What Leeds United player Ao Tanaka has done better than any other Asian midfielder in World Cup qualifying

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Leeds United midfielder Ao Tanaka has been lighting up both the Championship and international stage since moving to Elland Road.

Tanaka is already being regarded as one of the best value for money signings in Leeds‘ history having cost just £3 million from Fortuna Dusseldorf on deadline day.

Since coming into the team in place of injured duo Ethan Ampadu and Ilia Gruev, Tanaka has not looked back. He was named Leeds’ October player of the month recently.

In Leeds’ 2-1 win over Watford last month, Tanaka became the first player in this season’s Championship to win back possession 10+ times, make at least five tackles, and successfully complete 50+ passes in a single match. 

And Tanaka is now replicating that sort of form on the international stage after playing the full 90 minutes of Japan’s 3-1 win in China today.

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Leeds star Tanaka outshining midfielders in Asia World Cup qualifying

Tanaka quite often has to be patient for his opportunities for Japan, with Liverpool’s Wataru Endo and Sporting Club de Portugal’s Hidemasa Morita both ahead of him in the pecking order.

However, with Japan way ahead in their World Cup qualifying group, Tanaka was handed his opportunity to start against China, and more than took it.

He completed a very impressive 74 of 76 attempted passes, with all six of his long balls also successfully finding a teammate.

Following such an impressive individual display, a brilliant statistic regarding Tanaka has come to light from Leeds’ Opta statistician Jonny Cooper.

According to Cooper, Tanaka has the highest passing accuracy of any midfielder to have attempted at least 100 passes (93%) in AFC 2026 World Cup qualifying.

Tanaka is said to have displaced just 30 of 430 passes, in what is just yet more evidence of how good he really is.

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When are the rest of Leeds’ internationals playing on Tuesday?

Tanaka is actually the first of eight first team players at Leeds in international action for their respective countries today.

Wilfried Gnonto is the next with Italy U21s facing Ukraine at 5.15pm GMT, with Mateo Joseph and Spain U21s following shortly after at 6pm.

Leeds’ quartet of Welshman Joe Rodon, Karl Darlow, Dan James and Charlie Crew host Iceland at 7.45pm, with Junior Firpo rounding things off for the Dominican Republic at 11pm.