Today’s Hanover professional
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Hanover’s Daisuke Yokota (25) once played in German amateur football before moving to the 2nd Bundesliga through stints in Latvia, Poland and Belgium. On the way there, Lukas Podolski (40) enabled him to take a career step. “I think he helped finance the move from Latvia to Górnik. He definitely got involved and helped organize it,” Yokota is quoted as saying by the “Neue Presse”.
Yokota moved from Valmiera FC to Górnik Zabrze in February 2023 for just under 700,000 euros after spending two years in Latvia. He previously played the 2019/20 season for the Carl Zeiss Jena reserves and in 2018/19 for the U19s of FSV Frankfurt. At Górnik, Yokota played 24 games with Podolski before moving on to KAA Gent in Belgium after a year. The transfer fee was 2 million euros.
“He’s a very special and impressive person. He was the ‘big boss’ for us. He’s a bit like a father to me. When I made three or four mistakes in a game, he said to me: ‘Stay calm and focused, because your time will come.’ We looked up to him,” Yokota said about Podolski at “Bild” in September 2024.
In Ghent, the Japanese made 13 appearances (1 goal/3 assists) and for the 2024/25 season he was awarded to 1. FC Kaiserslautern in the 2nd league. There its market value reached its peak of 2.5 million euros. He is spending the current season in Hanover, where he is mainly used as a joker. After twelve games there is one goal and one assist. The market value fell to 2 million euros in the October update and the purchase option for the coming summer should also be that high. “It’s in the back of your mind. But at the same time it doesn’t bother me at all. That’s just how it is as a professional footballer,” said Yokota about a possible permanent transfer. But first he needs “a bit of time to fully get used to it and be completely fit”.