Do we like them?

Do we like Takefusa Kubo?

Our score: 6 out of 10. No harm and no scandals found, but also little public advocacy or documented good deeds, so it's a cautious middle-high score.

Kubo is the Japanese winger once billed as the 'Japanese Messi', who went through Barcelona's La Masia academy as a kid. He has said he just wanted to go to Barcelona, and that it was a very tough environment full of kids with strong personalities.

He has told reporters he was bullied as a youngster there, and the story reads as a kid who toughed it out rather than one who dined out on it. From there the path ran through Real Madrid and loan spells in Spain to a permanent home at Real Sociedad, where his contract reportedly runs to 2029.

The harm check came up clean, which is mostly an absence: no comments about LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the climate, no conspiracy rabbit holes, no dodgy co-stars or producers turned up. He is a footballer who keeps to football, so there is nothing to mark against him and little to cheer either.

On the good-person side there are no court cases, fines or accusations against him in what we found. He copped abuse from Valencia fans in January 2025, and Valencia condemned it. Remember, abuse aimed at someone never counts against them.

The recent stuff is mostly injury. He hurt his knee in the World Cup opener against the Netherlands, missed the rest of the group games and the round of 32 against Brazil, and is now reportedly fighting for minutes at Real Sociedad, with transfer chatter doing the rounds.

Honestly, the record on charity and causes is thin: we found sponsorship deals but no documented charity work, so we can't hand out the top marks. If that changes, so does the score.