One to Watch: Atsuto Uchida

31 international caps and three league titles are career achievements most footballers would be content with by the time they put their boots on the shelf, but Japanese right back Atsuto Uchida accomplished this before celebrating his 22nd birthday. Starting in all but one of Japan's admittedly uncompetitive Asian Football Confederation World Cup qualifiers, he helped his team qualify for the tournament that will now be the first big test of his career.

Like many players in the Japanese J. League, Uchida has quick feet and is comfortable on the ball, but with a lean build and at 5 ft 9½, he isn't a physically imposing defender. European clubs haven't exactly been eager to import Japanese defenders over the years, but the preference towards attacking full backs, who are expected to contribute as much offensively as defensively, is one of the last decade's most significant changes in European football. A move to Europe looks very likely for Uchida, who has been diligently scouted for quite some time. Recent successes of CSKA's Keisuke Honda, Catania's Takayuki Morimoto and Wolfsburg's Makoto Hasebe also suggests that Japan is an underused market with good value.

Perhaps the biggest indication of Uchida's quality is the recent strong link with a move to German top side Schalke 04 in Japanese media. Schalke's manager Felix Magath unearthed a number of gems, including Bosnian sensation Edin Dzeko and aforementioned Hasebe, when he transformed Wolfsburg from a lower midtable side to the German Bundesliga winners of 2009 during his short tenure there.

Followers of J. League and the Japanese national team have sometimes questioned Uchida's development over the last couple of years, stating that perhaps he's had it a little too easy in his career, winning consecutive league titles with Kashima Antlers in 2007, 2008, 2009 and having little competiton on his position in both Kashima and for the national team. It's not impossible that the more competitive environment of the World Cup and Europe can inspire him to improve further and reach his full potential.

G. Lindström