Captain Tsubasa Creator Reveals Which Real-Life Footballers His Characters Resemble

The creator of Captain Tsubasa (Supercampeones), Yoichi Takahashi, has put names and faces to his characters. In an interview during the Salón del Manga de Málaga, the mangaka explained that Leo Messi is the current footballer who best embodies Oliver Atom, while Cristiano Ronaldo reminds him of Mark Lenders. Among Spanish players, the one most similar to his protagonist is Pedri.

Takahashi confesses that the idea of drawing a football manga came to him while watching the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. To create Tsubasa, he looked to two legends: Zico, the Brazilian who ended up playing in Japan, and Diego Armando Maradona. Things change with Hyuga, the forward with an explosive personality. The author admits that at first he didn't have a clear model, but when Cristiano Ronaldo appeared, he knew he was the perfect reflection of the character.

Why He Chose Football and Not Baseball

In late-seventies Japan, bookstores were full of baseball manga. Football, on the other hand, was almost virgin territory. Takahashi, a fan of both sports, saw his opportunity there. "I wanted to draw a boy with a dream who grows through effort and, along the way, convey how fun football is," he says. Those two ideas, he says, sustain the entire work.

The interview also leaves a couple of curiosities for the most hardcore fans. The acrobatics of the twins Masao and Kazuo Tachibana, for example, were not born on a football pitch. Their famous combination shot came to Takahashi while watching a wrestling match: seeing a wrestler get thrown out, he thought that movement would look spectacular in a match. And goalkeeper Genzo Wakabayashi, Tsubasa's eternal rival, owes his impossible jumps to martial arts, where fighters push off against the wall. In the manga, Benji does the same with the goalpost.

A Spain-Japan Final Drawn by Takahashi?

When asked how he would approach a hypothetical World Cup final between Spain and Japan, Takahashi didn't think twice. He would love to experience that match in real life, but if he had to draw it, the victory would go to Japan. "I have to support my country," he jokes.

With more than four decades behind it, Captain Tsubasa remains the great gateway to football for several generations of readers and viewers. That its own creator compares his characters to Messi, Cristiano, or Pedri is further proof of how alive the imaginary of this work remains.