With 13 goals in 11 rounds, can he become the first Japanese player to win the Golden Boot in a major European league?

Previously, Kiryo Ueda was named the Eredivisie Player of the Month for October, the first Japanese player.

In the 2022/23 season, Ueda won the league silver boot (22 goals) in Belgium, 5 goals behind the golden boot Kuepers. At that time, he was only 2 goals behind in the regular season, but the gap widened to 5 goals in the European playoffs. In the summer of 2023, he moved to Feyenoord for 8 million euros and ushered in an explosion this season. He scored in three consecutive games at the start of the season, including a hat-trick in the first half against Almere, and his fourth brace against Volendam in the Eredivisie this season. With less than 1/3 of the league, his goals (13 goals) have exceeded the total of the previous two seasons (12 goals).

Despite the constant scoring, Dutch star Van Basten criticized Ueda for only scoring goals forward. However, he has proven that he can also score with headers. In the warm-up match in October, Japan defeated Brazil and Ueda Keyo scored with a header. Dutch reporter Van Essel believes that Ueda Kiryo is a striker that cannot be cultivated in the current Eredivisie. "We will only cultivate forwards like Brobe and Zirkzee who can't score goals." It is worth mentioning that in the Premier League this season, neither Brobe nor Zirkzee have yet to break the curse.

The 27-year-old Kiryo Ueda is only 1.82 meters tall. In middle school, he was unable to join the Kashima Antlers team due to his short height. He attended Hosei University and led the team to win the Japan University League Championship before joining Kashima.

In 2019, Kiryo Ueda was still studying at Hosei University when he was selected for the Japanese team to compete in the America's Cup. He was another college international player after Kensuke Nagai (Fukuoka University) and Kazuya Yamamura (University of Economics and Trade) in 2010. He was also the only college player among the 276 players in the America's Cup. In that game, Ueda played 3 times, took 6 shots, 1 shot on target, and 0 goals, and missed a total of 5 scoring opportunities.

In July of the same year, Kiryo Ueda won the men's football gold medal at the World University Games with the Japanese team, and scored a hat trick against Brazil in the final. In the 2024 Asian Cup, Kiryo Ueda scored 4 goals and was the golden boot for the Japanese team. In October of this year, Ueda successfully changed his number in the Japanese team from No. 9 to No. 18 - Ueda's father is a die-hard Klinsmann fan. Now, he can finally wear the number of his and his father's idol in the World Cup.

Although Kiryo Ueda had a hot start, the Dutch media still criticized him for only brushing up statistics against weak teams and having difficulty doing anything against strong teams. Two rounds of Champions League qualifiers against Fenerbahce, Europa League matches against Aston Villa and Panathinaikos, and Eredivisie matches against the top six AZ Alkmaar and PSV Eindhoven all failed. Although he scored twice in the game against Volendam, coach Van Persie was still a little dissatisfied: "If Kiryo Ueda is in good enough condition, he should be able to score 5 goals today."

In order to win the Eredivisie Golden Boot, Kiryo Ueda still needs to prove that he has the ability to score goals against strong teams.

Asian players have won Golden Boots in mainstream European leagues before, and Iranian players were the first to achieve a breakthrough: in the 2017/18 season, Iranian forward Jahanbakshi (Alkmaar) tied for the Eredivisie Golden Boot with 21 goals; in 2019/2 In the 0 season, Azmoun (Zenit St. Petersburg) tied for the Russian Super League Golden Boot (17 goals); in the same season, Taremi (Avi River) tied for the Portuguese Super League Golden Boot (18 goals); in the 2022/23 season, Taremi, who moved to Porto, won the Portuguese Super League Golden Boot again with 22 goals.

The golden boot with the highest gold content among Asian players in mainstream European leagues is naturally Son Heung-min (23 goals) who tied with Salah for the Premier League golden boot in the 2021/22 season.

This season, apart from Kiryo Ueda, on the scorer list of mainstream European leagues, only McCowtey of the Danish Super League (Australia, 7 goals) and Taremi (Iran, 4 goals) of the Greek Super League can rank at the top of their respective leagues' scorers.