It's four-and-a-bit months removed from Mitoma's impudence at the Khalifa International Stadium. Belatedly, the 25-year-old has won recognition. It isn't a stretch to say he's been one of the best players since in England, post the World Cup break. Six goals (including against Liverpool and Arsenal) and four assists for Brighton has helped the club to an unlikely push for Europe.
That goal against Liverpool in the FA Cup highlighted some of Mitoma's best traits. He controlled a looping cross from the left with a really good first touch, maintained balance and close control to escape the attention of as many as four Liverpool players before firing past Alisson Becker. On other occasions, he has shown some of his other attributes. With the ball at his feet, he's never shy of running at the defence with the ball seemingly sticking to his boot. Blessed with oodles of pace and adept at cutting inside or beating his man on the outside, he's on his way to becoming the modern winger complete with leading the press as well as inter-changing with the forward line. If and when Brighton decide to sell one of their prized assets at a premium — it's how they operate — it's easy to imagine the Japanese becoming the first Asian player to command a transfer fee in excess of $50mn.
To really understand Mitoma's story, though, it's important to travel from the beaches of Brighton to Kawasaki, a city in the south of Japan.
It's where Mitoma first made a name for himself in the J League. But he didn't pick the conventional route to the first XI of the senior team. When the club offered him professional terms to join the main side, he rejected that for a place in the University of Tsukuba in Ibaraki Prefecture.
The choice of University wasn't a surprise. It was the alma mater for the likes of Sawao Kato (eight-time Gymnastics Olympic gold winner) and Saki Kumagai (women's World Cup winner with Japan and current Bayern Munich captain) among other athletes.
But Mitoma's decision still surprised a few people in Japan because preferring a place in University over becoming a professional had been a thing of the past. "Many players have opted to go to University before turning professional," says Tom Byer, the man credited with revolutionising Japan's approach to football in the beginning in the late 90s. "It's a pathway to the national youth teams and professional clubs. Many top players went to College first although it's probably decreased somewhat of late.
"They (Tsukuba) have a decent youth academy and the first team does well which inspired the young players." At University, Mitoma, who did a four-year Physical Education degree, went even further than others to understand the sport.
As part of his course work, he submitted a thesis on the finer aspects of dribbling (the rough English translation of his paper was 'Research on Information Processing of the Attacking Side in 1v1 Football Situations'.
His field work included strapping GoPro cameras on the foreheads of the players he studied, including himself. "The visual field of the attackers was analysed at two points of time," he wrote in the paper. "During trapping and during dribbling." The conclusion of the study said: "Compared to the semi-skilled group, the skilled group was able to keep the opponent in the upper centre of the field of vision and to recognise the surrounding position and situation even before actually touching and trapping the ball. In addition, the skilled group tended to maintain an upright posture while dribbling and to keep their opposition in their field of vision."
Watch Mitoma dribbling in the Premier League and you will agree with his conclusion. In that aspect, one can say that he's implementing what he observed and analysed in College.
