Shame it's not worked out for him. He was clearly brought in to generate interest from the far east, and may have done so. However, Yoshida is a far bigger pull as he is the captain of Japan and is clearly a top quality player - he is a much bigger commodity to the club than Lee.
Clearly he's more valuable to us, but he's less high profile in Japan and he is not the captain of Japan. He was the captain of their Olympic team, not the full team.
Yes, Lee scored a wonder goal to win them the Asian cup, and is a glamour striker with dyed hair and a memorable celebration, who played in Japan his whole career. Yoshida is a defender who played in Europe. The mass of Japanese media and fans who arrived to follow Lee should tell you something as well. I don't remember quite the same for Yoshida.
I know for certain that Lee isn't that popular in Japan, due to his Korean origins. One of the reasons he is known as Chung! (his Korean name) Maya is huge over there. He fronts up magazines and is regularly in their newspapers. In fact I was talking to Rob Ferguson (a poster on here) the other day who has been in Japan for a few weeks, and he told me Maya is huge over there but Tadanari is not popular/accepted.
I'd be very surprised if Lee has never been on the front of a magazine, that doesn't really prove anything. And by all accounts Lee is considerably more popular in Japan than Korea. Anyway, high-profile doesn't equal popularity. Joey Barton is high-profile!
Fair enough. I won't try to argue his point when he's not here, when he gets back I'll nudge him over to this thread. Says he has been stopped a few times in his Saints shirt by Japanese folks who know that Maya plays for us.
