When we enter the world of Japanese culture and the soccer, facing the Olympic Games from Tokyo 2020, inevitably we have to make a stop at the popular manga of “Super Champions“, known thus in Mexico and in Latin America, while in the Japanese version it is called “Captain tsubasa“.
The story, which focuses its story mainly on the Japanese footballer “Oliver Atom“, known thus in this part of the world, but in the East as”Tsubasa Ozora“, was launched at the beginning of the eighties, achieving worldwide success by recounting the formation and life of Oliver as a soccer player since he was a child, until he reached professionalism as a member of the Japan selection and play the World Cup.
On the way of Captain tsubasa On his way to the football elite, he meets real-life footballers who “embodied” characters in the manga and who, over the years, have been compiled by different specialized websites, media channels, Youtube and various publications, fans of the Super Champions and that on the occasion of the Olympic Games on Japan, we will relive below.
The real-life footballers who ’embodied’ characters in the Manga
Of all those that appeared at some point in the manga version, the most important is undoubtedly Diego Armando Maradona, who was represented with the character of “Juan Diaz“, footballer of the Argentina Selection in the animated series. Within that same selection, another player of enormous quality, Jorge Valdano, was represented with the name of “Alan Pascal“, remembering that both were World Champions in Mexico 86.
Brazil, country that has a great cultural influence on Japan precisely because of issues like soccer, has in the Super Champions the representation of Rivaldo, that footballer of enormous class and category who was World Champion with the Scratch du Oro on Korea-Japan 2002 and figure of Barcelona, had his representation with the character of “Rivaul” which is shown both with the jacket of the Barcelona as with that of Brazil.
In addition to “Rivaul”, there is the endearing character of Roberto Sedinho, a Brazilian that the manga is based on Japan and becomes the first mentor of Oliver since childhood. The character, who is always represented with a raincoat and hat, is based on the Brazilian soccer player Socrates, who stood out as one of the best soccer players on the planet in the eighties.
Meanwhile, the Italian striker Roberto Baggio, also has its representation as Roberto Boggio, according to Fandom.com, although it is also located in the series with the same name, “Roberto Baggio“.
In turn, one of the footballers who had a lot of relevance in history due to the rivalry that was created with Oliver Atom, was the German known as “Schneider“, whose full name in the series was “Karl-Heinz Schneider”, character based on the German striker Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, one of the best forwards in history.
Apart from them, the character as such of Oliver Atom, was based on the eternal and historical Japanese footballer Kazuyoshi Miura, that at 54 years old, he is still active with the Yokohama FC of the J1 League from Japan, the first division of that country.
Mexico had representation with five players
It should also be noted that Mexican soccer was represented in the manga, with the character of “Ricardo Espadas“which was based on the goalkeeper Jorge Campos, which was also dressed in the particular colorful clothing that the national goalkeeper presented on the playing fields.
Also, in a printed version of “Captain tsubasa“in which Japan and Mexico play a World Youth Cup match, which would be the equivalent of Sub 20 world, also appear Hugo Sanchez as “Robles”, Cuauhtémoc White as “Bonjo García”, Luis Roberto Alves as “Álvez” and Luis Garcia like Salaguza.
It is worth mentioning that these are some of the footballers who had life in the Animated Series, since over the years, several others have been recreated, in one of the manga that has had the most success over time and that undoubtedly represents the football culture that exists in Japan, olympic land in this 2021.
Bonjo Garcia: They present him as a soccer player with a strong temper who destroys the game with enormous physical power. Therefore, in addition to wearing # 8, it is associated with Garcia Aspe, but there are those who claim that it is inspired by the Cuauhtémoc for his temperamental outbursts and his mockery of rivals.