Shogun Soccer Scouting #11: Sho Fukuda

Bullet-train speed striker with high intensity in defense and attack!

Jun 04, 2025

Here is a short-and-quick read on Sho Fukuda. I’m actually in the middle of writing my big J1 mid-season review but he’s a player I really like so I’m writing this one up real quick from my notes before shifting back. This will be much shorter and less detailed than my usual scouting pieces. Time is of the essence, let’s get started!

tl;dr (too long; didn’t read):

Plays at high intensities in attack (runs behind, progressive carries) and defense (counter-pressing). Not much of a creative nor progressive passer. Inconsistent shooting from decent locations. Quick career leaps so far, can he make another big step up?

Date of Birth: March 23, 2001
Age: 24 years old
Nationality: Japan
Position: Striker
Club: Shonan Bellmare (J1)
Squad Number: #19 (2025 season)
Height/Weight: 1.73m // 63 kg (Source: SoccerDigest)

The first thing you’ll immediately notice about Sho Fukuda is his work-rate on and off the ball. Out-of-possession he does a lot of pressing and counter-pressing. A big positive about him is how sharp he is in transition, switching to ball-hunting immediately after a turn-over. In the 2024 season he had the 2nd most ball regains from pressures across all J1 strikers with at least 900 minutes according to StatsBomb.

In attack he loves to make runs in-behind defenses when his teammates have the ball. When Fukuda has the ball himself he is very confident in his ability to dribble and carry the ball forward. His willingness to run behind also forces opponent defenses backwards to create space for teammates dropping in.

Indeed, in 2024 he was ranked top among J1 strikers with at least 900 minutes for Dribble and Carry OBV according to StatsBomb.

All-in-all, Fukuda had one of the most intense physical profiles among strikers in the 2024 J.League. On the other hand, despite his intensity and tenacity, he is rather short and small at 1.73m and 63 kg. He can use his body fairly well with his low center of gravity in situations with his back-to-goal but it’s certainly not his strong suit as a Striker. Using his agility he can quickly turn forward from adjusting his body as he’s about to receive the ball.

Alongside the intensity of his movement, he is clever too. In the build-up phase, Fukuda is readily available to receive the ball from teammates when dropping deep. Shonan Bellmare as a team also have patterns where Fukuda sneaks behind the opponent’s double pivot to receive a diagonal pass inside from the Wing Back. It’s not just that he runs behind or drops deep, he darts in-and-out between both to find spaces.

Fukuda is not an elite passer in terms of creativity, you won’t really see him make a lot of eye-popping through-balls. On top of the fact that he isn’t one to progress the ball with his passing from further back as well. As can be seen from the graphics below, he consistently finishes below his expected pass completion rate via StatsBomb’s Pass Success Probability model. Fukuda also has a strong preference for his Right foot when passing compared to his rather weaker left foot.

From the footage though, he has really good synergy with his teammates and loves to engage in quick pass-and-move combos to break down opponent defenses. His quick accelerations and ability to go back on the move after a pass to find space is good.

A concern for Fukuda, especially as a Striker, is that his finishing can be a bit inconsistent. To be a bit more positive one can alternatively say that he does consistently get into decent-to-very good positions either through his runs or from his own dribbles. Indeed, Fukuda generated a whopping 3.26 xG from shots that came from his own carries (StatsBomb). Overall, looking at his shot profiles over the past 1.5 seasons for Shonan Bellmare, he’s got fairly central shot locations but not many in the 6-yard box that you would ideally want from a pure #9 striker. He scored more than his xG in 2024 and it’s “balanced out” by him scoring under his xG in 2025 so far.

In terms of overall shooting metrics, Fukuda doesn’t score too highly compared to peer strikers in the 2024 season. However, one needs to also consider the fact that he plays for Shonan Bellmare who aren’t a particularly dominant team in the context of the J1 J.League and therefore won’t be able to provide Fukuda with create consistent goal threats. He has shown to be a bit “streak-y” with his goals as they come in clustered in several sequence of games rather than spread uniformly across the season looking at his time at both Shonan Bellmare and YSCC.

Here are all of his goals from the 2024 season (might be region-locked):

Summary

In 2025 Sho Fukuda has not been in his best form so far this season but has continued to show a lot of the attributes outside of goal scoring that make him such an intriguing prospect. Given his age, 24 years old, he’s less of a “project” than someone like Yuito Suzuki who arrived in Brondby as a 21~22 year old so I imagine there’s more of expectation on him from club and fans alike. I expect there will still be time given to acclimatize, especially considering the fact that he has already played half a season so far in 2025.

His biggest strength is his work rate both in possession (making lots of runs behind, driving forward with the ball) and out of possession (lots of pressing, counter-pressing, general extremely sharp in transition phases), accentuated by the fact that he is very quick.

He is rather small but makes up for it with his intensity but how will he fare being put into more uncomfortable situations under pressure, especially with back-to-goal in a European setting is my question. He is quite poor in the air and you don't really want to be launching long balls at him on the half-way line or in the box. It’s better to make him run behind instead for his own take-ons or to simply create space for others to drop into.

He's not a particularly good passer from deep nor in the final 3rd. He can make nice combination plays because he has good movement and agility after passing the ball though. It’s not just his speed but the ability to switch between dropping and going long that allows him to create space for himself and others.

I do feel he's an inconsistent shooter. On the other hand he does get into fairly decent positions often through his own dribbling or because he's so quick to get on the end of loose balls or into the box, especially in transition. Fukuda does have fewer goals this season compared to 2024 but we’re still only at the halfway point. He is a bit "streaky" when it comes to scoring though in that he scores in clumps of a few consecutive games then goes a bit quiet for a while.

The big caveat you need to make with his shot quantity and quality (xG) numbers is that he plays for Shonan Bellmare who are usually fighting relegation so it's a bit difficult for him to get service at times. This is why his ability to generate shots himself or help create for others by through his carrying/dribbling is so important for the team as they need to make transition moments count.

A little background into his career so far. After high school he signed for FC Imabari in 2019, who at the time were in the JFL (4th division, not fully professional). He barely got playing time over 4 seasons! So he moved to another J3 club, YSCC in 2023. This is where he showed really good form, 11 goals in half a season and immediately Shonan Bellmare picked him up. The rest of the 2023 J1 season was getting some sub appearances as he got used to the big step up. It was in 2024 that he really started showing his quality and I imagine his data really popped up here for Brondby and other European clubs.

Sho Fukuda is a guy that's had to fight his way to the top, having gone through a lot of adversity. This is an extremely rapid rise for a player in a short amount of time (JFL > J3 > J1 > Europe?) and for all his attributes, there is of course risks involved with a potential transfer to Europe. Potential clubs are really banking on his quick adaptability and growth in terms of being able to scale his shot production further than what he has shown so far in his career (by having better teammates, etc.) while maintaining his athletic advantages against European-league level defenses, especially his directness that supports his fantastic progressive ball-carrying skill.

Thanks for reading!