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

Written by Han Bing. In the new season, the three leading strikers Haaland, Mbappé, and Kane have been scoring prolifically, creating fierce competition for the European Golden Boot. Yet, purely by goal count, Japanese player Ayase Ueda from Feyenoord is also impressive — after netting two goals against Volendam last weekend, he shares the league top scorer spot with Haaland and Mbappé (13 goals), leading the Eredivisie by 5 goals and is the frontrunner for this season’s Golden Boot.

If Ayase Ueda ultimately wins the Eredivisie Golden Boot, he will become the first Japanese player to claim the Golden Boot in a major European league. In the 2022/23 season, Kyogo Furuhashi won the Scottish Premiership Golden Boot with 27 goals, and Japanese media regarded him as the first Japanese player to win a Golden Boot in a major European league. However, the Scottish Premiership ranks only 18th among European leagues, while the Eredivisie ranks 6th.

Previously, Ayase Ueda was named Eredivisie Player of the Month for October, becoming the first Japanese player to receive this honor.

In the 2022/23 season, Ayase Ueda won the Belgian Pro League Silver Boot with 22 goals, trailing the Golden Boot winner Coulibaly by 5 goals. At that time, he was only 2 goals behind during the regular season, but the gap widened to 5 goals after the European playoffs. In summer 2023, he transferred to Feyenoord for €8 million and has since exploded this season. He scored in three consecutive matches at the start of the season, achieved a first-half hat-trick against Almere, and scored twice against Volendam — his fourth brace this Eredivisie season. With less than a third of the league played, his 13 goals already surpass the total of the past two seasons combined (12 goals).

Despite his consistent scoring, Dutch legend Van Basten criticized Ayase Ueda for only scoring by making forward runs, although Ueda has proven he can also score headers. In an October friendly, Japan defeated Brazil with Ueda scoring a header. Dutch journalist Van Essel believes Ueda is the kind of striker the Eredivisie currently fails to develop, saying, “We only produce forwards like Brobbey and Zirkzee who don’t score.” Notably, both Brobbey and Zirkzee have yet to break their scoring droughts in the Premier League this season.

At 27 years old, Ayase Ueda stands 1.82 meters tall. In his middle school years, he was excluded from the Kashima Antlers youth team due to his height. After leading Hosei University to the Japanese university league championship, he was able to join Kashima Antlers.

In 2019, while still attending Hosei University, Ayase Ueda was selected for Japan’s squad for the Copa América, becoming the third university player to represent Japan after Kensuke Nagai (Fukuoka University) and Kazuya Yamamura (Ryutsu Keizai University) in 2010. He was also the only university player among the 276 participants in that tournament. Ueda appeared in three matches, took six shots with one on target, scored no goals, and missed five scoring opportunities in total.

In July of the same year, Ayase Ueda won the gold medal in men’s football at the World University Games with Japan, scoring a hat-trick against Brazil in the final. At the 2024 Asian Cup, Ueda scored four goals, becoming Japan’s top scorer. In October this year, Ueda successfully changed his Japan national team number from 9 to 18 — his father is a devoted fan of Klinsmann, and now Ueda can finally wear the number of both himself and his father’s idol at the World Cup.

Although Ueda started the season strongly, Dutch media still criticize him for padding stats against weaker teams but struggling against strong opponents. In the Champions League qualifiers against Fenerbahçe over two legs, the Europa League matches against Aston Villa and Panathinaikos, and Eredivisie games against top-six teams AZ Alkmaar and PSV Eindhoven, he failed to score. Even though he scored twice against Volendam, coach Van Persie expressed some dissatisfaction: “If Ueda had been in better form, he should have scored five goals today.”

To secure the Eredivisie Golden Boot, Ayase Ueda still needs to prove he can score against strong teams.

Asian players have previously won Golden Boots in major European leagues, with Iranian players being the earliest breakthrough: in the 2017/18 season, Iranian striker Jahanbakhsh (AZ Alkmaar) shared the Eredivisie Golden Boot with 21 goals; in 2019/20, Azmoun (Zenit Saint Petersburg) tied for the Russian Premier League Golden Boot with 17 goals; in the same season, Taremi (Rio Ave) shared the Portuguese Primeira Liga Golden Boot with 18 goals; and in 2022/23, after moving to Porto, Taremi won the Portuguese Golden Boot again with 22 goals.

The highest-profile Golden Boot won by an Asian player in a major European league is Son Heung-min, who shared the Premier League Golden Boot with Salah in the 2021/22 season with 23 goals.

This season, besides Ayase Ueda, only McGowan from the Danish Superliga (Australia, 7 goals) and Taremi from the Greek Super League (Iran, 4 goals) rank among the top scorers in their respective leagues in major European competitions.