Honda should limit himself to one job
With fresh commitments at different ends of Asia-Pacific, Japan icon Keisuke Honda will have a lot on his plate for the rest of the year.
And, while Melbourne Victory fans have been assured that the playmaker won’t miss any games after taking on an additional role with the Cambodia national team, the month of November raises some serious questions.
Honda is the A-League’s big-name import for the 2018-19 season, while overseeing Cambodia as general manager at the same time.
The official line is that Honda will only help out the Cambodians during official international breaks.
However, much of the 2018 AFF Suzuki Cup falls on non-Fifa dates, with the Cambodians playing four Group A matches in November — against Malaysia (Nov 8), Myanmar (Nov 12), Laos (Nov 20) and Vietnam (Nov 24).
Melbourne Victory have three games in the same month, facing Newcastle Jets (Nov 3), Central Coast Mariners (Nov 11), and the blockbuster against arch rivals Sydney FC (Nov 25).
And should Cambodia get to the knockout stage of the Southeast Asian championship, there are two-legged semi-finals on Dec 1 or 2 and 5 or 6, which would clash with Victory’s home match against Western Sydney Wanderers on Dec 1.
When the 32-year-old was unveiled at Wednesday’s media conference, Victory coach Kevin Muscat insisted that the club knew about Honda’s Cambodia commitments before they signed him.
“First and foremost, his priority is here at Victory,” Muscat said. “In no way, will any games or training be compromised.’’
However, it is difficult to see how Honda will be able to fully dedicate himself to the reigning Australian champions while putting his stamp on the Cambodian squad in a meaningful way.
The A-League season only begins in late October so the club might be less than impressed if Honda is constantly on the move at the start of his contract.
With no direct flights from the Victorian state capital to Cambodia, it will take more than 15 hours to reach Phnom Penh, with a stopover in Singapore or Bangkok.
Honda, who scored in three World Cups and helped Japan make an impressive run to the round of 16 at Russia 2018, revealed that Muscat enticed him to Australia after talking him out of retirement.
The former AC Milan and CSKA Moscow star was a free agent after playing 32 games for Mexican club Pachuca in the 2017-18 season.
“I was thinking to quit my career after the World Cup,” he said. “I changed my mind after I spoke to Kevin [Muscat]. I’m inspired by him,’’
Muscat, 45, had a hard-man reputation during his days as no-nonsense defender in the second tier of English football, at clubs like Crystal Palace and Wolverhampton Wanderers, before finishing his career in the A-League.
He won the A-League title for a second time as manager last May, getting the better of Sydney FC and former national teammate Graham Arnold in the Grand Final.
Arnold has since gone on to become Australia head coach, despite some A-League fans believing that Muscat would have been a better choice, due to the attacking brand of football his teams play.
Honda will be the 11th Japanese player to appear in the A-League and could surpass Shinji Ono (Western Sydney) and Kazuyoshi Miura (Sydney FC) in terms of status.
Ono helped Western Sydney become the first Australian club to win the 2014 AFC Champions League, although he had left before the final against Al Hilal.
Originally from Osaka, Honda cut his teeth with Nagoya Grampus in the J.League between 2004 and 2007, but hasn’t played at club level in Asia for more than a decade after stints in the Netherlands, Russia, Italy and Mexico. And he’s never lived in an Englishspeaking country before.
He admitted that learning the local language would be one of his priorities as he settles in Australia’s sporting capital.
“I’ll take English lessons every day and I want to improve on my English. The other national players like Melbourne very much,” he smiled.
Honda is also lacking in Khmer, the language of Cambodia, despite having a presence in the emerging Asean nation over the last two years through his Soltilo Soccer Academy in Phnom Penh.
Even so, the man who earned 98 international caps, scoring 37 goals, will be an asset for both Cambodia and Australia.
However, he needs to be careful not to spread himself too thinly, nor underestimate the A-League.
As his former international rivals Harry Kewell, Tim Cahill and Brett Emerton can testify after returning home from overseas stints, the A-League is an unforgiving competition, played on rock-hard pitches in the brutal Aussie summer.
Highly decorated World Cup veterans, especially ones with lots of outside distractions, can struggle to live up to their reputations.