Christian Burgess couldn’t believe what he had just seen. His team, Royale Union Saint-Gilloise, led 2-0 and 10 against RFC Seraing. Rather than try to limit the damage, manager Felice Mazzu made an attacking half-time substitution that changed everything.
Kaoru Mitoma came on and turned the game around with a stunning hat-trick to complete an incredible comeback. A 4-2 win sent the newly promoted top of the Belgian Premier League and heralded the emergence of a new star.
“He completely took the game by the scruff of his neck and won it for us. It was like the Kaoru Mitoma show. He was unstoppable,” said Burgess, an England defender who previously played for Middlesbrough and Portsmouth .
“He collected the ball deep and ran the full length of the pitch to score the fourth. I remember thinking ‘Wow, that was special’. That’s when he announced as a seriously capable player.”
Burgess and the rest of his Union teammates knew little about Mitoma when he arrived in Belgium. Now they can boast of having seen one of the Premier League stars of the season take their first steps into European football up close.
Brighton is famous for the global focus of its shrewd recruitment strategy. Mitoma joined Kawasaki Frontale in August 2021 but was immediately loaned out to Union, which is also owned by Seagulls chairman Tony Bloom.
“He was very quiet. He was a nice, humble guy, but he didn’t talk much. He was a bit of a shy character,” Burgess explains.
“I think he had a good support unit from Japan with him. His wife and a physio came, so he had that support and that familiarity at home. He just expressed himself on the pitch.”
Burgess remembers laughing as Mitoma repeatedly jumped past Jonas Bager with ease during one of his first practice sessions at Union. The Danish centre-back became so frustrated that he finally resorted to a tough tackle.
“When he’s running towards you, and it’s one-on-one, it’s hard to know what to do. He can get out and around you with his pace and get the ball to his right foot to finish. If you cover that, he will cut inside and just pass it around the far corner,” says Burgess.
“When you stop him you feel like a very good player, but it didn’t happen as much as I would have liked! It was obvious he had a lot of ability and he could go and play at the highest level.”
Although he impressed his teammates in training, Mitoma initially had to bide his time as Union stormed to the top tier. Until that unforgettable performance against Seraing in October, he had only been used as a substitute in the league.
The tiring defenses couldn’t keep up with Mitoma’s devastating combination of speed and skill. In 29 appearances, including 17 starts, there have been eight goals, four assists and countless flashes of inspiration.
Burgess said: “His change of pace is just scary. When he cuts inside, or cuts again and comes out, he’s just too fast with his movement and his first steps of acceleration. It’s deadly I saw him do it to Trent Alexander-Arnold recently and he made it look easy.”
Mitoma’s ability made him a perfect outlet for Union. If they were struggling, he could relieve the pressure and carry his team onto the pitch.
“Sometimes when you’re under the cosh you just think ‘Okay, if we get the ball back we’ll give it to Kaoru and let him do his thing,'” Burgess said.
“As soon as he had the ball the other teams would try to double up or they would just give up because his pace was too fast. It gave us all a break at the back.”
Mitoma developed a toughness during his loan spell – the resilience and fighting spirit that would be needed to make an impression in the Premier League.
After Union finished the regular season in first place, he upped his game in the play-offs, starting five of six matches and scoring in both wins over local rivals Anderlecht.
“He took things maybe a little more personally and really wanted to succeed, whereas I think at the beginning he was just trying to fit in and adapt to his environment,” Burgess said.
In the end, Union narrowly missed out on the title at Club Brugge and Mitoma returned to Brighton, who were watching his progress closely. Once again an impact substitute at the start of the season, he became perhaps their most dangerous player under Roberto de Zerbi.
Since returning from the World Cup, where he helped Japan beat Germany and Spain on their way to a place in the last 16, Mitoma has scored in three of his last four league appearances, including including a superb curling finish into the top corner against Leicester City. , as the entertaining Seagulls moved up to sixth place. He also hit a stunning winner in the fourth round of the FA Cup victory over Liverpool.
A late bloomer who chose to graduate from college before starting his professional career, the 25-year-old winger was in no rush to reach the top.
“You like to see good people and hard-working people succeed,” Burgess said. “If anyone deserves it, it’s Kaoru. It’s not easy moving from Japan to England via Belgium, not speaking the language and not being with family and friends. He took it all in his stride and he’s getting better and better. He’s reaping some of the rewards and I’m really happy for him.”
