Japan has potential to win 2026 World Cup, says veteran Honda

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

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

"There is nothing impossible, and they have a lot of good player(s) now so I hope they are gonna (make it)," added Honda, the 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 United States, Honda told the audience he had 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 hoped to one day coach Japan's national team.

Honda's venture capital firm raised about 15.3 billion yen in its first investment fund in January, with backing from investors such as Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, SBI Group and Nomura, X&KSK said in a statement at the time.

Honda also co-founded Dreamers VC with American actor Will Smith. The venture investment firm focuses on consumer, tech, entertainment and biotech sectors in the U.S., its