Photo/Illutration Professional soccer player Keisuke Honda (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

HONG KONG--Keisuke Honda, one of Japan’s biggest football stars in the first two decades of the millennium, said on Tuesday his country has the potential to win the World Cup next year.

“They have the potential to become at least the best four in the World Cup next year, maybe champion,” said Honda, who won 90 Japan caps and played for his country at three World Cups, at the AVCJ Private Equity Forum in Hong Kong.

“There is nothing impossible, and they have a lot of good players now so I hope they are gonna make it,” he said, in his capacity as co-founder of Japan-focused venture capital firm X & KSK.

Japan has already qualified for next year’s World Cup in North America. At the last edition in Qatar in 2022, they beat European powers Spain and Germany on their way to the last 16.

Honda, 39, played in a globetrotting career for clubs in at least five countries including Italy’s renowned Serie A team AC Milan.

Now a venture investor focusing on startups in Japan and the U.S., Honda told the audience he has not given up his football dream.

“My dreams are two things now, to be the best investors in the world and the best coach in the world, which means become a champion of the world cup as a coach,” he said.

The versatile midfielder told Reuters on the sidelines of the forum that he hopes to coach Japan’s national team one day.

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