Shinji Okazaki

By Craig · Published 31 October 2026

Every title-winning side needs a player who does the running nobody films. Leicester's 5,000-1 champions had Shinji Okazaki: five league goals, endless pressing, and one moment of pure acrobatics that kept the dream alive in March 2016.

Clubs

Shimizu S-Pulse, VfB Stuttgart, Mainz 05, Leicester City, Huesca, Cartagena, Sint-Truiden

Premier League

114 appearances, 14 goals (Leicester, 2015 to 2019)

Honours

Premier League 2015/16, AFC Asian Cup 2011

International

Japan, 119 caps, 50 goals

Fantasy price

£6.0m in 2015/16

How he arrived

Okazaki came to Leicester on 26 June 2015 from Mainz, where he had scored 27 Bundesliga goals in two seasons. The fee was undisclosed, reported at around £7m. He was already a Japan regular, with 44 goals in 93 internationals, but in England he was barely known.

He was part of a quiet summer. Robert Huth, Christian Fuchs and N'Golo Kanté arrived in the same window, and nobody outside the King Power Stadium saw a title-winning spine forming. Okazaki said simply that he was "very happy to be here".

The moment: Newcastle, 14 March 2016

Tottenham had closed the gap by the time Leicester played a Monday night game at home to Newcastle, Rafa Benítez's first in charge. Twenty-five minutes in, a Riyad Mahrez free kick was only half cleared. Marc Albrighton sent it back into the box and Jamie Vardy headed it across, where Okazaki was standing six yards out with his back to goal.

He went up, over and through it: an overhead kick past Rob Elliot. It was the only goal of the night, and it restored the five-point lead over Tottenham with eight games left.

Danny Drinkwater called it "a special goal and a special moment". It was also typical of Okazaki's season. Claudio Ranieri admitted it "wasn't the best performance". They won anyway, because someone was in the right place to do something unexpected.

Why the streets won't forget

Vardy got the goals, Mahrez got the awards and Kanté got the move to Chelsea. Okazaki got five league goals in 36 games, which looks modest until you watch what he did without the ball.

He pressed and chased from the first whistle to the last. Ranieri said that he "wakes up our players", and that wherever the ball went near the box, "Shinji is always there". In a side built on counter-attacks, he was the trigger.

He stayed four seasons, scoring 14 Premier League goals in 114 games, and never stopped running. In December 2016 he was named Asian International Player of the Year for thetitle season. For Leicester fans he's the purest example of that team's spirit: a striker who was happy for someone else to score.

Where is he now

Leicester released him in 2019. A move to Málaga was cancelled after 34 days without a game, so he went to Huesca instead, where his 12 goals helped win promotion to La Liga in 2019/20. Spells at Cartagena and Sint-Truiden followed, and he announced in February 2024 that he would retire at the end of that season, with 50 goals for Japan behind him. That makes him the country's third-highest scorer.

He went straight into coaching at FC Basara Mainz, a sixth-tier German club he co-founded in 2014 to bring young Japanese players to Europe. "I will grow with this club," he said. In May 2026 Mainz 05 named him their club ambassador for Asia. He has said his long-term aim is to manage Japan.

Which seasons can you draft him in?

Four. In 2015/16 the game lists him as a midfielder; from 2016/17 he's a forward.

Want him pressing for your side? Pick him in 2015/16 for £6.0m.