The Japanese rallied after a devastating World Cup defeat in the past and decided to develop a system that would allow them, in true anime style, to build the strongest star player possible. That's the gist of Blue Lock, a soccer-based anime series that pits some of Japan's best young players against each other in an initiative designed solely to produce the best.
Each player is asked whether they have the ability and, above all, the ego to make it to the top. The series features many talented players whose skills are similar to some of the best players we have seen in real life. Here are 5 Blue Lock players with similarities to real footballers.
5 Meguru Bachira – Neymar Jr.
Skills to pay the bills
Blue Lock may be a Japanese series about young athletes who want to be part of their country's national effort to win the World Cup in the future, but one of the most interesting players has a Brazilian flair, if any player ever has.
A player who loves the thrill of the game more than anyone, Bachira wows audiences with his dancing feet that will remind everyone of the many skilled Brazilians who have made a huge impact on the world stage. The youngest of these is Neymar Jr. Just like Neymar, Bachira is rather average with a height of 1.75 m. Much like Neymar, Bachira tends to flaunt his excellent dribbling skills and on-field flair, and isn't afraid to throw a rainbow shot here and there.
Its roulettes and flicks and colored
Yellow hair definitely gives off the image of a young Brazilian hotshot. His player archetype is known as a dribbler because, like Neymar, he is best at it and his runs on the ball are the most interesting part of his game.
4 Rin Itoshi – Robert Lewandowski
Efficient strikers
From the first introduction of Rin Itoshi, both the audience and the other characters around him knew that they were dealing with a pretty intense player and rival to our protagonists. A cold, strict and above all serious player who only cares about his efficiency as a striker. From the way he plays, there are similarities to one of the most brutal and efficient players ever, Robert Lewandowski.
Like Lewandowski, Rin is 1.95 meters tall, which is a good height for a striker, especially considering the hold-up game and possible aerial duels. Rin also believes that he is just as incredibly productive as Lewandowski, averaging over two goals per game in the third selection.
Rin's player archetype is described as a playmaker-striker, showing even more niche parallels between the two. Rin has the necessary overview and ball control that allows him to create high-quality scoring opportunities. And although Lewandowski doesn't stand out for his ball control, it is an underrated part of his game. In his prime, he may not have been at the level of Messi, Ronaldo and Neymar in terms of his dribbling skills, but he knew how to hold and control the ball to take advantage of scoring opportunities, just as Rin Itoshi did during that time did series.
3 Shoei Baro – Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Big player, big ego
If ever there was a player in world football with a larger-than-life personality and an even bigger ego, it was the agile Swedish giant Zlatan Ibrahimović. The same goes for Shoei Baro, an endearingly arrogant and dominant player who attracts the attention of everyone at Blue Lock early on in the series.
Zlatan was a pretty bombastic player who fully believed in his greatness (and had the skills to back it up) and often referred to himself as a Ferrari or a lion. Baro is very similar in this regard, referring to himself as “The King” and treating the pitch as if it were his glorious stage. Both men are strikers with impressive heights, with Zlatan at 1.90 meters and Baro at 1.80 meters being significantly taller than the vast majority of his teammates.
Baro is an absolute striker, just like Zlatan. He has an incredibly powerful shot that can hit the ball like a rocket and send it flying like a bullet. For someone of his size, he has great technical ability, a trait Zlatan has often been praised for. And of course, because of his size, he is able to force other players off the ball with his superior physicality.
2 Hyoma Chigiri – Gareth Bale
Fast as lightning
Given his blistering pace and past injury problems, there are a number of players from football's past and present that Chigiri could be compared to. The most famous of these potential players was chosen for this article, one who despite his injuries was able to have a fantastic career as one of the fastest and tallest players in the world – Gareth Bale.
The most obvious similarity between the two is their speed. Fans of Blue Lock will remember Chigiri's iconic scene in Season 1, in which, with injuries tied around his legs, he broke through the metaphorical chains and sprinted past an entire team of players with unstoppable momentum. This kind of run was Gareth Bale's livelihood and there were many clips of him online, such as his legendary goal against Barcelona in the Copa del Rey final.
The satisfying feeling of watching a speedy player glide past multiple defenders with just a powerful touch forward and shoot forward with quick strides like an engine on the pitch is one that the audience can get from watching Chigiri , just as fans did when watching Bale for years.
1 Yoichi Isagi – Filippo Inzaghi
Find space
This is more of a niche comparison than any others on this list. The actual player in question is one who hasn't played a game in over a decade and retired in 2012. But as many fans have pointed out on social media, Filippo Inzaghi is the player that Blue Lock's main protagonist, Yoichi Isagi, is based on.
Both players aren't necessarily the most entertaining strikers, but they are still strikers who do their jobs to the best of their ability, creating chances, scoring goals and leading their teams to victory. Isagi's main ability, as seen in Blue Lock, is his ability to find space on the field and exploit it, either occupying it himself or choosing the right time for a teammate to do the same. Similarly, Inzaghi's style of play was characterized by opportunism. His goals often resulted from exploiting his opponents' mistakes and finding himself in a world full of room for manoeuvre.
Isagi's ability to find pockets and Inzaghi's ability to immediately take advantage of space losses make both such interesting players. It's no coincidence that even their names sound quite similar.
