Coventry City supporters may be surprised to see where Amadou Bakayoko is playing now: View | OneFootball

The forward has over 200 EFL appearances, but you'll never guess where he's playing now.

So much business occurs across the EFL's 72 teams that it becomes incredibly easy to miss when a familiar face drops out of the English game entirely.

But for admirers of Sierra Leone international and former Coventry City forward Amadou Bakayoko, it will be incredibly surprising to find out he is now plying his trade in Japan's top flight.

The 28-year-old has recently joined Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo on the eponymous northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, in what may be the first and last transfer from Forest Green Rovers to the J-League.

A League One mainstay

Aside from his time at the Sky Blues (which included 14 appearances in the Championship), Bakayoko has played almost the entirety of his career in League One.

Spells at Walsall, Bolton Wanderers, Forest Green Rovers and the aforementioned Cov have seen him amass 218 appearances in England's third-tier. Despite typically playing as a striker, Amadou only managed to score 31 times in his EFL tenure, including zero goals in 19 appearances for relegated Forest Green in 2022-23.

While forward play is more than simply scoring goals, he would have been pretty difficult to scout from the other side of the globe, begging the question 'what did Hokkaido see in Bakayoko?'.

A shrewd SPL loan

After a disastrous season at Forest Green, Bakayoko was loaned to Scottish Premier League side Dundee FC. The Sierra Leonean was adored at Dens Park, providing six goals and five assists across the season, including a brace against St. Mirren and an opening goal at Ibrox.

Dundee finished the season in sixth place, their joint-highest league finish this century, and Amadou had played in every game bar one.

This certainly goes some way to explaining how Bakayoko was snapped up by his new Japanese employers, not only on the basis of performance, but also location.

Largely thanks to the influence of current Spurs boss Ange Postecoglu (who in leaving Yokohama F. Marinos for Celtic in 2019 bought several of his players over with him), the J-League and the Scottish Premier League now have a healthy relationship in the transfer market. Seven Japanese born players have joined SPL teams from the J-League in the last three years, and this trade route is beginning to bear fruit the other way around.

A Japanese adventure

So how is Amadou Bakayoko going to find his new life in the far east? While many see Japan as the ideal living destination, it certainly depends on the individual. Gary Lineker certainly didn't enjoy his time in the Land of the Rising Sun while Jay Bothroyd regularly stays in Japan long after retirement.

On the pitch, it's been a slow start for the forward, scoring a penalty on his debut has been as good as it gets in his first six league appearances, all from the bench.

At just 28, there's every chance AB will return to English shores, but until then we wish him the best of luck on his Japanese adventure, and if you are reading this and you fancy a life in the J-League, make sure to get yourself to Scotland first (yes, really).