Takuma Asano’s “Family Love” photo – Gorasso against Germany!

Takuma Asano, who scored the game-winning goal against powerful Germany in the first round of the World Cup soccer tournament, is the owner of a high-end bread store in his hometown of Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, called Asatakugram. His older brother, Shohei, who bakes bread every day as the store manager, screamed with joy the morning after the historic goal.

Even in the evening,” he said, “I can’t get over how excited I am. Today alone, I baked more than 200 loaves of bread, but I can’t keep up with all the baking. We have reservations for a while, but we are full for the next few days.

At around 4 p.m. on November 24, the day after Asano’s final goal, when the store announced in front of the store that “only those with reservation tickets are allowed to purchase tickets,” some customers in line looked disappointed and shrugged their shoulders, while others turned to the manager, Shohei, and the store to take pictures, or at least make a reservation for a few days in advance. Some female customers even made reservations for a few days in advance.

What did they talk about with Asano before he opened the bakery in 2020? Shohei once told FRIDAY Digital, “One day, Takuma told me that he was going to open a bakery in 2020.

One day, Takuma said to me, ‘Kohei, why don’t you open a bakery with us? At the time, I was working in a business that had nothing to do with bread or food, but I had always loved bread, so I really wanted to try it. Among my many siblings, we were bread lovers, and even after I started working, whenever I found out there was good bread, I would immediately go out and buy it. We had a thing for bread.

The family was large, with seven siblings and nine members, including the parents. All six played soccer for Perna SC in Komono-cho, Mie Prefecture, but Asano said he once considered giving up the soccer-centered lifestyle out of concern for the family finances of a family of nine. However, his parents’ enthusiastic encouragement helped Asano to give up the soccer-centered life in his hometown. However, with the enthusiastic encouragement of his parents, he entered Yokkaichi Chuo Technical High School, a local powerhouse, and his talent blossomed as he became the top scorer in the high school championship. Upon graduation from high school, he joined Sanfrecce Hiroshima. Asano’s mother, Aneko Miyako, once told FRIDAY, “Since I was a child, I have given birthdays to my family.

She gave him a Honda station wagon as a “thank-you” gift when he became a professional player.

Asano’s love for his family did not change even after he became a professional player and separated from them. Asano remembers his mother, Toshiko, eating bread for her breakfast at the end of the day after taking her children to school.

She wanted her mother, who always ate cold bread, to eat warm, fluffy bread.

It was around this time that Asano met Takuya Kishimoto, a bakery producer at Japan Bakery Marketing (JBM), which has expanded its “high-end bread stores with strange names” to 390 stores in Japan and abroad, and this led Asano to give shape to his vague wish. The current form of the bakery was born, with Asano, who lives in Germany, as the owner and Shohei managing the bakery as the manager.

Since opening the store, the Asano family has had warm bread on the table. His father, Tomoyuki, is busy as an active truck driver, and Asano’s one younger brother, Yuya, the fourth son, follows Asano in playing for J1 Hiroshima. The brothers are active in Japan and abroad, and only manager Shohei and Asano are involved in “Asa no Rashi,” but Shohei is happy that his mother, Aneko Miyako, is now able to enjoy the freshly baked bread.

Whenever I have time between jobs, I drop by my parents’ house and often see my mother on the phone with Takuma [in Germany]. It seems that Takuma is the one who calls her. It seems that she always calls him before a game.”

Although it is not clear what they are talking about, I wonder if for Asano it is a “wish” to play well in the games. It is said that this continued until just before the World Cup.

I don’t know the details of the conversation, but my mother is in constant contact with Asano himself,” he said. This time, I went to Qatar with my fifth son (Fumiya), who has been with Takuma since he was a soccer boy, my only sister (Koharu), and my parents. They brought with them a banner of the bakery with messages of support from the customers who come to the bakery.

Asano was not a member of Japan’s national team at the last World Cup in Russia in 2018, and was forced to accompany the team as a member of the preliminary roster. This time, he got his long-cherished ticket to the World Cup, but on September 10, about two months before the squad was announced, he tore the medial ligament in his right knee in a league match in Germany. He opted for conservative treatment instead of surgery, and was able to return to club practice about two weeks before the World Cup began.

He only played in a training match against the Canadian national team on November 17, and then went to the World Cup almost on the spur of the moment, but he was undaunted and put his mind to the task of participating in the World Cup. Against Germany, he swung his injured right foot at the side of Neuer, the German goalkeeper, who is regarded as the best in the world. Perhaps it was the “family love” of the Asano family, who came to the stands in Qatar to watch the match, that made him forget the pain.