Tottenham confirm third summer signing as Kota Takai joins in £5m deal

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Evening Standard

·8 July 2025

Tottenham confirm third summer signing as Kota Takai joins in £5m deal

The Japanese centre-back arrives for a record fee and with a big reputation

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Tottenham have announced the signing of young Japanese centre-back Kota Takai.

The 20-year-old joins from J-League club Kawasaki Frontale in a deal worth £5million, the biggest fee ever spent on a player from the Japanese top-flight. Takai has signed a five-year contract running until the summer of 2030.

Takai is expected to be part of head coach Thomas Frank’s first-team squad for the new season and could make his debut when Spurs face League One side Reading in their opening pre-season friendly at the Select Car Leasing Stadium on July 19.

The young defender bid farewell to Frontale at the weekend, making a speech to fans after his final game at home to Kashima Antlers, and posted a photo of himself flying to London on Sunday.

Takai joins Spurs with a burgeoning reputation, having helped Frontale to win the Japanese Super Cup in 2024, and was also named as Japan’s best young player in the same year.

Described as a bold and pacey centre-back, Takai has, despite his tender age, been expected to move to a big European club for some time.

Japanese football expert Dan Orlowitz, previously of the Japan Times, told Standard Sport recently: “Not a single person who's seen him play over the last couple of years is surprised that he is going to Europe. This was inevitable.”

Takai - who already has four senior international caps for Japan after making his debut last September - is the third signing of the summer so far for Spurs, who turned the loans of both Mathys Tel and Kevin Danso into permanent deals.

He joins Danso, Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero and Radu Dragusin in Tottenham’s senior central defensive ranks, the latter of whom underwent surgery on an ACL injury in February. Transfer speculation also continues over Romero amid ongoing links to Atletico Madrid.

Europa League winners Tottenham also want to sign Mohammed Kudus from West Ham to kick-start a new era after hiring Frank from Brentford as the successor to the sacked Ange Postecoglou, having been linked with the likes of Antoine Semenyo, Eberechi Eze and Bryan Mbeumo.

Meanwhile, reports from TyC Sports in Argentina claim that striker Alejo Veliz is joining Rosario Central on loan for the rest of 2025.