Name: Shinji Castaignos
Kit Number: 10
Position(s): Second Striker, Adept on playing as both left or right winger and sometimes plays as an attacking midfielder
Gender: Male
Style of Play: The Modern Day Playmaker, Composed, cultured, creative, a wonderful passer. extremely clinical and an aerial threat, Basically, a player with supreme skill and ability who likes to try the audacious.
Strengths: A quite superb passer of the ball who possesses both excellent vision and the ability to dictate the pace and tempo of a contest. Has a strong character and mentality to complement his technical excellence. He also boasts electric pace, superb control, intricate technique and unrivaled composure in front of goal. His creative streak is put to good use when unselfishly teeing up with his team-mates with finesse and he has a strong character and a winner's mentality. Also a threat from set-pieces.
Weaknesses: Finding fault in Shinji is a difficult enterprise but his temperament has been questioned and even though, he is a technical player, a simple pass would suffice.
Club: AFC Ajax (Shinji is the captain of the first team)
Personality: Shinji is a charming yet witty individual. He's the type of person that know when to be funny and when he shouldn't be funny. However, he can be quite temperamental at times. He
is extremely determined and has the leadership to boost morale for the team.
Nationality: Dutch, his father is Japanese and his mother is Dutch
History: Shinji was born in Amsterdam in the Netherlands to a Japanese father and a Dutch Mother of French Ancestry. Entering the famed AFC Ajax youth system at the age of 5, he worked his
way up through the youth system before reaching the first team at the age of 14. Originally, Shinji played as a left back, Under the guidance of Martin Jol, he was converted to an Attacking Midfielder that can play anywhere in the attacking area. In the 2011-12 Season, He made his debut at the age of 15, Shinji was used as a central midfielder to accommodate the young and upcoming Danish talent, Christian Eriksen. He scored 32 goals and creating 35 assists in the Eredivisie resulted in Shinji accepting the golden boot, golden ball and the best young player award in the 2011-2012 Season. Also he was given a place in the Eredivisie Team of the Year in the 2011-2012 Season and the 2012-2013 Season. In the 2012-2013 season, he scored 48 goals and created 40 assists, since Martin Jol decided to play him as a striker since Siem de Jong, the starting striker was injured.
The 2013-2014 season was Shinji's breakthrough year since Frank de Boer, a former Ajax player, played Shinji as a traditional "number 10" playmaker. Placing him behind a one striker system (or a two-striker system) increased Shinji's assists drastically. Not only his assists count increased, his scoring rate for goals increased greatly in which he would score 6 goals per game. By the time, the season was finished, he scored 193 goals in all Eredivisie competitions and made 50 assists. As a result, he is currently the top goal scorer for AFC Ajax and the Eredivisie. Soon after, he was given the captain's armband and as a result, he won 4 consecutive KNVB cups, 3 League Titles and 2 Johan Cruijff Shields. Currently, he has scored 273 goals and made 85 assists for AFC Ajax
Because of Shinji's spectacular performances at AFC Ajax, he has been called up by Tsubasa Ozora, the manager of the Japanese National Team and was given the number 10 and is the undisputed starting Midfielder. Shinji originally opted to play for the Netherlands but he declined claiming that he wanted to go back to his Japanese roots. Also, a list of top European clubs including Barcelona and Real Madrid are in the race to getting Shinji because of his performances. So far, Real Madrid is winning in the race towards getting Shinji's signature and Shinji announced that he will make his decision after the 2014 World Cup is over.
