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Daigo Kobayashi is without doubt the most valuable player to take the pitch for Omiya Ardija in the team's seven-year history. Indeed, many Omiya fans would argue that he is the sole reason why Omiya Ardija are a member of the J1. There isn't much that Daigo can't do. He is capable of enlivening even the dullest of games with his multitude of skills, scoring many important goals himself (often spectacular, match-winning strikes), and creating the majority of the team's others opportunities in his role as the midfield general. Though not much of a sprinter, Daigo has decent speed, as well as excellent passing skill, and nimble dribbling moves. Unfortunately for the Mighty Squirrels, Daigo plays on a different level from most of his teammates, who often fail to read the game well enough to anticipate one of his incisive passes. Daigo is a graduate of that reknowned incubator of football talent, Shimizu Shogyo High School, and he quickly graduated into a starting spot with Tokyo Verdy. If you consider that he did not finish high school until April 2001, after the J.League season had already begun, Daigo won a starting spot for Verdy in his first full season with the club. Unfortunately, his contributions were not enough to save Verdy from relegation in 2005, and he opted to move to Omiya rather than follow an obviously troubled team into the J2. This move seems to have been a step forward in his playing career. Although Ardija are not the most competitive team in the league, Daigo is so central to the team's competitiveness that in his first season in Omiya, the team was already structuring its style of play around him. Daigo's form in early 2006 was nothing short of sensational, and he scored some brilliant goals against Yokohama F Marinos, Shimizu S-Pulse and FC Tokyo. This performance won him two calls to the national team under Zico, and he got his first NT start in Japan's first match under Ivica Osim, against Trinidad. We expect him to see more playing time in the Samurai Blue jersey in the future. Clearly, the sky is the limit for the lad from Shizuoka.
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