{"id":28679,"date":"2024-08-31T21:09:10","date_gmt":"2024-08-31T12:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/?p=28679"},"modified":"2024-08-31T21:09:10","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T12:09:10","slug":"ex-oita-and-yokohama-man-tomoki-iwata-seals-birmingham-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2024\/08\/31\/ex-oita-and-yokohama-man-tomoki-iwata-seals-birmingham-move\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Oita and Yokohama Man Tomoki Iwata Seals Birmingham Move"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Oita Trinita and Yokohama F. Marinos ace Tomoki Iwata has secured a deadline day move from Scottish champions Glasgow Celtic to newly-relegated EFL League One outfit Birmingham City.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Iwata, who was the MVP for the 2022 J.League 1 season when Yokohama won the league, sealed a transfer to an ambitious Birmingham side seeking to exit the English third tier in the first time of asking, for an undisclosed fee and on a three-year contract.<\/p>\n

Having joined Celtic on loan shortly after his J1 triumph, Iwata was brought in on the recommendation of then-Bhoys head coach Ange Postecoglou, but once the Australian left for Tottenham Hotspur the defensive midfielder found himself at the periphery of the Celtic squad, though remaining reliable when called upon by head coach Brendan Rodgers.<\/p>\n

In fact, Birmingham’s current head coach is Chris Davies, a former assistant of Rodgers, meaning that the Northern Irishman had a hand in recommending Iwata to the Blues’ coaching staff.<\/p>\n

Iwata left Celtic with 42 appearances and three goals to his name, as well as five titles in Scottish soil, consisting of two Scottish Premiership trophies, two Scottish Cups, and one Scottish League Cup.<\/p>\n

Iwata’s arrival in Birmingham represents the latest addition of a steadily-growing Asian contingent at St. Andrews’, with the Blues already having former Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors star Paik Seung-ho in their books since last season and having brought in former Sagan Tosu man Ayumu Yokoyama in the recently-concluded summer transfer window. Iwata himself replaces Koji Miyoshi, who left Birmingham for German side VfL Bochum on the same day.<\/p>\n

The signing was also a testament of how willing the Birmingham management would dig into their wallets to redeem themselves for their managerial mishap that brought the Blues down into League One last season, with the owners splashing the cash to bring in not only Iwata, but also the likes of Jay Stansfield, Bailey Peacock-Ferrell, Alfie May, Ryan Allsopp, Lyndon Dykes, and the aforementioned Yokoyama, with Stansfield breaking the record for a League One transfer with his \u00a310 million price-tag.<\/p>\n

Iwata’s Birmingham transfer was also the latest in a growing trend amongst EFL clubs that saw them adding Japanese talent into their roster. Despite losing both Miyoshi and former Huddersfield Town star Yuta Nakayama<\/a>, the EFL saw the arrivals of\u00a0 Yuki Ohashi to Championship side Blackburn Rovers, Koki Saito to fellow Championship club Queens Park Rangers, Ao Tanaka to an ambitious Leeds United side aiming for a return to the Premier League, Tatsuki Seko joining Stoke City, and the loan signing of Yu Hirakawa from Machida Zelvia to Bristol City. The quintet joined Coventry City star Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and Cardiff City’s Ryotaro Tsunoda, as well as Daiki Hashioka, who was relegated from the Premier League with Luton Town.<\/p>\n

The list would keep on growing if we add the Premier League to the equation, with Kaoru Mitoma starring at Brighton & Hove Albion, Wataru Endo at Liverpool, Takehiro Tomiyasu marshaling the Arsenal defense, and the arrivals of Daichi Kamada and Yukinari Sugawara at Crystal Palace and Southampton respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Oita Trinita and Yokohama F. Marinos ace Tomoki Iwata has secured a deadline day move from Scottish champions Glasgow Celtic to newly-relegated EFL League One outfit Birmingham City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":28683,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,32],"tags":[1296,2881,2428,2606,1153,1998,57,2605,95,2882],"class_list":["post-28679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia","category-japan","tag-asian-players-in-europe","tag-birmingham-city","tag-east-asia","tag-efl-league-one","tag-england","tag-europe","tag-japan","tag-league-one","tag-slider","tag-tomoki-iwata"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28679"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28685,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28679\/revisions\/28685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}