Captain Tsubasa Tsubasa Oozora is an 11-year-old elementary school student who is deeply in love with football and dreams of one day winning the
FIFA World Cup for
Japan. He lives together with his mother in Japan, while his father is a seafaring captain who travels around the world. Tsubasa is known as the
Soccer no Moshigo which translates as "heaven-sent child of football". When he was almost a year old, he was almost run over by a rushing bus while playing with a ball. However, Tsubasa held the ball in front of him which served as a cushion for most of the impact. The force of the bump blew him away, but he was able to right himself with the ball. Hence, Tsubasa's motto of "The ball is my friend". Ever since he was little, he always went out with a ball. His mother concludes that he was indeed born to only play football. At a very young age, Tsubasa already had amazing speed, stamina, dribbling skills and shooting power – he astounded anyone who saw him play. At the beginning of the story, Tsubasa and his mom both move to the city of Nankatsu, a
fictional town in
Shizuoka Prefecture well known for their talented elementary school football teams and where Tsubasa meets Ryo Ishizaki, a football-loving young student who often sneaks out from his mother's public bath houses and chores to play football. He meets Sanae Nakazawa (also known as Anego) an enthusiastic girl who also loves football and helps cheer the Nankatsu high school team on and Genzo Wakabayashi, a highly talented young
goalkeeper whom he soon challenges to a game in Nankatsu's annual sports festival. He also meets Roberto Hongo, one of the best
Brazilian footballers in the world who is a friend of Tsubasa's father and who starts living with Tsubasa and his mother in order to train Tsubasa. Roberto becomes a mentor to Tsubasa and helps him to harness his football skills, convincing him to join Nankatsu Elementary School and its fledgling elementary school football team, which Roberto later coaches as he passes his techniques onto Tsubasa. Tsubasa meets Taro Misaki, who has travelled around Japan due to his father's job and soon joins Nankatsu. The two become the best of friends on the pitch and real life, forming a partnership soon to be renowned as the "Golden Duo" or "dynamic duo" of Nankatsu. Soon Tsubasa and his Nankatsu team start taking on the best of elementary school football, meeting such talented players as Kojiro Hyuga and Ken Wakashimazu from the Toho Academy, Jun Misugi from the Musashi school, Hikaru Matsuyama from the Furano school in Hokkaido, and many others. Tsubasa's Nankatsu squad wins numerous youth national championships and he wins the
U-17 World Championships for
Japan by defeating goalkeeper Gino Hernandez's
Italy 2–1, Juan Diaz and Alan Pascal's
Argentina 5–4 in the group stages, Elle Sid Pierre's
France 4–4 in the semifinals and eventually defeating European rising star Karl-Heinz Schneider's
West Germany 3–2 in the finals before leaving the country to play in Brazil.
World Youth Tsubasa leaves Japan for Brazil and starts playing, with his mentor Roberto as the manager, for
São Paulo (F.C. Brancos in the anime), in Brazil's premier professional league,
Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, winning the final against
Flamengo (F.C. Domingos in the anime) 4–3. While in Brazil, Tsubasa gets to meet several talented Brazilian players, such as his teammate and roommate Pepe, who comes from a humble background, as well Flamengo star striker Carlos Santana, a prodigious yet emotionless talent. Enthusiastic football-loving youngster Shingo Aoi, whom Tsubasa once played against while in the high school national championships, leaves Japan to play football in Italy, where he hopes to play for a major Italian professional team. After arriving in Italy, however, Shingo gets tricked by a man who gives him fraudulent promises of getting him selected for an Italian team. After Shingo is taken to a badly furnished field, the man runs away, stealing all his money. Shingo realizes that he is swindled and tries hard to get his money back, doing such jobs as shoe-shining, until his enthusiastic attitude catches the eye of one of the coaches of
Inter Milan (Intina in the 1994 anime, Lombardia in the 2001 anime), who sign him to play for their squad as an attacking midfielder. The
Japan's youth side plays the first phase of
AFC Youth Championship without Taro Misaki, Makoto Soda, Hiroshi Jito, Shun Nitta, the Tachibana brothers Masao and Kazuo and Kojiro Hyuga. After Tsubasa, Wakabayashi and Shingo join the team, it defeats
Thailand 5–4 after being 4–1 down at one stage. In the second phase, Japan beats
Uzbekistan 8–1,
China 6–3 and
Saudi Arabia 4–1. In the semifinals, Japan beats
Iraq 3–0. The Japanese win the Asia Youth title beating
South Korea 2–0 and qualifying for the
FIFA World Youth Championship. In the group stage, Japan defeats arrogant goalkeeper Ricardo Espadas'
Mexico 2–1, skillful striker Ramon Victorino's
Uruguay 6–5 and
Italy 4–0. In the quarterfinals, they beat the nihilistic striker Stefan Levin's
Sweden 1–0 and
Netherlands 1–0 in the semifinal, paying back a harsh defeat in a friendly match months before. The Japanese win in the "Great Final" the World Youth Championship, defeating
Brazil 3–2 after extra time with Tsubasa scoring a
hat-trick and the
golden goal despite the fact that Brazil used a new player in extra time called Natureza, who became the third person to score a
goal on Wakabayashi from outside the goal area – the first being Schneider and second being Xiao Jungguang of China. Tsubasa moves from São Paulo to
FC Barcelona (FC Catalunya in the anime), in the Spanish
Liga, after the end of the FIFA World Youth Championship final, taking his childhood friend and now wife, Sanae. He asked her out before moving to Brazil and the couple maintained a long-distance relationship before he proposed to her after the World Youth Championship.
Road to 2002 While Tsubasa moves from São Paulo (Brancos in the anime) to Barcelona (Catalunya in the anime), Kojiro Hyuga is bought by
Juventus FC (F.C. Piemonte in the anime). Tsubasa plays very well in training, displaying all his skills, but the Dutch coach Van Saal (Edward in the anime, inspired by
Louis van Gaal, who coached Barcelona at the time) demotes him to
FC Barcelona B, the
reserve team that plays in the
second division, because Tsubasa and Rivaul (inspired by
Rivaldo) cannot play together whilst Rivaul holds a key position for playmaking, and also to give Tsubasa experience in the Spanish football. and his
Bundesliga team,
Hamburger SV (Grunwald in the anime version), play against
FC Bayern Munich (Routburg in the anime version), led by Karl-Heinz Schneider. Wakabayashi makes many great saves, impressing players and coaches from both teams, but in an attempt to win at the final moment despite the coach's decision to aim for a draw, Wakabayashi left the goal area to take a
free kick shot that was stopped at the last second, which gave Bayern a chance to counterattack on an undefended goal, allowing them to win 2–1. In Spain, the Liga begins and the match between Barcelona (led by Rivaul) and
Valencia CF (San Jose in the anime) (who have just bought Tsubasa's old rival Carlos Santana) ends 2–2. Tsubasa watches the match from the tribune (in the anime version, Tsubasa plays as a substitute in the match and scores a goal). In the second stage of the Japanese
J.League,
Júbilo Iwata, led by Misaki, Gon Nakayama (inspired by real player
Masashi Nakayama), Ishizaki and Urabe, defeat the
Urawa Red Diamonds led by Hayato Igawa and Sawada, 2–1. In other J.League matches,
FC Tokyo, led by Misugi, draws 1–1 with
Consadole Sapporo, led by Matsuyama. In Italy, Hyuga and Aoi are bought respectively by
A.C. Reggiana and
A.S.D. Albese. In Spain, Tsubasa plays three matches with FC Barcelona B and he records 12 goals and 11
assists in three matches. Tsubasa is inserted in the Barcelona lineup because of an injury of his rival Rivaul as well as the disastrous results of the Barcelona (one point in four matches) and plays the
Súper Clásico against
Real Madrid C.F., who have just bought his old rival Natureza. Tsubasa ends the match with three goals and three assists and Barcelona wins 6–5.
Go for 2006 This is the
epilogue of
Captain Tsubasa Road to 2002 and it is composed of five chapters. This manga follows Kojiro Hyuga and Shingo Aoi in Italy. In this manga, Kojiro Hyuga was loaned out to
Reggiana while Shingo Aoi was loaned out to
Albese. Kojiro Hyuga makes a hard training and he makes his debut scoring a hat-trick.
Golden-23 While Tsubasa plays for Barcelona against
Real Valladolid, recording a goal and an assist in a 2–0 win, the 23 players of
Japan's U-22 national team ("The Golden-23") are convoked to play two
friendly matches against
Denmark and
Nigeria in preparation for
Summer Olympics. Two
futsal players, Kazami and Furukawa, who previously played for
Japan national futsal team, join the national U-22 football team and display great skills, scoring two goals in a training match. Meanwhile, the Japan U-20 side led by Takeshi Sawada win the
AFC Youth Championship, defeating South Korea 6–5 on
penalty kicks in the final. In Brazil, Minato Gamo, the former coach of the U-20 national team, tries unsuccessfully to convince Soga, a Japanese player who plays in
CR Vasco da Gama, to join the national team. Meanwhile, Tsubasa's wife Sanae informs him that she is pregnant. In Japan, the match with Denmark ends 4–2 with the following scorers: Misaki (J), Haas (D), Nitta (J), Nitta (J), Matsuyama (J) and Haas (D). In Germany, Hamburger SV plays a Bundesliga match and Genzo Wakabayashi is not in the line up because of the bad relationship with the coach Zeeman, starting rumors that Wakabayashi would leave Hamburger SV. A lot of teams were interested in signing Wakabayashi such as
ACF Fiorentina,
A.S. Roma, Bayern Munich and
SV Werder Bremen. Meanwhile, Minato Gamo wants to convince Igawa, a player who can play in all the roles (
goalkeeper,
defender,
midfielder and
forward), to join the national team. Also in Spain, Barcelona plays a league match against
Real Betis and Tsubasa scores two goals and makes an assist for Rikaar. In Japan, Wakabayashi joins the national team. The match between Japan and Nigeria begins and Nigeria plays very well, as it has two champions Ochado (who plays in
Paris SG, based on
Jay-Jay Okocha) and Bobang (who plays with Shingo Aoi in Albese). After some minutes from the beginning of the match, Nigeria has the first great opportunity to score the first goal in the match with a
penalty kick, but the Japanese goalkeeper Genzo Wakabayashi saves in
corner kick. Wakabayashi saves another shot and makes an assist for Ken Wakashimazu, who scores a goal with an
overhead kick. However, Nigeria scores two goals with Bobang and Ochado. At the end of the first half, Nigeria is winning 2–1. Meanwhile, Minato Gamo convinces Gakuto Igawa to join the national team. The second half begins, the Japan attacks during the injury time Misaki scores the equalizing goal. The match ends 2–2. In Spain, Barcelona wins 3–2 the match against Valencia led by Carlos Santana. In Japan, the match between Japan and
Paraguay ends 3–0 with the following scorers: Gakuto, Wakashimazu and Nitta. In Spain, Barcelona plays against
Atlético Madrid and Fersio Torres (inspired by
Fernando Torres) quickly scores a goal. However, Barcelona replies quickly and Tsubasa scores two goals. The Asia qualifications begins and Japan beats
Malaysia (6–0 for the first match and 5–0 for the return match),
Thailand (2–0 for the first match, 3–0 for the return match) and
Bahrain (3–0 for the first match and 5–0 for the return match) and qualifies to the third round. In the third round, Japan beats
Vietnam 5–0, draws against
Saudi Arabia 1–1 and loses against
Australia 3–1. Standings after day 3 (of 6): Australia 9, Japan and Saudi Arabia 4 and Vietnam 0. Only the first classified is admitted to
Olympic Games. In the day 4, Japan defeats Saudi Arabia 2–0 while Australia defeats Vietnam 5–0. In day 5, Japan defeats Vietnam 4–0 and Australia draws against Saudi Arabia 1–1. Standings after day 5 (of 6): Australia 13, Japan 10, Saudi Arabia 5 and Vietnam 0. In the last day, Japan plays against Australia (had Japan defeated Australia 3–0, 4–1, 5–2 and 6–3 or more, it would have qualified to Olympic Games, while had Japan won 3–1, 4–2, 5–3 or such, it would have played a playoff against Australia). Japan scores the first goal of the match against Australia, thanks to Tachibana brothers. However, the Tachibana brothers get injured and are substituted by Wakashimazu and Nitta, who scores another goal. Japan tries to score the third goal, but all their shots hit the bar or are saved by the goalkeeper. In the second half, Australia scores the goal of 2–1, but Japan reacts and scores two goals (scorers: Igawa and Misaki). Japan ultimately wins 4–1 and qualifies to Olympic Games.
Kaigai Gekitō-hen Italy One-shot released in Japan in 2009, which comprises 24 chapters. This one-shot tells the
Serie C1 final season match between Reggiana and Albese, with both teams directly vying for promotion. This match is the challenge between Kojiro Hyuga (Reggiana) and Shingo Aoi (Albese). Hyuga scores two goals in the first half, showing to be strongly improved in physical game. However, in the second half, Albese reacts and scores two goals. Hyuga eventually scores the victory goal in the last minute, allowing his team to be promoted into Serie B. Albese is disappointed for its defeat because they wrongly think that
U.C. AlbinoLeffe won against
Ravenna F.C and overtook them in standings. However, AlbinoLeffe lost 2–1 to Ravenna, tying both teams in third place, and this means that both Reggiana (1st) and Albese (2nd) are promoted. Both teams celebrate their promotion.
Spain This one-shot started in February 2010, in order to celebrate the series' 30th anniversary. It tells the return match between Barcelona and Real Madrid. From there on, seven more chapters are added in which first two goals from Barcelona been rejected by the
referee. The match goes on and Rivaul finally scores a genuine goal, followed by one from Real Madrid. In the second half, Natureza scores the second goal 10 minutes before the end of the match. Tsubasa scores the draw goal with a flying drive shot in the added time and the match ends 2–2.
Rising Sun After celebrating his Spanish league title win with Barcelona, Tsubasa briefly returns to Japan with Sanae, who is nearing childbirth. He then heads to Mexico to join the Japanese Olympic national team training camp. Following two friendly matches against New Zealand and Mexico, Coach Kira announces the final 23-man squad for the tournament in Madrid. Japan is drawn into a challenging group with the Netherlands, Argentina, and Nigeria. Despite the tough competition, they exceed expectations by winning all three matches and advance to the knockout stage as group leaders. In the quarterfinals, Brazil—led by Rivaul—draws with Germany but secures the top spot in their group thanks to goal difference, while Germany moves on as the runner-up. Spain defeats Mexico, France overcomes the United States, and Brazil knocks out Argentina. Japan faces Germany in a fiercely contested match and ultimately triumphs in the second period of extra time. In the first semifinal, Brazil easily beats France to secure their place in the final, where they will face the winner of the Japan vs. Spain showdown. The series is left unfinished due to the author's retirement. ==Production==