Last June, Oya Mizuki and Takano Shuya, both from Albirex Niigata’s U18 team, had the pleasure of debuting with Albirex Niigata’s first team during an official match.

The debut was made during the first round of the Emperor's Cup played against Zweigen Kanazawa and ended with a 4-1 result in favor of Albirex Niigata.

This great news gains even more weight taking into account that it has been 3 years since a player from the Albirex Niigata Academy made his debut with the first team. A fact that shows the high level that an U18 player must have to be able to compete in the J-League.

Since we reached an agreement in early 2019 with Albirex Niigata to use the Ekkono Identity method in their academy through the creation of the Methodology Department, we have prepared and presented to Oya Mizuki and Takano Shuya a total of 9 individualized reports that served to improve their performance and enhance their strengths.

From Ekkono we would like to congratulate both players and the club for this great news which reflects the great job that the entity does both in improving its academy and in building club identity.

Finally, we would like to show our special thanks to Uchida Jun (Academy Director), who not only coached both players in the past, but as Academy Director he perfectly takes care of the structure of the Academy and helps the Methodology Department carrying out all established processes, and to Irie Toru (U18 team Head Coach) for the great work he is doing with the players on his squad.