MEIJI YASUDA J1 LEAGUE Albirex Niigata midfielder Ryotaro Ito has been linked with a move to Celtic, but it is almost certain that he will move to Sint-Truiden VV (STVV) in the Belgian First Division. Although he is expected to be trained by former Vissel Kobe coach Torsten Fink, various opinions are flying around the player’s transfer destination.
The player transferred entirely from Urawa Reds to Niigata last year. In the first year after joining the club, he scored 9 goals in each of the J2 league games and contributed greatly to the club’s promotion to J1. So far this season, he has scored 7 goals and 4 assists in 15 league appearances. He made a full appearance in the J1 Round of 16 match against Shonan Bellmare on the 3rd scoring two assists.
According to the report of Belgian newspaper “HBVL”, STVV is determined to acquire Ito through a complete transfer while several players such as former Japanese national team FW Shinji Okazaki are leaving the team. “It’s a big blow for Niigata…” “I want him to go to the Bundes with a step-up transfer from STVV” “It’s surprising that STVV is the transfer destination”, etc. “Ryotaro Ito” is trending on Twitter. .
In addition, as the British newspaper “Daily Record” reported on the possibility of a move to Celtic, he said, “I thought a Celtic transfer would not happen from the beginning,” “Celtia and STVV are almost the same,” and “Celtic was better.” I have fans to compare.
In addition, some Niigata fans said positively, “I want to see Shion Homma fight” and “I can see Shion Homma and Ryotaro Ito in Belgium!” Honma transferred from Niigata to Club Brugge’s second team, Club NXT, in July last year. In the 2022/23 season, he played in the Belgian second division league, but made his team debut on the 28th of last month in the Belgian first division play-offs.
