Leeds United star Ao Tanaka says a YouTube comment inspired him after considering an Elland Road exit during a tough winter period.
Tanaka was a summer signing for Leeds in 2024 and became a mainstay of Daniel Farke's midfield during the title-winning 2024/25 Championship campaign. He played 28 games in the Premier League this season, half of them as a starter. But of those 14 starts, six were consecutive appearances in the final six outings of the season. There was a spell spent seemingly in the wilderness with five brief substitute cameos in January followed by seven straight games on the bench without seeing action.
“It was incredibly tough. I’d never gone that long without playing before," he said. "It felt like wanting to work but not being given a workplace. I honestly thought my life was over. As a player, when you train every day, you know whether you deserve to play for that team. I never felt that the players ahead of me were better than me, yet no matter what I did in training, I couldn’t get on the pitch. I didn’t even know what I was supposed to do anymore, so I started sprinting up the steep hill behind my house for about 20 minutes at full speed. That was the first time I’d ever done something like that as a professional. It was freezing in the middle of winter and unbelievably tough. But selection is the manager’s decision, so if you don’t play, that’s just how it is. I just didn’t want to have regrets, so I gave everything every single day.”
Tanaka says a YouTube comment he spotted and screen-grabbed in February described him as a 'phoenix' who always rises again.
"I saved a screenshot of it," he said. "I thought, ‘I’m absolutely going to prove those words right.’ That comment saved me."
And after scoring against West Ham United in the FA Cup, Tanaka found his way back into the starting XI in the Premier League. He says he put huge importance on that cup tie and his belief paid off.
"That was a good goal, wasn’t it? It took a deflection, but maybe God had been watching all the work I’d put in," he said. "I felt like if I failed there, I’d never play again. That was my comeback. I really was a phoenix. There were transfer talks in winter, and I thought about leaving, but I still wanted to play in the Premier League. I even told teammates who also weren’t playing, ‘Just watch — my time will come.’ And it really did. I think life is like the stock market. Sometimes it crashes like during the Lehman Shock or the pandemic, but as long as the overall trend keeps rising, that’s what matters. I never stopped believing and never stopped going.”
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