50 Players to watch at the World Cup - Number 47 Keisuke Honda

In the next instalment of our 50 players to watch at this summer's World Cup feature, football.co.uk takes a look Japanese free-kick maestro Keisuke Honda. - - - Name: Keisuke Honda Age: 23 Country: Japan Club: CSKA Moscow International caps: 12 International goals: 4 After making his name in his native Japan with Nagoya Grampus Eight, Keisuke made the slightly odd move to Eredivisie side VVV Venlo in January 2008. And although his new club were relegated to the second tier of Dutch football after his first season, Honda was instrumental in their immediate promotion, scoring 21 goals in 52 appearances from midfield. Despite being linked with lucrative moves to Everton and Liverpool, Honda signed for Russian giants CSKA Moscow in January 2010 for a fee of around £5 million. He has since made five appearances for his new club, scoring two goals – one of which was the winning goal in a 3-2 aggregate win over Sevilla in the last 16 of this season’s Champions League.

Source: DSG