cocky, so I would deliberately look for and point out the things I was doing wrong." Because of that, even now that I'm a professional, I think I'm more concerned about and think about the plays that didn't go well than the ones that did. Even if I make a good play, the next moment I think, "Can I play the same way in the next game?" And if I miss a shot in practice, I worry that my evaluation will go down. If I make one mistake at the end of practice, I can't stop thinking about it when I get home. It's not that I think negatively, but..."

In fact, thinking thoroughly about the plays that didn't go well has helped me to broaden the scope of my play.

"When I play, my imagination and ideas are one of the things I value, but on the other hand, "thinking" can lead to changes in myself and the birth of new ideas. In fact, if I think about my mistakes, I naturally imagine other options. On the pitch, it's not good to make mistakes by sticking too much to one play, but if I imagine various options for each situation and choose what I think is the right one, and if I make a technical mistake, it should be a play that leads to the next one. So I want to continue to use my pride in not having confidence and doubting my own play to help me grow."

I have had this mindset since I was a child and still cherish it, "If I enjoy playing, the people watching will surely enjoy soccer too," so I want to keep it shining in my heart.

- Misa Takamura ●Text by Misa Takamura

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