Liverpool midfielder Wataru Endo has reached the status of “life-coach guru” in his native Japan as a result of his video blogs, writing and in-depth tactical discussions about football.
Captain of the national team, Endo was already a sporting hero in his homeland, but has also for sometime been helping and educating people through his platform Monthly Wataru Endo and his self-help book titled Duel.
“He’s kind of a life-coach guru,” Simon Ta, who runs the Liverpool Fan In Japan YouTube channel, told Liverpool’s official website., external
“A lot of players have done autobiographies and shared a lot of their playing careers via books. But in terms of online persona and really, really sharing that detail and that personal stuff, I don’t really recall anyone doing it to the extent that Endo does it.
“Endo has his own following and has done over 100 videos – some are incredibly long, an hour or two hours, and some are incredibly short.
“He really wants to share everything about everything, so that anyone who wants to follow in his footsteps can see the reality of it, not the glitz and the glamour.
“With his vlog he’s showing that ‘don’t be afraid of where you’ve come from, your stature’.”
Endo, 31, has enjoyed a successful first season in England, making 43 appearances and winning the Carabao Cup, and is keen to share his insights and fill what he feels is a gap in detailed football analysis back in Japan.
Branch secretary of the Japanese Liverpool Supporters Club, Yumiko Tamaru, added: “It is just incredible that a footballer goes this deep into all the matches he played in and everything he tells is so interesting.
“I have never heard such a detailed match analysis from any other Liverpool players. I also find it amazing that he has [such] good memory and remembers every detail very clearly.
“I think he has a huge influence on lots of footballers in Japan and he is inspiring them a lot.”
