While Tsubasa might be the defining icon of footballing pop culture in Japan, it certainly isn’t the only one. (Top L-R) Zidane, Alessandro Del Pierro, Alexis Sanchez (C) Lionel Messi (Bottom L-R) Fernando Torres, Andres Iniesta, Francesco Totti Its popularity in the footballing world is so high that some online football jersey stores even sell official jerseys of the various fictitious school teams that appear in the comic. This list also includes more illustrious names such as Alessandro Del Piero, Francesco Totti, Zinedine Zidane, Lionel Messi, Alexis Sanchez, Andres Iniesta and Fernando Torres. It has inspired many footballers including several of Japan’s 2002 world cup stars. The franchise enjoys huge popularity in Europe, Latin America and the Gulf as well. The show also had a reboot in 2002 called ‘Captain Tsubasa: Road To 2002’. So popular was the manga that it spawned off a long running anime and several spin-offs. Although inspirational, much of the football related content is from fantasy land (Lets’ not go there!).

Hence was born Captain Tsubasa !! The story follows the journey of a boy named Oozora Tsubasa and his dream of one day leading Japan to the World Cup. (L) Yoichi Takahashi, (R) Captain TsubasaĪ long time ago in 1978, a manga artist named Yoichi Takahashi was so captivated by what he saw during the World Cup in Argentina that he decided to write a football manga.

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