Former Beşiktaş player Shinji Kagawa also published a video in which he expressed his sadness before the match and called for help on behalf of those who were harmed in the disaster.
In the opening match of the Japan J1 League, Cerezo Osaka, the Japanese football team founded by Yanmar, faced Albirex Niigata. The teams took the field with support banners related to the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. Shinji Kagawa, one of the football players of the team, who played in Beşiktaş before and one of Yanmar’s sports ambassadors, also expressed his sadness about the earthquake in the video he published before the match and conveyed his wishes for the best of luck. Kagawa stated that he was very impressed by the warmth of Turkish people during his time in Turkey and that they stood by everyone who was injured in the earthquake and called for help on behalf of the people who were harmed in the disaster.