Tatsuya Ito leaves Hamburg for Belgian side St. Truiden

Tatsuya Ito has today ended his time in Hamburg, deciding to continue his career at the Belgian first division club VV St. Truiden. Ito travelled to Belgium earlier in the week, completing his medical before signing a new contract for the Pro League side. The 22-year-old made the move to Europe from Kashiwa Reysol in the summer of 2015, first making appearances for the Rothosen’s youth teams before his performances earned him a berth in the first-team squad. The past two years saw the Japanese midfielder flit between the first and reserve teams, making 37 and 32 appearances respectively, with one goal and twelve assists for the club’s under-21 side. Ito was not named in Dieter Hecking’s squad for the 2. Liga season, and thus looked for a new challenge, eventually landing in Belgium. “Tatsuya’s goal is to play for the Japanese national team at their home Olympics in Tokyo next summer. In order to achieve this aim and generally to continue to improve himself as a player, he needs playing time at the highest level possible. Unfortunately, it became clear that he wouldn’t be able to get this amount of playing time here at HSV. We wish him all the best for the next step in his career and hope that he can reach his short as well as long-term goals,” was Head of Sport Jonas Boldt’s message to the departing Ito.